Auschwitz-Birkenau

Nothing in my life could have prepared me for what I saw at Auschwitz.

The camp is actually comprised of three smaller camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II- Birkenau, and Auschwitz III- Monowitz. Together, these three camps were responsible for the extermination of over 1.3 Million people between the years 1941 and 1945. Auschwitz I was more of a work camp, the site of the current museum of Auschwitz, and eerily beautiful.

The first real day of sun that we had seen since coming here at the end of January had to be ironically coupled with the darkest emotional day we will probably encounter.

Our walk of the camp was somewhat shocking to me, not because it was small and cramped and dirty like I had expected, but because of its simplistic beauty. Starting at the main gate with the slogan "Work makes us free" inscribed on top, I was taken aback by the numerous and symmetrical brick buildings lining the streets of the camp. Formerly the World War I barracks of the Polish army, the buildings stand almost untouched as they were since being liberated by the Russian Army in 1945. From the main gate, we walked to the houses or blocks as they are called.

Starting at Block 4, which was designated to the extermination, we saw things ranging from the map that showed all of the places from which prisoners were shipped to Auschwitz (same as the Topography of Terror, but with much more weight now). We saw left over Zyklon B, the drug that was burned to make the gas that exterminated so many in the showers and crematoriums of the camp. The most remarkable parts of Block 4 were the model of the showers and ticket stubs. Yes, you read that right. In the museum were tickets that Greek prisoners were forced to purchase for their train ride to their death. The cruelty of this act spoke to me almost as much as any of the other nauseating things that I saw in the camps.

Next was Block 5, devoted to physical remnants of the camps and killings. Rooms were full of suitcases from prisoners (which the Nazis seized as soon as the prisoners entered the camp) marked with identifying tools. Jewish prisoners were forced to write "Israel" into their name. Another room contained only pairs of shoes taken off of prisoners. Yet another had a stack of eyeglasses, and last but not least was the room of hair. Hair was shaven off of female prisoners to be used in the German textile industry and sold back to the people. Disgusting, cruel, and pitiful. The entrance and exit hallways of the Block were lined with photographs taken of prisoners which served as identification back before the train loads were unloaded on the camp. Before the camp became a serious work camp, it was used to hold political prisoners of the Third Reich. By 1942 it had been converted and began carrying out their mass executions. At this time, the identification of prisoners also switched from photographs to simple tattooed numbers on the bodies of each prisoner.

Block 6 showed living situations of some of the prisoners, their cramped bunks and tiny barred windows. While informative, nothing could have prepared me for what was next:

Block 11 was nicknamed the Death Block.
In Block 11 some prisoners were housed, but most importantly, this place was the location of the first experiments using Zyklon B on prisoners. The block was awful. From tiny cells in the basement with only a peephole for light to "standing cells" where prisoners were forced to stand all night in a cramped box. Our guide set it up as attempting to fit yourself with four strangers into a British telephone booth. No one could sit down or lay, they were forced shoulder to shoulder into the room. The worst part was that the only way to enter was by crawling through tiny portals in the corner of each box. On the way outside were rooms where prisoners were forced to undress before their experiments or before being led outside. Often, prisoners were slaughtered in the undressing room before anything could happen. Outside the block was the "Death Wall." Now a re-creation, the wall is a symbol of the thousands of prisoners that were lined up naked and paired and shot to death. From a few centimeters away, small caliber pistols were used to murder victims who fell into a sand pit, which helped to absorb the blood. To the left of the wall were two hooks on wooden posts used as make-shift gallows.

From the line of Block housing, we were led to gallows with a more modern look. At this location, the primary leader of the camp was executed after being turned over to the Polish government.

Next was the crematorium. A small, freezing cold bunker in the ground with a single chimney, the crematorium was so awful that I hardly spent any time there at all. I stayed long enough to see the holes in the ceiling where the gas came down and to see how Zyklon was burned before heading out afraid that the chills I was getting would not go away.

Luckily, we were done with Auschwitz I, but I wish someone had warned me that Birkenau would not be any easier to stomach.

Split down the middle by three rail lines, the camp was massive. Most of the prisoner housing has been destroyed, with only their chimneys marking their existence, but even without the physical presence of the buildings, one could easily get a feel for how huge the camp was. Birkenau was one of the worst camps in terms of prisoner life. In most cases, prisoners lasted less than four hours at the camp, being directed straight to the showers after arrival. It was for this that Birkenau is known as a Death Camp.

At Birkenau, prisoners were forced to work, and were only fed 1500 calories per day, less than the 2000 necessary to maintain weight, regardless of the amount of physical labor or the bitter freezing weather. As we walked from the main building to the back of the camp, we saw the monument for the prisoners that were killed. On either side of the monuments sat the ruins of two enormous complexes with gas chambers and crematoriums. From the remnants of these buildings, you could see how prisoners were led in, naked, forced into a room with mock shower heads and then killed. Their dead bodies were pillaged and shaved, with all things taken going to the German cause. The barren bodies were then put into the crematorium. For this reason, Auschwitz is known as the largest graveyard in the world with more than one million people cremated on the grounds.

In the end I was so glad to have had the experience to see the concentration camps and truly understand the meaning behind everything. Nothing will ever repay for the atrocities carried out at Auschwitz, but by visiting and becoming educated, I feel like I am one step closer to understanding the suffering. I was also very glad to have the trip led by someone as knowledgeable as the guide that we had. His incredible knowledge and depth of understanding of what happened made everything much more relatable and real.