I don't think everybody would decide that a trip was no trip at all without visiting some concentration camps along the way, well that's how I felt about going to Krakow, missing out on a wealth of history while I was there was not an option in my itinery.
The words translated mean: "work makes one free"
The journey from Krakow takes about an hour to get to the camp; we took a bus coach and watched a film on the ride over; that definitely set the tone and mood for what we were about to see.
By that stage I was feeling nauseous, yes; i get car sick but i think the documentary had much more to do with the feeling than the bus ride.
On arrival; we received a radio and headphones, the tour is so widely supported and popular that without this equipment tour guides would be shouting over each other. The equipment is also to enable visitors to tune into their own language and to also keep the noise to a minimum out of respect for those who suffered and died there.
Auschwitz was selected as a location for the concentration camp by Hitler in April 1940; it was selected for a few reasons but mainly because of it's central location within Europe. Criminals, Jews and those disobedient to Hitler were sent there by the thousands, eventually the camp became to small and was receiving unwanted attention and that is where the bigger camp Birkenau was built less than a 5 min drive away.
To even try and explain the horror and atrocities that were done here would be doing the time of this era an injustice. We do not know pain/ suffering/torture/ hatred and evil like these people experienced.
Various activities took place here, sterilisation experiments, torture such as making 5 prisoners sleep standing up in pens and then still expect them to function as normal as can be at their work shift the following morning, starvation and experimental gassing using Zyclone-B were tested. People were told they were going to take a shower and 20 min later they were dead on floor; gassed by nazis who had locked them into the chamber and poured the lethal Zyclone-B down vents in the roof.
Empty container tins that held the Zyclone-B
you can see the light filtering through at the top of the ceiling, this is the vent where the poison was administered and the room where many took their last breath, unsure of what was happening.
The bodies were then cremated so that there was no evidence; the massacre of so many was not taking quick enough and that is where Birkenau's deathly use came through; 4 bombed gas chamber remains can be seen at this camp, where Jews; mainly woman and children were led off a tram, walked along a dirt path and waited on the grass; chatting and unsure of their destiny, only to be filed into the chambers in groups and killed.
Many units have been transformed into museums showing the remains of what was left.
It is heartbreaking to see the Jews belongings that were stripped away from them; spectacles, shoes, clothing, bags, combs and brushes. Many wrote their addresses on their luggage, thinking that when they reached their destination their belongings would be given back to them, none of them saw their suitcases again. Their belongings were chucked and sorted to be sent to Germany and sold. Even gold filling were pulled from the mouths of Jews and melted down for resale.
Even their hair was shaved off and collected in mountains to be used to make netting and hosiery.
Artificial limbs and walking aid were taken from all. The weak and elderly were the first to go towards deaths doors.
At the camps, bread was money, and shoes were the most important commodity to have. Snowy winters and freezing temperatures meant workers had to struggle against the elements during their long shift barefoot. Bread would be traded for shoes, often these shoes did not fit at all but the Jews made do.
This wall; known as "the death wall" was were prisoners were lined up and murdered, on one side, the units windows are barrackaded so that other prisoners could hear the gunshots but not see the deaths, so that everything was hidden until death stared them in the face and there was no where to go. Others arms and hands were tied together and they were hung by their arms on wooden poles with hooks.
The lock that secured the door to the gas chamber.
Music was often played in the concentration camps to drown the screams and terror, The Germans used the music to hide many things as well as improve the mood of the workers.
The doctor's office (block 21) where results from tests and experiments were looked over after they had been operations done at block 10. Woman were experimented upon to find out how to create more fertile beings so that the German woman could bear more of the perfect race. Twins and triplets were experimented on, to test possibilities of increasing the number of children that German woman bore.
Photo id was used as a means to identify prisoners, eventually Germans found that a photo taken two weeks prior no longer resembled the tortured and starved prisoner and so prisoners could no longer be identified using their photo which was taken when they were first administered to the camp. A new technique took its place and prisoners were tattooed with numbers. By the number officers could see when the person had been administered or if he or she was a female. Tattoos were placed on arms, easy to grab and locate the bar code numbering, but for babies the tattoo could not be put on the arm as the arm became to thin with starvation and so their thighs were used.
The tour of Auschwitz was two hours long; my eye's were exhausted and tense from the horror I had witnessed, at the same time I was so grateful that much of this history had been preserved for us to see.
A short break and bus ride took us to Birkenau; the largest concentration camp, it expanded as far as the eye could see and that is when it really settled in in terms of the large scale of torture and killing that Hitler was administering.
In March 1941; the second enlargement was established and put into order by Himmler.
Woman were transferred here.
Woman lived on the left whilst men lived on the right. Fences, barb wire, officers and a tram line separated lovers and families.
The tram would bring the Jews into the camp; a row of doctors would examine stripped and naked bodies and direct those to be killed to line up on the left and those fit for work to line up on the right.
Most women and children were useless and were sent to immediate death...they did not know this.
the tram that held prisoners.
The entrance to the camp
The sleeping quarters in the woman's camp
The job of cleaning out the toilets; seen above was the most sought after job at the camp by the prisoners, it meant a roof over your head during extreme winter conditions, access to the toilet which was only allowed twice a day, once in the morning before work and once after work and this row of holes was for thousands and thousands to use so many did not even get the chance. None of the habitation units had electricity, running water or toilet facilities let alone a floor, mean slept in the dirt till people passed away and the took their cot higher up. There were at least 5 people to a cot. The other great reason for the job was there were less eyes upon you which meant less torture and hitting and abuse from the officers.
Memorials have been constructed for the 1.1 to 1.5 million lives that were lost during this period, many of the building were bombed by the Nazis to hide their wrong doings. But as time went by, manuscripts and evidence has arisen and backed up the already mountaneous hill of facts about the massacre of so many.
I really walked away drained yet full of fiery anger at a race and a time that allowed the death and torture of so many..how could this have gone on? Where was the conscience in all of this?
I think that what is just as scary is that through the past and the history, lessons still have not been learnt.
Many died in vain, for we still treat the future with no reflection from the past.
