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AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
Today we left early (7:30am) with Barbara and Michael to go to Auschwitz which is 40 miles outside of Cracow. It is a two lane road and traffic coming into Cracow was heavy. The countryside that we drove through was beautiful. Lots of lilacs blooming.
The Polish name for Auschwitz is Oswiecim, the Germans renamed the area Auschwitz. There were three Auschwitz camps. The first , Auschwitz I, was opened in June of 1940 when the first Polish political prisoners arrived. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) 3 Km away was started in 1941. There was only one gas camber at Auschwitz I and two ovens. The Nazis started rounding up all the Jews in Europe. It became impossible for Auschwitz I to handle all of them. They put two gas chambers in Birkenau and more efficient ovens so that more bodies could be disposed of faster. The gas that was used was actually a pesticide but when it became warm and wet it released hydrogen cyanide. The people in the center of the chamber nearest the gas died first and those at the edges died in 5 or 10 minutes. The ovens in Auschwitz I could only hold 2 bodies
and it took one hour to cremate them. The Jews were told that they were going into the showers and to hang their clothing on hooks on the wall and to remember their number hook so they could retrieve their own clothing when they came back out. After dying in the gas chamber, their heads were shaved and any gold teeth were removed. The hair was used to make felt and the gold was melted down. Everything was set up to make them believe that this was not the end. When they were rounded up to be brought to Auschwitz, they were told to take clothing, both warm and cool with them and toiletries that that would need on a daily basis. They were also told to write their name and address on the outside of their suitcase so that it could be delivered correctly when they reached their relocation site (the camp).
The museum contains hundreds of thousands of pairs of shoes, pounds and pounds of women’s hair, clothes, combs, shaving brushes and eyeglasses. All of these objects were taken to a warehouse and there they were gone through and anything of value was to be turned over
to the SS. There were displays of little children’s clothes that were especially heart breaking. 1,100,000 Jews were murdered at the camps. Also gypsies, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners, poles and other prisoners. The camps were finally liberated by the Soviets in 1945. They found 7,650 sick and dying prisoners when they arrived.
Above the entrance to the camp is inscribed “Albeit macht frei” (Work makes you free”.) This was a very sobering tour that reminded us of man’s inhumanity to man. Rudolph Hess ran the camp and after the war was arrested in Germany and brought back to Poland for trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was carried out at a gallows erected just for him in Auschwitz I a short distance from the home that he had occupied with his wife and 5 children.
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