Have you ever felt deep sympathy for someone you barely know or an event that was never part of your life?
As a naive 5th grader who first learned about the Holocaust reading Anne Frank's Diary and visiting a memorial center on a school trip, feelings of sorrow set within me as I learned more about it. I'm not really sure what draws me so much to the horrific events that occurred during the Holocaust, but a deep longing to visit one of the most famous concentration camps,
Auschwitz, has always been on my bucket list. Although it is nothing to get excited about, I was so motivated to make my way to Auschwitz during my stay in Poland.
I woke up at 6:00 a.m and took a 5 hr train ride (one way) from Warsaw to Auschwitz. I was feeling nervous and frightened not knowing what to expect and how I would react witnessing such a somber place. I reflected on how much gratitude I have for having my family, friends, shelter, food, and the ability to live freely without being terrorized.
As I stepped off the train, the town seemed sort of run down, gloomy and eerie. Walking through the entrance of Auschwitz, there were so many tourists, I had to wait 1 hr 30 min to enter the museum. Walking past the gate that read,
"Arbeit macht frei" (Work brings freedom) brought a deep chill just thinking about how I was reading the same words those recited everyday as they struggled to stay alive.
Auschwitz was established in 1940 for the Polish Political prisoners. It was originally intended to be an instrument of terror and extermination of Poles. As time went by, Nazis began to deport people from all over Europe, mainly Jews to this camp. Most people think it was just jews, but there were Soviet prisoners of war, more than 21,000 gypsies, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Frenchmen, Austrians, Germans, homosexuals, and others. This location was favorable because it was isolated from the outside world and it had a railway junction connecting different places to this small town. Initially, the camp was comprised of 20 buildings, but as the number of people increased, 8 more blocks were built along with other camps known as Auschwitz II- Birkenau and Auschwitz III.
Since1942, Auschwitz became the biggest center for the mass extermination of European Jews. The majority of Jews deported were killed in gas chambers immediately upon their arrival, without registration and without identification numbers. Therefore, it is difficult to precisely determine how many people were murdered, but it is presumed to have been around 1.5 million victims.
So how were so many people manipulated into coming to Auschwitz?
Most were convinced they had been deported for resettlement in Eastern Europe. In particular, Jews from Greece and Hungary were deceived by Nazis selling them non-existent plots of land, farms, shops or job opportunities in fictitious factories. That is why most deportees brought their most valuable possessions. Most of the places of arrest took place 1,500 miles away from the camps so people were forced onto sealed good wagons with no food provided and crowded like sardines. Since most traveled for many days before reaching their destination, many victims died from extreme exhaustion and hunger.
The trains unloaded at the goods station and here officers and doctors of the SS examined those who arrived allocating them into two categories: 1, healthy and able to work 2. weak, old, children. Those who were weak were immediately sent to the gas chamber. They were told they would be given a shower, so instructed to undress and herd below the showers peering from the ceilings. Instead of water coming through, the SS officers poured cyclone B where 15-20 minutes later, everyone was dead. The officers would then go and remove gold tooth fillings (crazy), rings, jewelry, and remove the hair from the bodies. There were 7 tons of hair found from all of the victims and it is on display in a glass room in the museum. It really hit home for me to witness this. Apparently hair was used to make fabric to make clothes and blankets. Talk about sickos.
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| cyclone b |
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| a full room of shoes |
Another devastating scene was a room full of everyone's shoes and also the suitcases of which all had names and address on it. Most of the victims thought they would be starting new lives or going home at some point. Instead there were tortured in the worst way for no reason.
I cannot imagine how those selected few survived Auschwitz. They were given a day's food ration of 1300-1700 calories with food consisting of coffee, soup made of rotten vegetables, 10 oz of break, margarine and sometimes 20 g of sausage and herbal tea and coffee. The inmates who worked more than 12 hours doing physical labor could barely suffice with the caloric intake. After the liberation, some of the women prisoners weighed 50-65 lbs.
There were so many horrific facts and history I learned on this tour that it would take many blog entries to describe it all. I could not help but maintain a serious face as I walked through this huge cemetery. Every rock, dirt, trees, and grass are remnants of those who lost their lives in Auschwitz and whose ashes have disseminated into the earth. Walking these grounds was surreal. All of this didn't sink in until the train ride back home.
How could people do this to others?
Why didn't no one stop them in time?
So many questions that will probably never be answered.
I pray for those innocent people who lost their lives and I bow my head in silence in their honor.
