Auschwitz

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I’ve read about it in books and watched it in movies but nothing can compare to the reality of being there. I don’t even know where to begin writing about the experience. The day I spent at Auschwitz is something that will take a lifetime to process. It put an entirely new dimension on something that I have heard about my entire life. When I walked out of the camp that day any doubt that something like that could have actually happened was removed from my mind. But it wasn’t so much like I ever doubted it, it was just that believing something like that really happened is almost impossible to do. But after having been there; after seeing the countless belongings that remained: luggage, shoes, hair, braces and canes; having walked down the same path as the prisoners; having walked through the crematorium where so many were led to their deaths, I saw a part of Auschwitz that I had never seen before. I saw Auschwitz in color and in that color was reality.

The irony of the experience was that we were there on the most perfect day. The weather was warm, the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. It made me see that amongst all the death, all the torture and all the horror that is Auschwitz, there was a glimmer of hope. I remember towards the end of my time there I was standing in Birkenau looking at the railroad tracks in the middle of the camp. I was standing in the exact spot where people were sorted when they got off the trains. It was in that spot that the SS officers decided, with the point of a finger, who would live and who would die. As I stood there I saw three tiny roses on the tracks, somewhat withered, but still brilliant in color. Reflecting on this moment it amazes that in a place as ugly as Auschwitz there could be something of such beauty. And I do believe that when the camps were in operation amongst all the ugliness, there was beauty. There was beauty in the prisoners. There was beauty in those who still praised God when everything was taken from them; when they were tortured and stripped of their dignity. There was a beauty in their strength, strength that if I were there I don’t know if I would have had.

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Photos

Block 10
The Block in Auschwitz where several hundred women were held as prisoners and used as guniea-pigs for sterilization experiments. Some died from the treatment, others were murdered so that autopsies could be performed on their bodies.

The Death Wall
The wall where the SS Officers shot several thousand people.

Block 10
The side of Block 10 where they covered the windows so the people inside couldn't see what happened at the Death Wall.

Block 11
Block 11 at Auschwitz was known as the Death Block. Those who were sentenced to starvation were sent here. In the basement of this block is the starvation cell where Maximillian Kolbe was put and also the cell where he died.

Back of Entrance to Birkenau
Right before we left Birkenau I was allowed to go up into this tower to take pictures. It gives me chills to think that the windows I leaned out of to take pictures were the same windows that SS Officers leaned out of when they shot people.

Barracks at Birkenau
These barracks were reconstructed out of left over wood. We saw one that was a replica of where they slept. The beds were bunked three high and went from one end to the other end with no space in between. Another one was the lavatory which pretty much had a hole in the ground and a piece of wood (or some other kind of material) with about 50 holes in it, only inches apart from each other.

The entrance to Birkenau
I took this picture from standing in the very middle of the camp. I stood on the exact spot where they unloaded the trains and sorted the people.

The end of the camp
After we had our tour all 160 Franciscan students went to the end of the camp, where now stands a memorial monument, and prayed a Divine Mercy Chaplet. We prayed for all those who were prisoners in the camp, all that lost their lives, all those responsible for the lives lost and all those affected by the Holocaust. Over 50 years later we stood in the same camp where the tragedies took place and prayed for those involved.

Comments

[Dad]

Your Auschwitz
Jenny, As I read "Your Auschwitz" you gave me the chance to feel the emotions you were feeling through your written words. As I took the journey via your experience my eyes began to well with tears, not because of the horror of what happened there, as horrible as it was, but because of your deep compassion and ability to express your experience in words so vividly. You are truly blessed and gifted. Press on. lol dad