Auschwitz

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All we hear about Auschwitz is the horrifying statistics. An estimated 1.1 million men, women and children, Jews, Poles and homosexuals, were slaughtered here. It is unique because as well as being the largest camp, it is the only Nazi facility that doubled as both a death/extermination camp and a concentration/labour camp. I will try to describe my experience at this haunting place but it is difficult to put it into words.

I was not aware before visiting that there are two completely different parts of the Auschwitz Concentration camp. Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau. These are about a kilometer apart from each other and present completely different styles of concentrations camps. Auschwitz I in filled will tall brick town houses, along straight lanes. Without any knowledge of where you were, you could be mistaken to think you were in a small Polish or German town. Auschwitz-Birkenau looks like somewhere you would go on summer camp. It is situated on a large flat field and the land is sprinkled with one-story cabins.



When you visit Auschwitz you will be guided by an official tour guide and be given a headset so you can hear them better. We started by walking through the gates of Auschwitz I, under the haunting iron sign reading “Arbeit macht frei” ("Work brings freedom"). As we walked along the lane and heard about the real stories that occurred there, we went into some of the town houses. Some houses were where prisoners slept on the concrete floor and on hay, like barn yard animals. Other houses are where German doctors performed cruel and lethal experiments. In some of the rooms there are the possessions left behind from the victims. Small and simple items. Hair brushes, hair, teeth, shoes. Reminders that the victims were ordinary people just like us.



As we approached the edge of the camp we passed Rudolf Höss residences, the man who ran Auschwitz. His house was basically in the concentration camp. I could believe that he and his family could live in a place where there were just atrocities going on, atrocities they were responsible for. I turned my head to see directly across a street from his house was one of the gas chambers. No more than 50 meters away from where he slept. How could he lead these crimes? How could be live amongst it? It is still unfathomable to me.

Our tour guide then director us into one of the gas chambers. The guides and visitors can now speak inside. I was standing in the ‘shower’, in the dead silence. The walls were charred black. The chambers were very large which helped me understand how so many people, hundreds of thousands, died there.



After finishing our tour of Auschwitz I we drove to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The car park is a distance away from the camp. The famous brick tower and archway dawned over me as I approached. The entrance of Birkenau is where the iconic images of train tracks running under an arch come from. The train tracks run under the watchtower and directly into the midst of the camp. It is an enormous piece of farm land, so peaceful, lush and green. As you make your way to the end of the site you pass a small train carriage.

This is a real carriage from the end of the Holocaust that did transport Jews to the camp. It still sits on the tracks, preserved in time. Looking at the carriage you get a feeling for the horrible and cramped conditions prisoners were put in before even arriving at the camp. At the far end of the camp is a pile of bricks in ruin. This was one of the gas chambers the Nazis destroyed in an attempt to ride evidence of what happened.

I then wondered into one of the huts. It looks worse then some animal barn yards, not suitable living conditions for a human. It was stuffed with wooden bunk beds. People just went to the toilet in there beds which meant the people at the bottom go covered in unsanitary matter. I noticed names and dates etched into the bed frames and stone walls. It is likely not all of these were from the time but I do believe some are. Our last stop was back to the watchtower. Here you can go up to the top and gaze of the entire camp. This helped what I had just seen sink into my mind.



Auschwitz is an emotionally moving and daunting place but don't let that be an excuse for not going. Everyone I was with had studied the Holocaust in History class. We knew every fact, figure and date. But none of us could truly understand how significant, real and relevant the Holocaust is to today until visiting a site like Auschwitz. Some of us were afraid we would get too emotional but none of us cried. The place makes you somber, humble and reflect, not distort. I believe anyone traveling around areas of Europe such as Poland should visit a concentration or death camp. The events of the Holocaust will not be real and taken to a new level of appreciate for you unless you do so. The workers there today have been so careful to not turn the site into an overly touristy attraction. I am so thankful I was given the chance to connect with the one of the most significant events in human history in this way.

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