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Stalemate
The hostel I stayed at in Krakow housed 15 per room, male and female (bathrooms were coed too). Out of the 15 in your room, usually half had been to Auschwitz that day or were going the next. On the return bus from the concentration camps that day I stood next to a Chinese guy on the bus where we had a weird conversation: Out of nowhere, he commented ''You havent seen anything yet, you need to see the museum for the Rape of Nanking'' in Nanjing, China.
What would you do? Well, being around Europe I forgot the Asian culture for just long enough to make a lifelong enemy... I asked him which dictator in history had slaughtered the most people. He of course answered Hitler... Try again... He then said Stalin...then Napolean... Was it denial or propaganda? I answered him that it was Mao who had killed more than every other combined. Not noticing the silence (I was on a roll) I duly noted how many Chinese still line up to put flowers on his grave in Tianamen. It was a long and quiet ride home.
That night, as half the room lay asleep, two Japanese girls came in and started conversation about Aushwitz. I told them of the Mao statistic and they hopped right on it. (OK I knew where this was going but couldnt resist) Then another guy from Australia hopped in with the rape on Nanking . A German came to the rescue making note of the genocide of the Tasmans and Aboriginals. He was an easy target, brought down by a pair of girls from the US who were, in turn, pegged by a Spaniard who claimed the US had killed off the Native Americans and more Iraqi's than Saddam. He was easy prey for an American who mentioned the conquistadores...A Polish-American stepped up and added that FDR and Churchill both encouraged the Poles to revolt against the Nazis, full well knowing they would not support them and, in fact, stood by and did nothing to compell Stalin to. Many believe our cowardice begun the cold war...
It wasn't long before the whole room was wide awake and quiet.
Some of us slept better than others, but none that well.
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