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| "Work Brings Freedom" |
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Now this is the part that I was looking forward to the most during our time in Poland. Visiting Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau have been my top priority for the past 8 years or so when I was first exposed to WWII and the Holocaust. Granted, this was not the easiest trip to take, but it was well worth it, and with a wonderful companion to experience this with made coping with the feeling much easier.
Let's do some history first before we get into some serious business. As you may already know Auschwitz was the largest
concentration/labor camp during WWII. There are essentially two parts to the entire camp as a whole. Located about a little over an hour West of Krakow, the German's did a good job from hiding it from the German people and the Poles living not far from the camp. The camp was initially designed for Polish prisoners. The first prisoners arrived in about 1940. The prisoners were given a little less than 400 calories a day (The U.S. daily requirement is 2,000 calories) and very little water, however, dirty. Most of the work given to the prisoners and Jews was building war materials, constructing new cells and buildings, except for Sundays which was usually a short wash day.
We visited a variety of blocks (buildings) in which certain events took place. From where men and women slept, and where experiments would be conducted on people. We did, in fact, visit
block 11. Let me tell you a little bit about Block 11. Block 11 was considered to be the "prison inside a prison." This is where high-violators were taken and punished severely. For example, prisoners were put into standing cells (such as the one shown) in where they were put for days. The cell may look large in the picture, but they were just large enough that it was virtually impossible to sit down. And there one would stay. In the dark.
If you didn't get the opportunity to be put inside one of these standing cells, you were sent to another dark cell with (maybe) a small hole for light where you were just left to die without food or water. Other cells were suffocation cells. There would be a small hole (like the one shown) where a person was left in the dark and would literally suck up all the air. Sometimes the Germans would put a candlelight inside of the cell to help suck up the oxygen faster. Cruel. It was impossible to believe and imagine that such things actually happened. Thinking of it now, it's still almost impossible to believe that people would do such things.
Between Blocks 10 and 11 stands the execution wall. When experiments didn't work, or when a prisoner was being punished, the easiest way to discard a person was to, well, shoot them. It was here at this memorial where quite a large number of people were shot right on the spot. Inside Block 11, there were separate rooms for men and women to get undressed, and wait in line to get shot. The wash rooms even had sinks inside of them to "clean up" before the execution. That's it. When you stand at this wall, and look out, it was a weird feeling inside of you knowing that you were looking out at exactly what a few thousand people saw for the last time of their life. Looking outside of the courtyard is where (most likely) a boy my age saw a gun pointed to his head. I don't want to think about it anymore...
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| Entrance to "showers" |
Imagine. You wake up in the morning to hearing rumors that you'll finally be getting showers! How exciting and incredibly nice of those people to allow for us to get clean! The feeling rushes through your body as you are transferred with your friends and family to a building that is located underground. You're told to immediately strip off your clothes, as you won't be needing them anymore because you'll be getting new ones after the shower. You're pushed inside of a dark room and people are talking and shouting about something. It's crowded, and you're a bit claustrophobic. Suddenly, a light opens up in the ceiling and two men look down at you wearing masks and smoke starts pouring from the ceilings. People start screaming and panicking, pushing, shoving, screeching. 10 minutes go by: The screaming dies down. 20 minutes go by: It's quiet and not a sound is heard. The bodies are taken into another room next door, burned, and then used as a fertilizer for the farms and land just outside of the camp. Keep in mind, this isn't even the extermination camp.
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| Inside the gas chamber |
This picture right here is inside one of the gas chambers of Auschwitz. There is a memorial in the middle of the floor. Looking inside, in fact, just walking inside of the gas chamber, you felt a rush of ice run through your veins and into your mind. Your jaw was most likely dropped, and you don't want to continue walking forward, because you're walking on a deathbed. Nobody knew what they were getting themselves into, nor did they have a choice. It was so cold inside the gas chamber, even though it was about 60 degrees outside with the sun shining in. What an experience. What a sensation. Who would have the nerve to do such a thing to others because they were "different?"
After a short break, we drove about 5 minutes to the other camp, being Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was the actual extermination camp. People were taken here for one reason, to well, be exterminated. It's not the easiest thing to think about, nor should it settle well in anyone's stomach. To be completely honest, I thought Auschwitz was just one camp. However, that's not true. Let's take our final step forward with this post, shall we?
This is the entrance to the main camp (mind the gentleman). There was a single rail track that led in and out of the camp. The camp was surrounded by electrified barbed-wire running with (I think) 10k volts 24-hours a day. Believe it or not, the day was beautiful (around 60 degrees Fahrenheit) and the sky was as blue as the ocean. But after I took the time to realize where I actually was, that all changed in a matter of minutes.
In this picture (of a picture) you can see a line of jews waiting to be told where to go. As soon as they were dropped off by the train, they formed two separate lines between men and women with children. One single man had the power to decide if you were strong enough to work, or were to be exterminated immediately just by the movement of his thumb. If you look closely at the picture, you can see in his shadow that he is indeed saying that this person was not good and was to be sent to be exterminated. Can you believe that just one man determined your life in one second?
As a matter of fact, here is a picture of exactly where he stood. Right here, at this spot, literally millions of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Hungarians, POW's, and more had their life decided by a man's thumb. And you know what? I quickly ran (roughly) to the spot where he stood, and I just couldn't even imagine that something like this happened. Why in the world would somebody do something like this? How could this even happen? Where would the world be right now if the Holocaust never happened? How could one person not be affected whatsoever by this in the past and just think nothing of it, but think of people who were different as "pigs," "liars," "frauds," or "cheaters." They were just as innocent as anybody else in this world.
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| Destroyed Burning Facility |
Slowly moving forward with our tour, we went directly to where the two main gas chambers were. These chambers were HUGE. Much, much larger than I have ever expected. But you know what? There was two of these. Same concept as the showers in Auschwitz, but rather this was larger and more advanced. You know what the incredible part is? The Nazi-Germans were only able to burn 5,000 people a day. So with these facilities working 7-days a week, that about 35,000 people being killed a week, not including the additional people who were shot, beat to death, or died from disease or starvation. Keep in mind that his was only one of the extermination camps. The Nazis destroyed the burning facilities just before the Allies arrived to attempt to destroy the evidence of their war crimes.
Just between the two burning chambers was a memorial with this saying in every language in the world.
"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." Each of the memorials had a series of memoirs from people of that country or origin of language.
You know, describing what this trip was like is actually impossible. When someone asks, "How was it?" I can't quite describe how unreal it seems. Believe it or not, it's absolutely impossible to imagine something like this happened just 70 years ago. I mean, I (and others) were actually walking the same steps and stones that millions of other people walked when this camp was running. People were working with under 400 calories a day. No clothing, shoes, or socks were provided. People were given a number that was to be tattooed on their arms. If it was a baby, the tattoo would be on their leg because it was the meatiest and largest part of their body at the time that could hold a large number. It all comes down to just one question: Why?
I honestly cannot describe my feelings for this trip because it's impossible describe. When thinking about walking on the stones and dirt, you just have a wave of sadness hit you. I honestly don't know how else to put it...The rest of this post will just be some pictures that I took.
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| The end of the train tracks |
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| Inside the barracks: Sleeping Cell (~8 to a bunk) |
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| Women's barracks |
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| Bathroom house |
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| Wash Room |
Let's do some history first before we get into some serious business. As you may already know Auschwitz was the largest concentration/labor camp during WWII. There are essentially two parts to the entire camp as a whole. Located about a little over an hour West of Krakow, the German's did a good job from hiding it from the German people and the Poles living not far from the camp. The camp was initially designed for Polish prisoners. The first prisoners arrived in about 1940. The prisoners were given a little less than 400 calories a day (The U.S. daily requirement is 2,000 calories) and very little water, however, dirty. Most of the work given to the prisoners and Jews was building war materials, constructing new cells and buildings, except for Sundays which was usually a short wash day. 
We visited a variety of blocks (buildings) in which certain events took place. From where men and women slept, and where experiments would be conducted on people. We did, in fact, visit block 11. Let me tell you a little bit about Block 11. Block 11 was considered to be the "prison inside a prison." This is where high-violators were taken and punished severely. For example, prisoners were put into standing cells (such as the one shown) in where they were put for days. The cell may look large in the picture, but they were just large enough that it was virtually impossible to sit down. And there one would stay. In the dark. 
If you didn't get the opportunity to be put inside one of these standing cells, you were sent to another dark cell with (maybe) a small hole for light where you were just left to die without food or water. Other cells were suffocation cells. There would be a small hole (like the one shown) where a person was left in the dark and would literally suck up all the air. Sometimes the Germans would put a candlelight inside of the cell to help suck up the oxygen faster. Cruel. It was impossible to believe and imagine that such things actually happened. Thinking of it now, it's still almost impossible to believe that people would do such things.
Between Blocks 10 and 11 stands the execution wall. When experiments didn't work, or when a prisoner was being punished, the easiest way to discard a person was to, well, shoot them. It was here at this memorial where quite a large number of people were shot right on the spot. Inside Block 11, there were separate rooms for men and women to get undressed, and wait in line to get shot. The wash rooms even had sinks inside of them to "clean up" before the execution. That's it. When you stand at this wall, and look out, it was a weird feeling inside of you knowing that you were looking out at exactly what a few thousand people saw for the last time of their life. Looking outside of the courtyard is where (most likely) a boy my age saw a gun pointed to his head. I don't want to think about it anymore...
In this picture (of a picture) you can see a line of jews waiting to be told where to go. As soon as they were dropped off by the train, they formed two separate lines between men and women with children. One single man had the power to decide if you were strong enough to work, or were to be exterminated immediately just by the movement of his thumb. If you look closely at the picture, you can see in his shadow that he is indeed saying that this person was not good and was to be sent to be exterminated. Can you believe that just one man determined your life in one second?
As a matter of fact, here is a picture of exactly where he stood. Right here, at this spot, literally millions of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Hungarians, POW's, and more had their life decided by a man's thumb. And you know what? I quickly ran (roughly) to the spot where he stood, and I just couldn't even imagine that something like this happened. Why in the world would somebody do something like this? How could this even happen? Where would the world be right now if the Holocaust never happened? How could one person not be affected whatsoever by this in the past and just think nothing of it, but think of people who were different as "pigs," "liars," "frauds," or "cheaters." They were just as innocent as anybody else in this world.
Just between the two burning chambers was a memorial with this saying in every language in the world. "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." Each of the memorials had a series of memoirs from people of that country or origin of language.
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