Auschwitz

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I woke up early this morning to go on a tour of Auschwitz. When I was having breakfast while checking for the Phillies score, something I didn’t expect happened. ESPN.com showed they were still playing and the game was only in the eighth inning. Huh?

I had heard from someone a long time ago (I forget who) that going to Auschwitz wasn’t recommended since there isn’t much to see. They were wrong. While not as documentary like as Dachau, with its numerous signs providing a history of the concentration camp system, events leading up to its development and what happened afterwards, the Auschwitz camp is much more intact than Dachau was. And it’s a different type of camp, as was made clear early on.

I took a chartered bus from a tour company out to the camp. Auschwitz is located over an hour from Krakow so we watched a Soviet produced documentary on the camp. The filming was mainly done by one cameraman who worked for the Soviet army.

When we arrived, we went inside and met with our local tour guide. He took us outside to the entrance where he gave us an overview of the camp.

Auschwitz is actually a series of three camps built progressively during WWII. Auschwitz I, where we were, was opened in 1940 on the site of a former Austrian military barracks. It also served as the administration center for all three camps.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau was an extermination camp that was built when Auschwitz I became too small. It was the largest Nazi concentration camp. At the Nuremburg trials, Rudolf Hess testified that it was built specifically to carry out the Final Solution of the Jewish Question.

Auschwitz III Monowitz, which we did not see, was built as a work plant to support an adjacent IG Farben plant, where synthetic rubber and liquid fuels were produced.

The entrance gate to Auschwitz I, like Dachau, had the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” at its crest, signaling to the prisoners that freedom could be achieved through work.

Our first stop inside was the extermination building. We walked through the gas chambers and saw a series of ovens that have been well preserved.

Then we walked through rows and rows of brick barracks that were surrounded by a double layer of barbed electric fencing and overlooked by several guard’s towers. We eventually went in one and saw how they changed over time, the bunks becoming tighter while the beds held more and more people.

We then headed to a nearby building that was used to try prisoners if they committed a crime, according to the SS. Their sentences preordained, some were housed in cells in the basement until a confession was reached while most were executed by a firing squad at the execution wall outside. The cells were more torture chambers than anything as four prisoners would share a cell and they couldn’t sit down.

The execution wall outside was lined with flowers in honor of all those who met their demise there and elsewhere.

Next we entered another former barracks, this one with several rooms showing the plunder taken by the SS when people arrived. In one display were thousands of baby booties. In another, tooth, hair and shoe brushes. Huge displays of pots and other dishes. Adult shoes. Personalized luggage. Hair shaved off upon arrival that would be used to make blankets for Nazi soldiers. This certainly was the most impactful part of the tour.

Finally, we saw models of the execution chambers as our guide told us about the process that people would go through when they arrived. Surrounding the models were pictures of many people in the process. They didn’t know what laid in store for them as they were calmly led to their death.

We then got back on the bus for the short trip to nearby Aushwitz II - Birkenau. When we arrived, we walked in through the main gate and headed towards the railroad tracks.

At Birkenau I didn’t notice a sign displaying “Arbeit Macht Frei”. While I didn’t look or even think about it until now, it makes sense since people were rarely given the opportunity to work in the first place.

When we got to the tracks we ducked under a tower to get out of the rain. Flowers were laid and candles were lit where we stood. A couple hundred meters away, inside the camp, was where the trains dropped people off and they underwent the infamous selection process, where it was determined who would die immediately and who would work to their death.

We then proceeded into a wooden bunkhouse. The bunkhouses at Birkenau were constructed quickly as they were built elsewhere then shipped by train and reassembled here. The assembly was shoddy with leaky roofs and uneven beds whose posts sank into the ground. Prisoners slept several to a bed in the most uncomfortable conditions. Water dripping from the roofs. Bitter cold. Diseased roommates. Fecal matter from bunks above. Death was inevitable.

Next was a stop at a nearby building that contained the latrine. Three long cement structures with holes cut out back and forth every foot spanned the length of this building. Prisoners were given limited amounts of time to use the toilets and often fights broke out since there weren’t enough places to go relative to the number of barracks these served. And dignity was nowhere to be found as one was nestled up right against the man to his left and right.

Our final stop was less moving. We proceeded up into the guard tower which overlooked the compound. This really gave some perspective on just how large Birkenau was, as it spanned great distances in each direction.

We left Auschwitz and arrived back in Krakow an hour and a half later. At this point I was hungry so I grabbed some pierogies at a pierogie place in the old town. I had a mixed plate which consisted of cottage cheese and potato pierogies, meat pierogies and cabbage and mushroom pierogies. All were good but the cabbage and mushroom pierogies were the best.

I walked around the old town for a bit. Still hungry as the pierogies weren’t overly filling, I put one of Krakow’s kebab guys to the test. He did well, with his containing a spicy red sauce, but still didn’t match my kebab guy in Salzburg.

After talking to Seidman a bit back at the hostel, I heard someone say something about burger night. They were trying out a new theme for the winter where they provided complimentary burgers to the guests as people socialized. That worked. And the burgers weren’t bad. I met a few more folks at the table. Most were Australian - a common theme.

I planned an early trip to bed after catching up on my journal/blog but that didn’t happen. I ended up watching Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back with a few of the other guests. I had only seen parts before. Funny movie.

Then it was off to bed. When I got into the room, one girl I had met the night before was sleeping and another who I hadn’t met was awake. Dominika, from Poland, and I talked briefly about my travels and this being her first stay at a hostel. I told her she picked a great one.

Still really tired from the Berlin pub crawl, I eventually cut the conversation off and went to bed.

Tomorrow I head south to Vienna, Austria.

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Photos

Auschwitz barracks
Barracks are surrounded by the electric fencing. A guard tower stands nearby.

Electric fencing
Two layers of barbed electric fencing prevented prisoners from escaping. It was often the cause of prisoner suicides.

Execution wall
People lined flowers at the base of the execution wall, just outside the building where prisoners were tried and found guilty of crimes.

Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks
Birkenau's barracks are much worse since they were made of wood that could easily be transported to build new barracks.

Auschwitz-Birkenau bunks
Bunks lined one of the barracks. Multiple prisoners slept in one bunk.

Auschwitz-Birkenau toilets
Long rows of toilets gave prisoners no privacy when nature called.

Pierogies
My sampler plate of pierogies.