Auschwitz
6:02 PM
My second day in Krakow, we took a trip to Auschwitz. Many people always say that a trip to Krakow would not be complete without a trip to Auschwitz. But, it is a very emotional trip, and thus... best to allocate a whole day there... you never know what may happen to you while you walk around the camp....
Before that... an interesting feature of Krakow we realized is that the tram has no stops! The tram literally stops in the middle of the road, and everyone who wants to board has to wait on the pavement and then run across the road to hope on the tram as soon as the doors open. It's a bit nerve wrecking at first, like please do not let the cars hit me!!!!!! But a pretty interesting experience :)
It's hard to describe one's experience at Auschwitz. All I know was that it was a very quiet and deeply overwhelming experience for me. Even though I was with a friend, I hardly spoke to my friend throughout the entire tour... only when were we on the bus leaving the camp did I managed to find my voice again. I don't think that I extremely sad in the sense that I cried my eyes from start to end of the tour. No that didn't happen. But the atmosphere of the place, and the knowing the things that happened in that area just compels one to observe a period of silence while walking around. When i went, the camp was full of tourist buses... but how it works is that we all get a radio receiver and headphones. The guide speaks into his microphone which gets transmitted to our headphones through the radio frequency. Not very modern technology, but it works as we listen to commentary as we walk around the place and we also get the time to look around and feel for ourselves, while the guide is quietly explaining to us in the background.
The words above the entrance gates reads as : "Work will set us free."
From the outside, Auschwitz looks very nice and like an ordinary camp. The truth is that Auschwitz used to be an old polish military camp, and the Germans just transformed it into a prison. Auschwitz was originally used as a prison for political prisoners/normal prisoners. It was not originally intended as a concentration camp for the Jews. It was only from 1943 onwards that Jews were brought to this camp and the image of the camp was transformed. This is in comparison to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) which is 2 km away from this camp, but 30 times bigger. That camp was built specifically for the Jews and the buildings there are much more sparse and of poor building material as compared to the brick buildings here.
The tour brought us to the different buildings in the camp and explained to us the different uses. There were buildings where the prisoners were sorted when they came, buildings whereby prisoners were kept, places where experiments were carried out on prisoners (namely females). A famous doctor was Dr Josef Mengele, who was interested in finding out the genetics of twins. Gypsies, Jews were singled out and experimented upon to find out the genetics of twins, as they were interested in finding out ways on how to increase the Aryan population. Mengele managed to escape from the camp after the Nazis fell from power and was never caught and tried for his war crimes. He fled to South America where he died later on. Clauberg was another doctor who was known for his sterialization experiments. He was caught and testified in the Nuremberg war trials after the war. One of the more horrifying photos which I saw in the camp, (and one which almost made me break down) was one I saw of 2 gypsy sisters, taken when the soviet soldiers came to liberate the camp in 1945. The photo was taken when the oldest sister was 16 years old. But in the photo, she looked 60. In just 2 years in the camp, the amount of physical and mental damage that she had been through had such a profound change on her, that it reflected all on her face. In a world today which is pretty much obsessed with youth, it was almost heart breaking to know that this girl just lost it all in a matter of 2 years. Or did she even have the chance to experience youth in the first place? The guide told us that these 2 sisters are now happily living in Melbourne but one knows that there were many others who did not survive this fate.
One thing you've got to hand to the Germans is that fantastic systematic and organizational skills. Everything that the Jews brought with them was stolen and reorganized, and sent back to Germany to be reused. We walked through rooms of toothbrushes/combs/shoes/ luggages. In the room of luggages, we could see that people had painted their names and birthdates on the luggages as a means of identifying them when they arrived at the camp, as they were separated from their belongings enroute there. Of course they never got them back. Just looking at the names and dates painted on theluggages, one got a sense of how young some of these people were. The rooms just represented a fraction of what was pilfered from the Jews, but that fraction was more than enough. Hair was also a commodity that was stolen from the Jews. The jews who were allowed to live in the camp and not sent immediately to the gas chambers had their hair shaved off to be used for weaving cloth for the German army. It is not surprising that many of the survivors often reported that women suffered the most in the camps, as they were stripped of many things, physically and mentally. Even prosthetic legs/handicapped materials/prayer mats were sent back to Germany to be reused. That was the motto then. Everything was to be re-used.
The picture above shows the death wall where prisoners were shot at. Very little reason was needed to kill anyone. But you can see many flowers and lights laid at the wall in memory of the thousands where many were killed. Notice that all the windows facing the death wall alley were all boarded up. This was so that no one could see what was happening. BUT, everyone could hear what was going on....
When the Nazis realized that they had lost the war, they tried to destroy the gas chambers and crematoriums to hide the evidence that they had been exterminating the Jews. The ones at Birkenau were destroyed but not the one at Auschwitz, so this crematorium still stands till today though one must remember that Birkenau was 30 times bigger and therefore had many more crematoriums. It came to a point whereby there were not enough crematoriums to burn all the bodies efficiently, so there was a lot of mass graves/bigger crematoriums built at Birkenau... so which is why there can never really be an accurate estimate of how many Jews were killed. Many people just disappeared and that was the sad fact of life.
When one looks at Birkenau today (pictures above), it looks very tranquil, very pretty... lots of grass around. But if one looks at the pictures taken by the Nazis then, there was no grass at Birkenau. Survivors explain that this is because the grass was just simply trampled upon and wiped out by the numerous numbers of Jews who arrived at the camp. Food was so scared that prisoners were also desperate enough to eat grass. Anything that would keep them alive for a few more hours. But one feature that is different from Auschwitz is the wooden houses compared to the brick houses at Auschwitz. So everyone must remember that this is because that Birkenau was specifically built for the Jews, so very rough housing materials were used.
We also got to take a look at the housing conditions. Beds were stacked at an angle just so that more beds could be put into the room. The pictures with the holes in it were the mass toliets whereby 30,000 people would only have 5 mins to relieve themselves in those rooms everyday. So it often came to the point whereby people would have to just relieve themselves there and then... so sanitary conditions were not fantastic at all.
Holocaust memorial below. The message inscription is written in all the languages of the countries in which Jews were believed to have spoken/come from.
Destroyed gas chambers
SO with all the cremating that was going on, there was a lot of ashes to be disposed of. These ended up being thrown everywhere possible, in the rivers, on the ground etc etc... so it is literally true when people say that we are practically walking on a grave of a million people. This pool is an example of how ashes were gotten rid of, and the inscription on the memorial reads: To the memory of the men, women and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide. Here lie their ashes, may their souls rest in peace.
So I guess people will always wonder, should I or should I not go..... So let me just say this, we are what we are today because of the past. Perhaps, in only understanding the past and its consequences will we be able to understand the need for tolerance in this world today. Perhaps, in only understanding the past will I be able to appreciate my life in this modern world today and perhaps be more thankful for the things I have and learn to understand why I should never "take things for granted". So I would say go. Always better to know, than live in ignorance...
Before that... an interesting feature of Krakow we realized is that the tram has no stops! The tram literally stops in the middle of the road, and everyone who wants to board has to wait on the pavement and then run across the road to hope on the tram as soon as the doors open. It's a bit nerve wrecking at first, like please do not let the cars hit me!!!!!! But a pretty interesting experience :)
It's hard to describe one's experience at Auschwitz. All I know was that it was a very quiet and deeply overwhelming experience for me. Even though I was with a friend, I hardly spoke to my friend throughout the entire tour... only when were we on the bus leaving the camp did I managed to find my voice again. I don't think that I extremely sad in the sense that I cried my eyes from start to end of the tour. No that didn't happen. But the atmosphere of the place, and the knowing the things that happened in that area just compels one to observe a period of silence while walking around. When i went, the camp was full of tourist buses... but how it works is that we all get a radio receiver and headphones. The guide speaks into his microphone which gets transmitted to our headphones through the radio frequency. Not very modern technology, but it works as we listen to commentary as we walk around the place and we also get the time to look around and feel for ourselves, while the guide is quietly explaining to us in the background.
The words above the entrance gates reads as : "Work will set us free."
From the outside, Auschwitz looks very nice and like an ordinary camp. The truth is that Auschwitz used to be an old polish military camp, and the Germans just transformed it into a prison. Auschwitz was originally used as a prison for political prisoners/normal prisoners. It was not originally intended as a concentration camp for the Jews. It was only from 1943 onwards that Jews were brought to this camp and the image of the camp was transformed. This is in comparison to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) which is 2 km away from this camp, but 30 times bigger. That camp was built specifically for the Jews and the buildings there are much more sparse and of poor building material as compared to the brick buildings here.
The tour brought us to the different buildings in the camp and explained to us the different uses. There were buildings where the prisoners were sorted when they came, buildings whereby prisoners were kept, places where experiments were carried out on prisoners (namely females). A famous doctor was Dr Josef Mengele, who was interested in finding out the genetics of twins. Gypsies, Jews were singled out and experimented upon to find out the genetics of twins, as they were interested in finding out ways on how to increase the Aryan population. Mengele managed to escape from the camp after the Nazis fell from power and was never caught and tried for his war crimes. He fled to South America where he died later on. Clauberg was another doctor who was known for his sterialization experiments. He was caught and testified in the Nuremberg war trials after the war. One of the more horrifying photos which I saw in the camp, (and one which almost made me break down) was one I saw of 2 gypsy sisters, taken when the soviet soldiers came to liberate the camp in 1945. The photo was taken when the oldest sister was 16 years old. But in the photo, she looked 60. In just 2 years in the camp, the amount of physical and mental damage that she had been through had such a profound change on her, that it reflected all on her face. In a world today which is pretty much obsessed with youth, it was almost heart breaking to know that this girl just lost it all in a matter of 2 years. Or did she even have the chance to experience youth in the first place? The guide told us that these 2 sisters are now happily living in Melbourne but one knows that there were many others who did not survive this fate.
One thing you've got to hand to the Germans is that fantastic systematic and organizational skills. Everything that the Jews brought with them was stolen and reorganized, and sent back to Germany to be reused. We walked through rooms of toothbrushes/combs/shoes/ luggages. In the room of luggages, we could see that people had painted their names and birthdates on the luggages as a means of identifying them when they arrived at the camp, as they were separated from their belongings enroute there. Of course they never got them back. Just looking at the names and dates painted on theluggages, one got a sense of how young some of these people were. The rooms just represented a fraction of what was pilfered from the Jews, but that fraction was more than enough. Hair was also a commodity that was stolen from the Jews. The jews who were allowed to live in the camp and not sent immediately to the gas chambers had their hair shaved off to be used for weaving cloth for the German army. It is not surprising that many of the survivors often reported that women suffered the most in the camps, as they were stripped of many things, physically and mentally. Even prosthetic legs/handicapped materials/prayer mats were sent back to Germany to be reused. That was the motto then. Everything was to be re-used.
The picture above shows the death wall where prisoners were shot at. Very little reason was needed to kill anyone. But you can see many flowers and lights laid at the wall in memory of the thousands where many were killed. Notice that all the windows facing the death wall alley were all boarded up. This was so that no one could see what was happening. BUT, everyone could hear what was going on....
When the Nazis realized that they had lost the war, they tried to destroy the gas chambers and crematoriums to hide the evidence that they had been exterminating the Jews. The ones at Birkenau were destroyed but not the one at Auschwitz, so this crematorium still stands till today though one must remember that Birkenau was 30 times bigger and therefore had many more crematoriums. It came to a point whereby there were not enough crematoriums to burn all the bodies efficiently, so there was a lot of mass graves/bigger crematoriums built at Birkenau... so which is why there can never really be an accurate estimate of how many Jews were killed. Many people just disappeared and that was the sad fact of life.
When one looks at Birkenau today (pictures above), it looks very tranquil, very pretty... lots of grass around. But if one looks at the pictures taken by the Nazis then, there was no grass at Birkenau. Survivors explain that this is because the grass was just simply trampled upon and wiped out by the numerous numbers of Jews who arrived at the camp. Food was so scared that prisoners were also desperate enough to eat grass. Anything that would keep them alive for a few more hours. But one feature that is different from Auschwitz is the wooden houses compared to the brick houses at Auschwitz. So everyone must remember that this is because that Birkenau was specifically built for the Jews, so very rough housing materials were used.
We also got to take a look at the housing conditions. Beds were stacked at an angle just so that more beds could be put into the room. The pictures with the holes in it were the mass toliets whereby 30,000 people would only have 5 mins to relieve themselves in those rooms everyday. So it often came to the point whereby people would have to just relieve themselves there and then... so sanitary conditions were not fantastic at all.
Holocaust memorial below. The message inscription is written in all the languages of the countries in which Jews were believed to have spoken/come from.
Destroyed gas chambers
SO with all the cremating that was going on, there was a lot of ashes to be disposed of. These ended up being thrown everywhere possible, in the rivers, on the ground etc etc... so it is literally true when people say that we are practically walking on a grave of a million people. This pool is an example of how ashes were gotten rid of, and the inscription on the memorial reads: To the memory of the men, women and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide. Here lie their ashes, may their souls rest in peace.
So I guess people will always wonder, should I or should I not go..... So let me just say this, we are what we are today because of the past. Perhaps, in only understanding the past and its consequences will we be able to understand the need for tolerance in this world today. Perhaps, in only understanding the past will I be able to appreciate my life in this modern world today and perhaps be more thankful for the things I have and learn to understand why I should never "take things for granted". So I would say go. Always better to know, than live in ignorance...