I have to say that I have been putting off writing a blog post about our trip to Auschwitz. When something affects you so profoundly like that place did me, it's hard to put into words, but finally, I am going to try.
One of my favorite aspects of this whole experience was the WWII intensive lectures and field trips and learning opportunities. Almost every place we went, Martin and Jan would take us to the Jewish ghettos, or the monument that town had for the WWII victims, and on my trips outside of school I would try to actively seek them out on my own. We learned so much about that period of history and the people that were affected by it that I thought I was well equipped with the knowledge to prepare me for what I would soon see at Auschwitz and Birkenau. Unfortunately, I don't think anything could have prepared me.
We started the tour at the infamous "Arbeit Macht Freight" (work sets you free) gates at the start of Auschwitz, which was used as the work camp. This was the portion used today to house the museum and replicated in some parts to show what life would have been like if you were unlucky enough to find yourself a prisoner in the camp. We started by walking through this one building with this pedestal with a see through urn on it. The urn was full of human ashes of multiple people, and we were told by the tour guide that it was indeed here while the camp was in operation and it was used as almost a trophy. We then wound our way through multiple buildings showing huge exhibits of just a small portion of victims' belongings. There was one of prosthetics and crutches, one of luggage with everyone's names and ages on it, one of the cans used for the gas chambers, one of shoes, one specifically for just baby and children's shoes, and one of the most disturbing; one full of human hair. The numbers behind this one was even more disturbing.. The case held one ton of human hair. To make one ton, about 40,000 women's heads had to be shaved. When Auschwitz was liberated, they found another seven tons of hair, with records of multiple other shipments around Europe. They found they were actually selling it to textile factories and it was being used to make blankets, shirts, socks, rugs, etc. The next rooms were those of the prison cells. This was one of the worst places in the whole camp, and was actually dubbed the "block of death" and was literally a prison inside of a prison. There were multiple types of cells that a prisoner could be put in, depending on the level of their disobedience. There were the normal cells, then the starvation cells, where prisoners were left to just starve to death in, then the suffocation cells where a group of people were left in a windowless cell where they would all eventually run out of air and suffocate. Then the standing cells where five people were placed together in what looked like maybe a 2 or 3 square foot cell and left there for days at a time, unable to sit or move around or have a place to relieve themselves. If you happened to survive a night in any of these, you were then expected to go out a work a full 12 hour day, then be put back in the cell for the night. Another of the buildings was used as a trial building where the prisoners cases would be decided (usually never in their favor) and then executed out back. The execution wall was literally just that. They would make the prisoners line up and go down the line and shoot them in the back of the head. Sometimes if the baby or child was small enough, they would just bash their head against the wall to save a bullet. Inside this building are the faces that have haunted me since I've left. The Nazi officers took very good records of all the inmates, and one portion of those records was a picture. Those pictures lined the hallways of this building, after being shaved and all in their striped pajamas. This was after it was vey clear what their fate would be, and the fear in every single one of their eyes is so palpable, you could almost feel it. I could not even fathom what these people went through. If the Nazis were anything though, they were efficient. This whole place was a well oiled machine, and it was when they figured out that Auschwitz wasn't able to kill in masses and properly dispose of them fast enough that they created Birkenau.
If Auschwitz is hell, then there isn't a word for Birkenau. This is where the real horror happened. This is where nobody walks out alive. This is where towards the end, the selections took place, and you would stand in front of an officer and if he pointed one direction, you would live a little longer, but if he pointed the other way you wouldn't see the end of the day. This is where children were separated from parents, and families never saw each other again. This is where people died by the thousands in gas chambers per day, and were disposed of and erased from this earth just as quickly. This is where our tour guide told us what the piles of bodies looked like after the gas chambers, with the weakest and children trampled and crushed on the bottom, while the strongest were on top with their faces pressed against the hole trying to get one last desperate breath for life. This is where people lost their humanity, and would do anything to try to stay alive just a little longer. There are not words to describe what I was thinking while I was walking through that killing camp, but the memorial at the end sums up the message that it should be sending: "Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe." This message was written on a plaque in every language that was a tongue of any of the victims murdered in these two camps. I think this experience is one that everyone needs in their life, to really see what monstrosities people in this world are capable of. It is not one I ever want to do again, and frankly it still makes me sick to even think about it, but it is a lesson that is heard loud and clear by anyone who has the opportunity to go to this place.
