The Auschwitz-Birkenau Experience

Honestly, even after seeing Auschwitz, the whole thing is still completely inconceivable. Walking around the camp and trying to imagine all of the people living, working, and dying there is just so unbelievable. It's still hard for me to even begin to imagine it. The whole experience was just unreal to me.

During the uprising, a lot of the buildings and artifacts we're destroyed, so many of the buildings have been turned into exhibits focusing on certain elements. There was one that depicted everything that was taken away from the Jews upon arrival. One big room had this huge, long display absolutely filled with human hair. You always hear about all of the valuable taken away from them, but seeing piles upon piles of something that was physically a part of the victims was just so much worse.

The one building that has been almost completely kept in its original condition, is Block 11, the most feared building in the camp. It was there that the Nazis had the firing squad, tortured Jews, held them in cells, and first discovered the effects of the poison they would go on to use in the gas chambers. The cells in the basement were awful. In one section, there were four or so cells that were so small that people would literally have to crawl into it and stay bunched up in a ball until brought out to face torture or death.

The most personal part of it, was the block that had pictures, names, birth/death dates, and occupations of some of the victims. During the uprising, a prisoner that had worked in the registration office grabbed the photograpsh stored of prisoners that had been hidden in the chimney. These photographs are the only official ones of the Nazi's that there are of the victims with such documentation. In general, I am a visual person, so I think that seeing these victims faces and learning a little about them made the experience just is much more personal.

Before going to the extermination camp (Birkenau, Auschwitz II), we saw the cremetorium in Auschwitz I. Normally, it was only used for creating the ashes of dad prisoners-- Auschwitz I was not an extermination camp, but so many people still died because of the horrible work and living conditions. When the Nazis decided to use poison to create gas chambers thigh, they used this cremetorium as the first place to test out the poison on a large scale. The four or so hundred people that they could fit in there wasn't enough though, so that is when they build the four gas chambers in Auschwitz II.

Auschwitz II is pretty much completely destroyed. Of the 300 wooden buildings built for the men's side, only 20 still stand. All four of the gas chambers also sit in ruins now. When the uprising happened, so much of the camps were destroyed. There is the famous image of the gate and rain tacks, but aside from that, there is not much there. We walked down to the decision point, where the Nazis went through the people being unloaded by train, deciding if they would enter the camp or be sent to the gas chambers. We then went down to the ruins of the chambers and saw the memorial that was built for victims of the Holocaust.

Like I said before, seeing all of this and imagining the reality of it is just completely unbelievable. There is no way to even begin to understand the kind of horror that so many millions of people faced there. Something I have noticed in general, is how recently it feels like the Holocaust happened, when being in Europe. I can't speak for older generations, but at least for my generation in the U.S., I think that it feels like the Holocaust is something of the distant past. Relative to how young our country is, yeah, it could seem like forever ago. In Europe though, in a place with a much lengthier history, what is just short of 70 years, can feel like just yesterday. Visiting Terezin, Lidice, numerous spots in Prague, Schindler's Factory, and especially Auschwitz, it is extremely clear how very much the region is still incredinly affected by this portion of their history.

I'm really glad to have had all of these experiences, but I really cannot stress enough how unimaginable it still all is . . .

The walk to the gas chambers:

 

 

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