Auschwitz- Birkenau

FOR EVER 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.
AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
1940-1945

I've been struggling with how to write this post for some time. In fact, I even asked others on the trip for feedback because how can do you write about the experience?  But its history needs to be known. Images need to be seen. The impact recognized. It's our responsibility (as a member of the human race) to allow anything even remotely close to this ever happening again.

Auschwitz is one of those places where no matter how much you have heard about the camp or expect the worst, the place still haunts you long after leaving the site.

Photographed faces looking down from frames lining the halls capturing the captives faces upon entry of the camp. Hundreds of fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons dressed in the stripped uniform of the camp and shaved heads. Some eyes shining with spirit and spunk, other eyes already losing their shine knowing what is to come. Dates of deportation to Auschwitz and date of death (typically just a few months later) reveal only the earlier years of the camp as the SS soon found it difficult to match their prisoners to the photos as the harsh conditions quickly took a healthy individual and turned him or her into a walking skeleton. The solution? A tattooed identification number on the forearm of each captive.

Items that were valuable or held value to those forced to leave their homes, having no idea where they were going or for how long, were packed carefully into suitcases with their name and address written on the outside. Large displays of piled of shoes, empty suitcases, clothing, eye glasses, shaving item, brushes only show a fraction of what personal items were brought as the really valuable, quality items were stored in a warehouse (dubbed Canada by the inmates) before being sent to Germany to be sold or used.

Hearing the eerie train whistle in the distance as you hear the tales of cattle cars rolling in, packed full with prisoners after their multi-day traveling ordeal- exhausted from standing the entire trip, weak from starvation, filthy. Seeing the extended track to speed up the process of getting the prisoners to the camp on account of walking the last few miles took too long. 

My feet standing where men were told to stand in one line and women and children in the other waiting for a glance from a doctor before being further separated into 2 groups: those who would be murdered immediately and those who would work to death.

Feeling the winter wind blowing through the blocks, bars in the cell, cold stone walls. Seeing ice crystals on the roof tops. Being reminded that it's been a "warm winter" as I wrap my scarf tighter and cover my hears with my hat before stuffing my gloved hands back in my pockets.

Traveling through acre after acre of buildings originally meant to hold livestock filled with 3 stack bunks jammed in to accommodate as many prisoners as possible. Despite this, each bed still held 3 people sleeping on their side until one had to rotate, which meant they all did.

I imaged what it was like: the lower bed just inches off the frozen ground filled with the weakest of individuals. Starving to death. Sick with typhoid.  Resembling more of a skeleton than a person. Those who were strong enough despite hunger, illness, and exhaustion would climb to the top bunk in attempt to be warmer. The advantage to the top bunk? Avoiding the 6 people sleeping above you showering you in diarrhea or vomit.

Is it really any wonder why prisoners would try to escape? Had I been in their place what would my reaction been? Work hard, stay unnoticed? Run myself into the high voltage fence? Scheme to escape, knowing I'm putting my block-mates at risk? Utilize the hospital but make sure I "recover" within 2 weeks time so I would be returned to the blocks and not the gas chamber?

Walking through Block 11 to see where "trials" of prisoners were held I only heard the shuffle of feet of the others as we listened to our guide through headphones. Seeing the basement where 10 men from one block would be held (until they starved to death) when a man from their block escaped (or attempted to). Seeing the tribute to a priest who volunteered for a young man that was once selected to be one of the 10. He ended up living many days longer than the other 9- only to be shot by the SS. Seeing the bathroom for victims to undress before walking into the neighboring courtyard to be shot against a wall or hung in small groups.

Filing through the dark gas chamber. Stopping first in the room where instructions were once given to undress and hang clothing on a numbered hook before entering into the "showers." Seeing the openings where the poison was dropped through to the unsuspecting people below. Hearing how the toxic worked while standing in front of case with empty tins and being told that each tin's content killed about 100 people. Seeing the various chambers used based on the number of victims as the gas worked best in warm places so victims would be packed in tightly and their body heat would activate the poison. Bodies would be stacked up by those still alive to try to escape and sometimes this would protect those on the very bottom layer who would be shot when the SS would clear the bodies out of the chamber to turn them into ashes and then fill large holes with the ashes. 

Seeing the crumbled ruins of the chamber used to murder. Destroyed crematories. Destroyed by the Nazis as they realized the Red Army was coming in; trying to destroy evidence of the camp.

Realizing that despite the thousands of other visitors at the camp with you, it is nothing in comparison to the at least 1,300,000 people that were sent to this camp alone by the Nazis. Of them, 1.1M Jews. The remaining consisting largely of Poles with much smaller numbers of Gypies, Soviet POWs, and prisoners of other ethnic groups. Trying to comprehend why of those sent to Auschwitz 1,100,000 died as a result of being born a certain ethnicity.

These are the reasons Auschwitz haunts you long after your departure. And I think rightfully so. 

Is it a place that I recommend you see? Most definitely. 

For me it is one of those things that I had to work up to it. When my sister and I toured Eastern Europe several years ago we visited a Jewish memorial. I still remember sitting with her, tears in both our eyes after listening to stories of camp survivors. We sat in that room both knowing we had other things to see in the city, but not wanting to leave as we stared at the large map on the wall with all the concentration camps marked. Then and there I knew one day I'd be visiting Auschwitz. Granted it was by route of Dachau Concentration Camp and the Anne Frank House, but like I said- work up to this one. It's huge and a bit of a challenge to take it all in when you stand within the walls of the compound and realize the evil that once took place on the now wide open plain dotted with trees.