This pre-war Polish barracks in Oswiecem {German name is Auschwitz} was transformed into a death factory from 1940, until it was liberated by the Russians in 1945. The day was chilly and overcast when we boarded the bus from Krakow. The journey took two hours, and when we arrived, it was drizzling rain, which seemed fitting to us, as if nature itself was weeping for the souls murdered in this place. Brochures refer to this place as a museum, but it is a cemetery--it is a harrowing place, and nothing prepares you for the horror of the residue of lives lost there. We watched a fifteen-minute film on the liberation of the camp and then spent six hours visiting. We did not use a guide, preferring to follow the route set out in the guidebook.
Above the iron entrance gate is an ironic motto: Work gives Freedom. But this promise was definitely extended to very few of the prisoners gathered from all over Europe. Though the vast majority of victims were Jewish, according to studies, over a million and a half prisoners are said to have died in Auschwitz, ten percent of them Soviet prisoners of war, Polish political prisoners, and gypsies. Initially, the camp comprised 20 buildings; they were mainly ground-level, but from 1941-42, upper stories were added, and the prisoners were forced to build eight new blocks. The number of prisoners was between 13-16,000, reaching above 20,000 in 1942. They were crammed into accommodations designed for far less bodies.
One thing to keep in mind was the fact that for most of the Jewish inmates, the severe hardship they endured from the start of the war rendered them weak and sick; hiding out in attics and scurrying from place to place for over two years had already taken its toll.
A convoy of cattle trains and trucks would bring in the half-dead and dehydrated souls, and Nazi doctors decided their fate. Weak women, children, and old people were sent to "shower", and the men were sent to hard labor on meager rations. Prisoner’s possessions were confiscated upon arrival; some convoys were taken straight to the crematoria--no selection. It is difficult to describe what we saw, but I will mention a few of the exhibitions.
Inside the barracks, we saw triple rows of bunks not three feet high--just strips of wooden planks in which victims were herded, and not a stitch of covering. In block four, room five, we saw great heaps of women’s hair and, among it, neat plaits of young girls. Seven tons of hair were discovered in the camp warehouse after liberation. The hair was shipped to textile factories in Germany.
I note a young girl gazing through the glass; she is part of a school trip, and her hair is long and shining like a black walnut--I wonder what her thoughts are. In Block 6, there are mountains of shoes, artificial limbs, wire-rimmed glasses, baby clothes and articles for their care, and suitcases inscribed with the owner’s names. The exhibition is behind glass and is terrifying in its scope. All plundered personal effects were sorted, stored, and subsequently transported to Germany.
Block eleven was the death block. The prisoners were made to work, and then they had to stand packed tightly together in a bricked-up wall; eventually, they starved to death. We saw the cell of Father Maximillian Kolbe, who gave his life for another prisoner. John Paul II placed a candle inside this cell when he visited Auschwitz. In another cell, a Polish prisoner had scraped out a picture of Christ and his mother upon the wall.
Throughout the long corridors are hundreds of photographs of the prisoners. I look at them and note their names. There are dark and pale faces, plump or gaunt, humble and grim--some seemed to have a resigned look, while others were defiant, and I was astonished to find the camera had caught some of them smiling, but then I remembered that many of them believed they were going to be relocated into new Jewish settlements. Most appalling were photos of groups of naked ladies walking to their "shower"--but under the smirking eyes of the Nazi soldiers. They were not even allowed to die with dignity.
But what finally did me in was one photograph of a prisoner sporting a black eye. I felt an inner rage and felt compelled to seize some Holocaust denier, drag that person to the glass enclosures, and ask if the denials stand. I went out and took a deep breath at this point, looking out at the dismal sky, the bleak grounds full of milling tourists.
We paid our respects at the death wall where prisoners were shot, and then we took the shuttle bus to Birkenau, a distance of 3 kilometers. This camp was the most unsettling of the two because of its immense size and the fact that it was built mainly for extermination. It was the ultimate hellhole. In comparison, Birkenau Auschwitz was a resort. The brick barracks were built without foundations, and the three-tiered berths spread with rotting straw held 10 persons for sleeping. There were many wooden buildings that once served as stables but were used to hold up to 1,000 prisoners. There were over 300 barracks and four huge gas chambers. Each chamber accommodated over 2,000 bodies; electric lifts were used to raise the bodies to the ovens. Toward the end of the war, retreating Nazis bulldozed the chambers and some of the barracks. Between the ruins stands the international monument to the victims.
How could men bestow such brutal cruelties and not go insane? Everyone should see these camps. The visit will hurt and disturb but will never be forgotten. My most fervent desire is that such genocide and crimes of hate will never again be repeated anywhere on this earth.
Getting there: 10 Zloty each way per person. Return is 7 Zloty per person. We took the 8am bus there and returned on the 4pm bus.
The museum is open every day except Jan 1st/December 25th and Easter Sunday.
8am-3pm from 15th December to 28/29th February
8am-4pm-from 1 March to 30th March and from 1 November to 15th December
8am-5pm-from 1 April to 30th April and from 1 October to 31 October
8am-6pm-from 1 May to 31 May and from 1 September to 30th September
8am-7pm-from 1 June to 31 August
Telephone: {0048-33} 843 20 22
Shuttle to Birkenau is free
Read Less