Advertisement
Arbeit Macht Frei Sign
Auschwitz I concentration camp. The Arbeit Macht Frei sign at the entrance to the camp.
Auschwitz Birkenau: German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed in 1979. DSC_0776bw2Today was our visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp. A somber day, but a must. The name Auschwitz itself conjures up the Holocaust and its horrific images.
Oświęcim is about an hour and a half drive from Krakow. It is and was a railway center, with connections east to Krakow, west to Wrocław (once Breslau) and Berlin and south to Vienna. Thus the town was selected as a central place to which to transport people which was removed from heavily populated areas. A Polish army barracks had been established at Oświęcim before the war. These brick buildings became Auschwitz I.
Nearing Oświęcim, the tour bus again crossed the Vistula, the river that ties Polish history together. Off to the right was the railway bridge and at that moment a passenger train was on it. A reminder of how straightforward it was to reach the town by rail. Once in town, the route to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum took us by the modern passenger station and railway yard.
The museum at the Auschwitz I camp site is a large modern building, though some of the original camp receiving structures have been incorporated into it. Along the parking lot
Auschwitz Guardhouse
Wooden guardhouse at the entrance gate to the Auschwitz I concentration camp. It is adjacent to the Arbeit Macht Frei sign.
Auschwitz Birkenau: German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed in 1979.DSC_0776p1 are reflective markers commemorating the countries and organizations that have contributed to the preservation of the camp site. The queue to enter the Auschwitz I site forms directly across from the infamous "
Arbeit Macht Frei" sign. You try to get a sense of the place just waiting to view it. Then you walk under the sign and through the gate to enter the camp. Beyond the gate, the brick buildings give the surprising initial appearance of ordinariness. They do look like barracks. Then one begins to learn the story. The first building passed is Bock 24. This was the "Dollhouse", the camp brothel where selected women were forced to prostitute themselves. Some of the blocks remain set up as cells. They were vastly overcrowded, and some had ceilings so low prisoners could not stand. Prisoners were starved to death in isolation cells. Other blocks are set up as testimonial exhibits. One shows the methodical nature of Nazi record keeping. Records were kept of prisoners' names and arrival dates. Records were kept of supplies received, like counts of incoming Zyklon B containers. There is an exhibit on the Kapos, the trustees. There are maps showing were prisoners came from. The camp
Auschwitz I Entrance
Auschwitz I concentration camp. Entrance gate and Block 24 (the "Dollhouse"). The Auschwitz I camp began in June 1940 with the use of a former Polish army barracks. Prisoners built additions to the existing barracks buildings and new brick cellblocks.
The building immediately at the entrance is Camp Block 24, known as the "Dollhouse". It was used as the camp brothel. Guards and selected non-Jewish trustees were allowed to visit it.
The greatest camp population was 18,000 prisoners in 1944. One must think of this number of people held in a relatively small space of 24 adjacent cellblocks.
Auschwitz Birkenau: German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed in 1979.DSC_0777p1 was used at first for Polish political prisoners, but soon expanded to include Jewish people, Roma, homosexuals and Soviet prisoners of war. Jews were by far the largest population imprisoned. Large display cases show the luggage, shoes, hats, clothing, and personal items all taken from prisoners. The displays are filled with such items--the Nazis had taken away possessions and warehoused them all. Hair shorn from prisoners occupies an entire wall. Then comes the display of children's belongings--clothes, stuffed animals and toys. This is where I really felt the horrific impact. Extraordinarily, a few visitors did not seem to grasp the implications. One individual asked why family members had not claimed the luggage after the war.
Blocks 20 and 21 were the medical blocks. There was an infirmary of sorts, but this is where the medical experiments were carried out on prisoners. In the center is the Roll-call Square, where prisoners were assembled three times a day. At one side is a strange wooden kiosk where a guard called out names. On the other side is the gallows. Behind it is the Wall of Death where prisoners were shot. A memorial and flowers are there now. We did see the
Entering Auschwitz I
Auschwitz I concentration camp. Entrance gate. To enter the camp, visitors pass under the Arbeit Macht Frei sign. IMG_5556p1 gas chamber and crematoria at the end of the tour.
Reboarding the motorcoach, our destination was Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The coach left us off at the parking lot a distance from the camp. It was hot for a September day as we walked towards the gatehouse. It is another iconic image of Auschwitz and inspires dread by looking at it. Visitors do not pass through the "Gate of Death" but enter by a side door. Birkenau opened in 1942 on the other side of the railway from Auschwitz I. It was a purpose-built camp. Birkenau was a death camp where 90 percent of those who perished at the Auschwitz camps died. The barracks at Birkenau were wooden and held in excess of 400 prisoners each. Windowless, they had limited sanitary and washing facilities. Prisoners generally had to remain without the ability to wash, hence disease spread. After the war, the local population took the wood for fuel and building material. Much of the camp is represented only by foundations. The display barracks have been reconstructed. The railway spur into the camp, another iconic image of the Holocaust, was added in 1944. (Subsequently removed, you can make out the outline of
Electrified Fence and Prisoner Reception
Auschwitz I concentration camp. Barbed wire electrified camp fence. The camp was surrounded by 11 miles (17 km) of such fencing. Outside the boundary fence is the Aufnahmegebäude (Building to Receive Newcomers). It is now a part of the visitor centre.
Auschwitz Birkenau: German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed in 1979. DSC_0779p1 the spur on Google Maps.) It is where the separations took place when most arriving prisoners were sent directly to gas chambers, those reaming to the barracks. Before 1944 prisoners were unloaded a few hundred yards away at a siding called the
Judenrampe and then marched to the camp.
We did have lunch at a restaurant in Oświęcim. Suffice to say it was a quiet one. The restaurant was decorated with shattered colored glass in the windows, a fitting symbolism.
Sometime later, I found the book
Why?; Explaining the Holocaust, by Peter Hayes, to be a concise and informative history of the Holocaust. It is difficult to grasp the enormity of it.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.215s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 20; qc: 88; dbt: 0.0751s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Somber
History shows mans inhumanity to man. The history of this location is sad beyond belief.