Walking the path to the gas chambers in Birkenau
The tour of the camp took about 3 hours and unfortunately our tour guide wasn’t that great. She repeated a lot of the same information and I felt like we could have been told a lot more about the camp and the people who were in charge. It’s amazing how you can feel how truly evil this place was and it just makes me sick to think about the horrible crimes that were committed there. The tour started at the famous sign, “Arbeit Marcht Frei“ (Work Brings Freedom) which was in face a complete lie. The camp was originally designed to hold political prisoners of Poland but in 1942 the mission of the camp changed and it became one of the worst death camps to exist during the war.
The majority of the camp tour takes place in the barracks. Many of the prisoners here suffered in those barracks. The most difficult barrack for me was the one that held the evidence of war crimes. Within this barrack were many rooms full of different personal belongings of those murdered at the camp. The first room was full of hair. We were told that this room held 3 tons of hair and Joe said that on his tour he was told that that amount of hair was equal to about 120,000 women and girls. I can’t even wrap my mind around that number! This wasn’t even all the hair that was found when the camp was liberated, 7 tons of hair were found and many other tons were sent to factories to produce clothing for the soldiers and other textiles. I just don’t know how you could wear something made out of someones hair! This room wasn’t the worst for me, but the room full of shoes. I took some time to really look at the different types of shoes and noticed that many of these shoes were very fancy and it made me realize that this was not something that only affected one part of the Jewish race but that affected the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich. I just kept thinking to myself that someone wore those shoes, a PERSON owned those shoes and came to camp with them. The room with the dishes was also difficult. You could tell that many people had brought their most prized possessions with them, and why wouldn’t they have when they were told they would be settling a new place. I thought about the women who used to cook and serve with those dishes and it brought tears to my eyes. There was a room full of luggage and you could see where people were coming from and how old they were. Some people came came from so far away and may have been on a train for 10 days before getting to camp. There was no food or water on the train, nor any sanitation so may people died before even getting there, I just can’t imagine the suffering these people must have gone through. There were many other rooms with evidence including hair brushes, tooth brushes, baby shoes and clothing, glasses and artificial limbs. It was so amazing to me to think about the people who these things belong to and my heart just hurt for them and the suffering they endured.I thought a lot about the people who ran this camp and wondered how on earth they could do these horrible things to another person. I realize that the prisoners were completely stripped of their identity which I’m sure made it easier, but when all was said and done and the camp was liberated how did these people live with themselves? Or did they? I certainly don’t think I would have been able too. 1.3 million people were killed in this camp and the design of the death was 20 minutes in a gas chamber, how do you live with that kind of blood on your hands?
The next part of the camp was saw was the death wall and block 11. The death wall is not the original wall to the camp, which was destroyed by the Nazi’s, but was rebuilt to show what it would have looked like. The people who were sent to block 11, which was known as the death block, would soon be killed. Many people were tortured there and in the basement we saw the starvation cells and standing cells which they would put 4 people in and there was no room to move or sit, only enough to stand all night after working all day. The minimum punishment for this cell was 3 nights. Many people died in these cells.
We also were taken into one of the smaller gas chambers that was not destroyed by the Nazis. I felt chills in this room thinking about the people who were slowly dying in here from the gas used to kill them. I can’t even imagine the panic they must have felt as they slowly suffocated to death. Most of this trip my mind was on the women of the camp and how difficult it must have been for them and so I thought about how hard it would have been to be a mother sent to the gas chambers with her children and trying to stay calm for their children. I admire these women for their strength and courage and feel heartbroken for their suffering. I wondered if people knew what they were heading for when going to the chambers. They were told they would get a shower and be disinfected, but I can’t help but think that some of them knew their fate and I wonder what must have gone through their minds in those final moments.
After a short break we took a bus to the Birkenau camp about 3 km away from Auschwitz. This is where the majority of the killings took place. Four large gas chambers were located here and most of them destroyed by the Nazis. You can still walk around the ruins of the chambers and see the stairs people walked down and where the crematorium were. There’s a large field next to the chamber where many of the ashes would have been spread from the burning. I could almost feel the presence of the people who had been killed in these chambers and just felt sick to think that so many had been murdered in this spot. In one given killing 1,500 people could be sent to the chambers. The people who dropped the gas into the chambers were actually prisoners themselves, after several months the Nazi’s would kill these prisoners because they did not want any witnesses to their crimes. I just couldn’t get over the horrible things that took place at this camp and wondered how for so long no one really knew what was going on. How did Hitler managed to keep this so under wraps for so long? I spent a lot of time reflecting on the trip on the bus ride back to the city (which took 2 hours even though the camp is only 37 miles from Krakow, they just don’t have highways there and we stopped a lot to pick other people up, though I had a hard time really complaining about my not wanting to be on a bus or being hungry considering the place I had just been) and I thought about the man who ran the camp that was hung outside of the gas chamber and how it just didn’t seem fitting for him to die that way after all the horrible things he did. I thought about the doctor who performed such awful medical experiments on women and children and how he somehow managed to get away and was never punished for his crimes (the thought of which made me sick!) It was a valuable experience to be there at Auschwitz and understand more about the people who were imprisoned at this camp and about the suffering they endured I don’t know how anyone can think this didn’t happen and for those who do think that way, I say you must just be in denial because it did happen. Millions of people were killed and suffered at this place and there’s no denying that when you’ve seen the belonging and felt the pure evil that comes from that camp.
On a lighter note, we got back to the city and found our way over to the Old Town square and market area. This was one of the places I was really looking forward to and so I was excited to see the area. I found some shops and purchased a few things including an egg ornament and then we got a snack and some ice cream and walked around. There’s a big cathedral in the square, St. Mary’s, and every hour a bugle is played. The bugle has been played for many years and announces the beginning and end of the day. We could actually see the guy playing at the top of the tower which was really cool. It was a great way to end the day and helped lighten the mood after being in such a dark place for most of the day. We went back to the hotel, got packed and ready for our next trip to Prague!
No comments:
Post a Comment