//Checkpoint (3)//

I returned to my usual tactics to come up with a story. I kept replaying the piece in my head whenever I had free moments like commuting to work, taking a shower, waiting in line at a fast food store or supermarket, etc. Often scattered images would pop up in my head representing certain bars or notes in the piece. And gradually, or sometimes when I was lucky, a series of such images would play like a movie, forming a good chunk of the story.

With a story freshly made up, I described the plot to my teacher animatedly during our weekly meeting.

The story was based on my visit to the Auschwitz Memorial, the former concentration camp site located in Poland, several years ago.

Selected Photo Galleries from the Auschwitz Memorial website (A friendly warning that some of these photos can be quite graphical):

A) Former Auschwitz I site: http://auschwitz.org/en/gallery/memorial/former-auschwitz-i-site/

B) General Exhibit: http://auschwitz.org/en/gallery/exhibits/general-exhibition,2.html

C) Evidence of crimes: http://auschwitz.org/en/gallery/exhibits/evidence-of-crimes,1.html

Referring to the number markers on the music score above, the story went like this:

1. On a gloomy day, long queues of newly arriving inmates dragged their exhausted bodies through the entrance “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” Gate (Photo Gallery A), not knowing their fate.
2. As the inmates walked towards the stony chamber (Photo Gallery A), some crying in fear while others silently accepting the inevitable, they wondered…Would they be greeted with a much needed shower or the infamous poisonous gas? Unfortunately, for this lot of poor souls, the unthinkable was awaiting them.
3. Now they found themselves riding joyfully on the fluffy white clouds in heaven, finally free at last.
4. But then they looked down at the earthly land from above…
5. The horrific aftermath and suffering left behind by the massacre was overwhelming. In particular, the following scenes from my visit at the camp hit me the hardest:
   • The location of the camp was chosen for the efficiency of transporting inmates as it was at the center of all the targeted European cities. (Photo Gallery B)
   • When walking towards the crematorium (Photo Gallery A), the local tour guide whose grandfather was an inmate pointed to a building on the other side of a dividing wall not more than 100 feet away, and said “That’s where the commanding officer of the camp and his family lived. Often his children played on the grounds.”
   • The facial expressions of the inmates in their photographs on the walls of the hallways. (Photo Gallery B)
   • [Referring to the underlined note on the score] At the museum hosted in the actual camp buildings, there was a large room where the whole side of the wall is a glass window enclosure. Inside the enclosure was a mountain pile of human hair. In another window enclosure, there was a stockpile of personal belongings such as eye glasses, shoes, hair combs, etc. (Photo Galleries B & C)

Thankfully, Teacher nodded his head and agreed that this story would work well with the piece. “Yay!”