The Polish name of the town and the camp synonymous with fear and also known as Auschwitz. Today we visited here. A good part of the camp was destroyed after the war but a good part of it has also been reconstructed or revitalized or revamped for it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and also a big tourist draw for Poland. I wanted to visit because I am a believer in knowing the history that has come before so that we don’t make the same mistakes. I also like WWII history. Knew it would be a sobering visit as it is not a place to go lighthearted and gay. But as so much has already been written about Auschwitz and WWII, I’ll just keep my blog more on the actual visit itself rather than history and information on the camps.
The set up is so completely “get them through, give them the info, and get them back on the bus” that at times it was hard to get a feel for the enormity of the crimes committed here. Groups are passing through the blocks steadily and each person has a set of headphones and a receiver set on the channel of their guide. Otherwise it would be a cacophony of incomprehensible sound as guides would try to shout over each other. This part is actually pretty good though as you can lag a tiny bit behind for a photo and not miss any of the information being imparted.
We passed through the infamous gates with the slogan “Albeit Mach Frei” which I had always been told that it meant “work makes free” but our guide translated as “work makes freedom”. Passing into the actual camp means under this slogan, past electrified barbed wire fences, two of them with several feet between. I could picture patrolling guards and dogs between these two fences.
It seems like all the blocks in Auschwitz are still standing. This was Auschwitz I and it is not that large of a place. We walked through the whole of the camp and entered 4 of the blocks to view the exhibitions on display. Often the exhibitions are just photographs taken of prisoners or of a free people being herded into the camp to die and away from their lives. One building had piles of possessions taken from the Jewish people who arrived at the camp. Piles of shoes, suitcases, clothes, hair, combs, hairbrushes, shaving brushes.
A visit to Block 11, the death block. Block 10 next to it had boarded up windows so they could not see the executions by firing squad in the yard next to them. I’m sure they could hear it. Block 11 had chambers in the basement where people were starved to death, asphyxiated, or died of exhaustion from being forced to stand in a small cell with others for days on end.
As we walk out of the camp, we pass into the area where the gas chamber was and the crematorium. These have been reconstructed but even if they are not the original item and weren’t used, they are on the location and made from the original materials and chilling to enter and see.
The whole visit takes about 1 hour 40 minutes or so and I think that is due to having to wait for other groups to get out of the way. Were I able to visit on my own, I think it would take more time because the meaning of the blocks and photographs and piles of possessions and barbed wire fences would have more time to sink under my skin and mean more. My husband thought the guide sounded bored but I’m not sure how a guide could be enthusiastic about such a place.
After Auschwitz I, we are taken a few kilometers away to Auschwitz II or Birkenau. It is so much larger. We got a very short tour here. We could see other tours moving towards the forest where the crematoriums used to stand and groups going to the end of the barracks but we just went into two in order to see the rows of bunks where prisoners slept. We stood at the fence to see the field of chimneys where each two represented another barrack. We stood at the railway lines where trains passed into the camp bringing loads of desperate doomed people.
I’m glad we went. It’s hard to know what to think and feel about the concentration camps without seeing at least one. It’s hard to describe as well and I don’t think I’m doing a very good job but that’s about as much as I want to say about it now.
The set up is so completely “get them through, give them the info, and get them back on the bus” that at times it was hard to get a feel for the enormity of the crimes committed here. Groups are passing through the blocks steadily and each person has a set of headphones and a receiver set on the channel of their guide. Otherwise it would be a cacophony of incomprehensible sound as guides would try to shout over each other. This part is actually pretty good though as you can lag a tiny bit behind for a photo and not miss any of the information being imparted.
We passed through the infamous gates with the slogan “Albeit Mach Frei” which I had always been told that it meant “work makes free” but our guide translated as “work makes freedom”. Passing into the actual camp means under this slogan, past electrified barbed wire fences, two of them with several feet between. I could picture patrolling guards and dogs between these two fences.
It seems like all the blocks in Auschwitz are still standing. This was Auschwitz I and it is not that large of a place. We walked through the whole of the camp and entered 4 of the blocks to view the exhibitions on display. Often the exhibitions are just photographs taken of prisoners or of a free people being herded into the camp to die and away from their lives. One building had piles of possessions taken from the Jewish people who arrived at the camp. Piles of shoes, suitcases, clothes, hair, combs, hairbrushes, shaving brushes.
A visit to Block 11, the death block. Block 10 next to it had boarded up windows so they could not see the executions by firing squad in the yard next to them. I’m sure they could hear it. Block 11 had chambers in the basement where people were starved to death, asphyxiated, or died of exhaustion from being forced to stand in a small cell with others for days on end.
As we walk out of the camp, we pass into the area where the gas chamber was and the crematorium. These have been reconstructed but even if they are not the original item and weren’t used, they are on the location and made from the original materials and chilling to enter and see.
The whole visit takes about 1 hour 40 minutes or so and I think that is due to having to wait for other groups to get out of the way. Were I able to visit on my own, I think it would take more time because the meaning of the blocks and photographs and piles of possessions and barbed wire fences would have more time to sink under my skin and mean more. My husband thought the guide sounded bored but I’m not sure how a guide could be enthusiastic about such a place.
After Auschwitz I, we are taken a few kilometers away to Auschwitz II or Birkenau. It is so much larger. We got a very short tour here. We could see other tours moving towards the forest where the crematoriums used to stand and groups going to the end of the barracks but we just went into two in order to see the rows of bunks where prisoners slept. We stood at the fence to see the field of chimneys where each two represented another barrack. We stood at the railway lines where trains passed into the camp bringing loads of desperate doomed people.
I’m glad we went. It’s hard to know what to think and feel about the concentration camps without seeing at least one. It’s hard to describe as well and I don’t think I’m doing a very good job but that’s about as much as I want to say about it now.
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