On Thursday morning, we awoke to head to Auschwitz. We both visited Dachau camp a year earlier on Christmas day so we had some idea of what we were getting into. To hear the stories is one thing but to walk around where tons of people died at the hands of unbelievable hatred is completely different. We paid about 40 euros to be picked up at our place and given a private ride out to the camp about an hour outside of Kraków. We watched a DVD about the history of the camp on the way out. Once there, our drivers introduced us to our tour guide and off we went.
The first thing we came to was the entrance and its ominous sign that translates as "Work Brings Freedom." To the Nazis, propaganda, to the Jews, cruel irony. To say that the camp was anything short of modern day slave labor is to only fool oneself. The buildings were brick because the Polish army had built them as an army barracks and the Nazis helped themselves to it after taking over Poland. Then, they established several concentration camps that would become extermination clinics. The first set of pictures is from the smaller of the two camps and our guide informed us it was the nicer of the two just because of the sheer difference in numbers. The first and smaller camp has a vast array of exhibitions that show you how life was for the Jewish inmates.
Most of the Jews in Western Europe were made to buy a train ticket to this camp and told that they would be relocated to work for the German War Effort. Believing this lie, they packed their belongings, paid for a death trip, and climbed on board. The suitcases in the pictures belonged to the victims who would never again see their belongings. They were told to write their names and cities on the bags so that they would be easier to locate. The shoes are also a collection of things that were recovered and not destroyed by the Nazis when they tried to destroy the camps and proof of what had been going on. Throughout our tour, our guide made sure that we all took long looks at the photos taken in the camp. Most of them show the victims but not in a way you'd expect them to be. Most of the victims looked like they had no idea of what was about to happen to them. For the most part, the women and children were immediately gassed. There are photos of them waiting in the gas chamber lines and you can see a lack of panic on their faces because they believed they were going in for showers. The level of deception in the camps was incredible. Say what you want but you can look at the photos and tell the Nazis pulled the wool over everyone's eyes.
The concrete wall against the brick wall was a firing range. The windows on the buildings facing this small secluded deathyard are all closed off so no one could watch what happened there. Many people were executed there. You can see the warning signs for people to not touch the fence. It was electrical and claimed quite a few lives on its own. Some people tried to escape but the punishment for an escapee who got away was that ten others in the camp were killed. We were told the story of one man who was part of a group of ten who was hanged for reciprocity of an escapee. A letter of his was later found in which he stated he had an ingenious plan to escape but decided not to because he didn't want ten people dying because of his actions. The last picture is of a crematorium. It is one of the only ones left as the Nazis blew up the others to hide what they were really doing. Standing in that room was probably one of the sickest feelings I've felt in a long time.
These last three shots were taken at the Auschwitz II - Birkenau. It was the larger of the two camps and housed tons of prisoners. This was the destination of many trains because it housed more gas chambers and crematoriums. Most of the victims got off the trains and were dead within hours. The biggest majority of victims came from Hungary and Poland and there are maps of all the countries where victims came from. There is a plaque like the one you see in every language of each country of a victim and English as no victims came from England. The day was a difficult one to get through and while I'd have much preferred to be there in better weather, knowing that the victims who passed through there endured the same weather in a third of the clothing I was wearing made the experience that much more intense. We will not forget this day.
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