Auschwitz

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6/14/08

Auschwitz

It was hard to imagine that I was at the actual Auschwitz. You hear all these stories about how horrid a place it was and about the lives lost and the short supply of survivors and to actually be there is an out of body experience.

First, I want to start with the facts of Auschwitz. It was started as a camp for Polish political prisoners. It was made by the prisoners themselves. Auschwitz is actually made up of three separate camps, Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II which included Birkenau, and Auschwitz III which was where Primo Levi was held. Auschwitz III was completely destroyed, so we did not visit it. There was nothing to see. Seventy to 75% of those arriving at Auschwitz were immediately sent to their death. There were 28 blocks in Auschwitz I, and there were over 300 in Auschwitz II. The Nazis destroyed the gas chambers in Auschwitz II right before liberation. The one at Auschwitz I still stands. Cyclone B, the gas used, was produced in Germany and was originally used at the camps as a disinfectant. Also, the buildings at the Auschwitz camps were made by the prisoners first there.

Auschwitz I was, comparatively, a nice concentration camp. The buildings were made of brick so that provided some shield during the harsh Polish winters and there were mattresses on the cots. It was also a much smaller camp than the other two with a smaller gas chamber. Two hundred could be killed at a time, so it was still quite formidable. This camp has been made into a museum. The exhibits there were terrifying. There was a glass case on the wall, probably 20-30 feet long and 10 feet deep, filled with the hair of those who were sent there. And that wasn’t even close to all of the hair, since it was used in the Third Reich as a material for making cloth. It smelled of the people. That exhibit really got to me. Others that were similar were the exhibits that contained the suitcases, the eye glasses, the prosthetics (which were usually from those lost their limbs fighting in World War I), the combs, and the shoes. The Nazis tried burning these things before the Russians came, but a lot of it was salvaged. The warehouses were called Canada because Canada was seen as a rich and prosperous place. (Juxtaposing that was Mexico, where the worst living conditions were.) All these items carried the smells of the people who lost them. This was also the camp where Maximilian Kolbe died in place of another man in the starvation barrack in the death block. There is a memorial to him in that room. What is interesting is that usually Nazi officers did not oblige offers like that, usually both the one asking to die in the others place and the other were done for. This time, it was not the case. Maximilian Kolbe heard this man talking of his children and family and how he was needed. Kolbe then offered up his life instead. The one he died in place of survived the war, and I remember actually when he died. My mom kept his obituary clipping on our refrigerator as a reminder to do self less acts for people in need. When my group was about to leave, there was a group of young people entering. They were all draped with the flags of Israel, and looked like they were from there. Seeing the look on their eyes when they entered was staggering. I am sure many of them have grown up with stories of this place where Jews came to die, and to see it and be able to so closely relate to that must make the whole experience even more heart wrenching. Auschwitz I was also where some Soviet prisoners of war were kept. Because it was illegal to keep POWs in concentration camps, they were segregated and a sign that read “labor camp” was put up in front of that section. That apparently solved the problem. When people arrived at Auschwitz I, an SS officer would “welcome” them and would end his speech with these words: “you came in through that gate, you leave through that chimney.”

When people think of Auschwitz, they are usually thinking of Auschwitz II, Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was bigger than FSU, measuring 440 acres. This is the place where the train came right up into the middle of the camp and the Jews were immediately sorted. Those who were fit and healthy and able to work in one line, and children, pregnant women, the weak, elderly and disabled were gassed. Something horrifying we were told was that women who were pregnant were forced into labor and their child were taken and used in the sick medical experiments of “doctor” Joseph Mengela. Those women who refused to be separated from their children who were in line for the gas chamber (of course they did not know that) would be allowed to join the line with their child. They were told they were going to take a shower. However, once they were stripped and they started walking into the gas chamber, it was evident that there was no water connection going to the shower head. People cried, screamed and prayed. That was really all they could do. The death process took about 15-20 minutes. Each time a group was led into the chamber and killed, a group had to go in, remove the bodies, clean and repaint. The cleaning and repainting was necessary because Cyclone B made people vomit, bleed out their ears, nose and mouth and they lost control of their bodily functions. So as not to scare the next people going in to die, the SS guards or their “special prisoners” who did their bidding would clean the chamber. After the bodies were taken out, they were burned in the krematorium which at the end of the war was lit 24 hours a day, constantly running. Most of the ashes from the krematorium were either used as fertilizer or were thrown into the river near by. They could only burn one or two bodies in a furnace at a time. When there is a room of two thousand dead, it takes a while, plus, they had to get ready for the next arrival. It was eerie to be at Auschwitz II after seeing all the movies and picture and hearing all the stories about it. All the things that were set up to terrify people such as the dogs, the Nazis screaming German, and the glow of the krematorium furnaces were all gone. Instead, it was very quiet, serene. The gas chambers were all blown up right before the Russians got there, so there are five mounds of rubble, where you can decipher where each of the rooms were (undressing room, gas chamber, cold room and krematorium). The undressing room and gas chambers were underground in two of the five gas chambers at this Auschwitz camp. These two underground ones were the largest at the camp. The three others were very much smaller. The two largest could kill 2,000 in a short time period. Without these instruments of terror, it was hard to find Auschwitz II terrifying. The barracks where people stayed were appalling however. There were bunks in the room that were falling apart. They were wood planks that would have been covered in hay. There were three levels to it. A prisoner would not want to be on the bottom, because there was a rat problem. Neither would a prisoner want to be on top because the roof leaked. There was absolutely no insulation, and Poland was pretty cold in the summer. It was June 13th and I was wearing my winter jacket. They were just made of wooden planks. There was a heater installed in each, but the prisoners had to find their own fuel for them. There was nothing there that could be used for fuel, and if prisoners did leave during the day for some reason or another, they were not allowed to bring things back so there was no chance to get fuel. It was just there so that people had a feeling that there was hope of heat, when really there was none. It was usually used as a table of sorts. Their bathrooms were really horrendous as well. They were in barracks like ones where the people stayed: no insulation, just made of wooden panels. There was a long cement box, filled with many holes where the people would do their business while other prisoners yelled because they needed to use it as well. The prisoners there were only allowed to use the facilities twice a day (when they woke up and before bed). Most suffered from malnutrition diarrhea. Because of this, most of them had soiled uniforms, which were deloused on occasion. Even that was a form of torture though. The delousing happened one of two ways both in the freezing cold of winter. First, the people could be told to take off their uniforms and go outside while they were cleaned. They would be naked, outside in the snow. Then they had to put on their wet uniforms. The other option, was that the Nazis would have large barrels of the solution, and the prisoners were told to get in, up to their necks and then they had to stand outside in the freezing weather until their uniform dried. Needless to say, many died in this process.

Many know of the tattoos that were known to be forced onto the prisoners. They were only used at Auschwitz camps. They were not used when the camp first started. At first, pictures were taken to identify the prisoners. However, after just a little time at the camp, they were emaciated and looked nothing like their pictures. So in 1943, the tattoos were an identification method. The higher the number, the newer to the camp a prisoner was. After liberation, children were asked their names and they did not know them. They had only ever been called by their number. They knew nothing of their family or where they came from. Children were labeled as political prisoners in their triangle method.

I mentioned a sadist doctor named Joseph Mengela. He used prisoners for experiments. Mengela usually tested those babies earlier mentioned that were taken away from their mothers by seeing how long they could live without food. He also would inject ink into people’s eyes seeing if he could change their eye color. Also, he was very much interested in twins. If one died, he would kill the other and compare their internal organs.

While a lot of this is incredibly graphic, I felt it was necessary to tell every detail. Auschwitz is not exactly easy to get to and most people will never get a chance to go. I felt that these stories need to be repeated, so that those imbeciles who believe that the holocaust never happened will become less and less. Seeing the hair, the left over ashes, the pictures seeing where people were shot, you do not want to believe humans can do these things, but you must remember that they can, or history will repeat itself. No one really thought that Hitler had any leadership ability after World War I, and thought very little of him. Stalin was thought to be the idiot in a room of intellectuals. People in power need to be questioned. It is not just our patriotic duty; it is our duty as individual human beings. While every journey may begin with a single step, every push for change is initiated by a single human being who wants to promise NEVER AGAIN.

Things to remember: Going back to Prague feels like going home, when you go to a concentration camp bring your ipod so that you can just meditate on it on your own, I am praying for Edmund Lopacinski because we were supposed to pick a name on the wall and look at the facts and figures about the person underneath. That was the person I saw and I want him to be remembered. He made it about a year which was great at Auschwitz. The usual life span was 2-3 months. If you are under 14, you are not allowed into Auschwitz, always double check the hotel room to make sure you have your monkey (I did, no worries, I still have Freddie), make sure your first aide kit has all the pieces or you could be fined 50 zlotys (Polish currency… our bus driver was pulled over by the bus patrol… I don’t know…), make sure your alarm clock is on when you go to bed, never drink caffeine before a 9 hour bus ride when not sleeping the night before. You wont sleep on the bus either, and make sure you have a good support team when seeing places like this.

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