Advertisement
Published: April 5th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Today was a day that is hard to put words to. It is several hours after I have returned from my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau and I still don't have many words, just pictures in my head, impressions and sadness.
Although the weather was miserable, cold and rainy, it was fitting. Poland is relatively flat and the wind whips through the open spaces as I learned today. It was only slightly windy, but I couldn't help but think about the many who were here when it was much colder and snowing and desperate.
I wasn't going to write today but I need to get my first impressions written before they fade. I can't describe what I felt when I was able to actually have my feet on the ground at the camp(s). It certainly wasn't excitement or anticipation, more like remembrance. My heritage is not Jewish, but I am a human and that makes me, in fact all of us, a part of what happened. As I think Elie Wiesel said......to bear witness.
One of the most striking things about the camps is the silence. We know that when it was occupied there was unending sound. Today, it was
silent except for soft voices, lowered with respect.
The tour consisted of two parts, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau II, the two main camps. The pictures that we see are mostly of Auschwitz, but Birkenau was the most sobering.
I saw the barracks, the various torture cells (isolation, airless, starvation), the Death Wall where prisoners were executed and the "hospitals" which were a euphemism for 'holding place for the chambers'. Damaged prisoners, unable to work, were of no use to the Nazi machine.
We passed by personal belongings of those who came here. Simple daily things that people brought with them to start the new life they were promised when they boarded the trains. Enamel dishware, shoe polish, combs, toys, photographs.
The volume of personal effects was really too much for me. Who can comprehend a million shoes? Who can imagine cherished photographs thrown out like trash?
I saw train tickets that Greek Jews had to purchase for their ten day ride in the cattle car. They only made stops to discard the dead. There was no opportunity to make money that wasn't capitalized upon by the Nazi's.
I saw an urn in a recessed
alcove that was filled with the ashes of unknown prisoners.
I learned that the children who were liberated didn't know what their names were, just their numbers. Total dehumanization was the goal.
Prisoners who were transferred to other camps and returned to Auschwitz were allowed to keep their original tattooed number when they returned, they believed it allowed them better treatment.
In some of the barracks, black and white photographs of men line the walls. Hundreds. What you notice is the dates of arrival and departure. Of the ones I looked at, the stay was seldom longer than a few months.
The stairs leading from one floor to another were so worn that I found it difficult to walk on them unless I stayed in the center of the step.
The crematorium and the gas chamber were hard to enter. The sheer efficiency of the process is numbing. Warehousing people is costly and killing them takes time. The gassing process was fairly quick, the burning was not. The volume dictated that more facilities be built, some underground to avoid detection from the air. They knew what they were doing was wrong.
After several hours
at Auschwitz we traveled a short distance to Birkenau. I was tired and it was cold and along the way I wondered about those who were made to walk the distance, there was no transport for them. They were cold, hungry, ill.
The stripping of all human dignity and individiualism was clearly evident at Birkenau. From the arrival on the trains, which ended here, to the selection, to the housing, Birkenau is a hard, desperate place. At the very rear of the camp, as you enter, there is a line of trees. That seemed like the very end of the earth to me today. I can't easily imagine the hopelessness of those coming here. By then, they knew that they would probably never leave. I can't even come close to imagining the strength and fortitude of the survivors who kept within them a desire for life and truth.
I wondered if there would be a feeling of evil here at these places. I wondered if I would feel something or if it was just a place where bad things happened. I can't help but think that for those who passed through these gates that they left something of
themselves to share with those who came to respect and remember.
I didn't expect to leave Auschwitz with a gift; instead, I came to bear witness and remember. When the time is right I plan to tell my grandchildren that bad things, even terrible things happen, but good people who stand up for what is right can make a difference. I want them to know and remember so their generation won't stand for another Holocaust.
This quote came to my mind and I read it at the Holocauast Museum in Washington,DC:
Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.
I left Auschwitz with an appreciation of life as I know it and the wish that there will never be another time or place where this can happen.
-more to come
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0369s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
stehrmon
non-member comment
auschwitz
beautifully written, Carla. after visiting Dachau, I was drawn to study Ann Frank, who's story you may have heard somewhere along the way. Her approach to her time in camps was an incredible testament to the human spirit. A couple of links, if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/anne_frank.html thanks for sharing your adventures here, and have a wonderful Tuesday!