There is a luxuriant oak tree standing just inside the gated entrance of Auschwitz Camp I where the sign reads, “work makes you free.”  There are many stately oaks inside the camp and just outside the entrance. Oak trees also existed in the immediate proximity of a few of the gas chambers and crematoriums as well. The gas chamber doors at both Auschwitz and Treblinka were made of solid oak. At Auschwitz, double oak doors were used to seal the sacrificial fate of all the victims. That Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962) was placed in charge of the logistics of the holocaust is incredibly ironic. His last name virtually means “man of the oaks.”       No matter how industrial the holocaust has so often been characterized, the ancient symbolism of human sacrifice being practiced under the oak trees bleeds through the veneer of Nazi modernism. Eyewitness accounts depict conspicuous lightning rods that were attached to each...(Read Full Article)