Last weekend we took a trip to Krakow and Auschwitz/Birkenau. I was excited to get to see parts of Poland because I heard it was beautiful and I am Polish. I, along with many of my classmates were glad, but hesitant to go to Auschwitz because, although it is something everyone should experience in their lifetime, it is also a hard place to visit.
First Krakow: It was a beautiful city!! It still has the old city wall up and you can stroll in parks along the wall. The town square is the largest in all of Europe and is complete with one of the most decorated Cathedrals I have seen yet! Every square millimeter was covered with some sort of painting or other decoration. It definitely put St. Stephan's in Vienna to shame. In the middle of the square stands an old textile trading center, now full of merchants selling souvenirs. surrounding the interior of the square are many, many restaurants and cafes. I wish Vienna had a central area like it, it was a joy to stroll around and people watch.
The next day we packed up and headed on an hour bus ride to the Auschwitz complex.
Pulling in to Auschwitz 1 to start our tour was a lot like pulling in to Versailles in Paris, or even Six Flags in Gurnee. There was a large parking lot and you don't really see any buildings at first. As we ventured in and collected our headphones for our guided tour I could see a sculpture depicting a person trying to cross over barbed wire, I knew things weren't going to be easy from then on out. Crossing through the main gate to Auschwitz 1 the sign reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means work sets you free, which is pretty ironic seeing as how they forced them to work and they would never be free for it.
We saw where they had originally kept the first prisoners, Polish citizens who the Nazi's deemed as dangerous to their cause, basically people who would fight against the Nazi's.
The hardest part of all was Birkenau, a couple kilometers outside of Auschwitz 1.
Birkenau is the camp that is recreated for movies about Auschwitz, it was the camp where they were sent to be sorted, and from there either killed immediately or worked to death.
It seems much larger than Auschwitz and has two gas chambers/crematoriums, both at least twice the size of Auschwitz's.
We saw what was left of part of the men's camp, a fairly large building, but certainly not large enough for the 400+ men that would "sleep" there, with 4-6 men per bed and bunk beds that were triple bunk beds, so each bed area (about the size of a horse stall) could hold up to 18 people.
We saw the bathroom area, in another building with 200 holes in concrete that were as close to a toilet that existed, they were allowed to use it 2 times a day, and many would often suffer from intestinal issues because their diet consisted of boiled water with vegetables in it, NO meat. We were told that having the job of cleaning the bathrooms was one of the best jobs to have because they go to be indoors, and use bathrooms whenever they wanted, the guards were also a bit lax on yelling at them, so it was much better than having a hard labor job in the middle of a Polish winter wearing thin uniforms, about as warm as summer pajamas. They would be punished if they put paper or anything else in their uniforms to try to keep warm. One of their punishments included standing in the space of a telephone booth with 3 other people for the night, and working the next day. Obviously this was uncomfortable and they did not get much sleep.
After going through Auschwitz I began to just become numb from seeing everything, I would have periods of extreme sadness or anger, like when I saw a pair of cowboy boots that reminded me of a pair I had when I was young, but sitting at the far end of Birkenau, my back to the monument, seeing the camp in its entirety with the gas chambers on either side of me looking at the main camp I pictured all the movies I had seen about the camp and imagined being pulled apart from my family, never to see them again, not knowing if i would be immediately killed or be forced to work to death, all while vicious dogs bark at me and hate-ridden Nazis and German guards yell at me. I got a little emotional. It was also interesting to see my classmates, going through similar emotions and the same experiences all sitting on the same steps, all near each other but not close enough to have to talk, or put into words what we were all truly feeling.
Whatever emotion you may feel while reading this, I can tell you, is not as strong as seeing, I think that EVERYONE should see it in their lifetime, no movie or pictures do it justice. I decided to take one picture or the entire camp complex, and that was the sign above the gate at Auschwitz 1. The pictures I see that my friends took aren't as clear or broad as the ones that are still vivid in my head, there were also many times we couldn't take pictures, (inside the museum, with the shoes, hair and belongings of the people who were taken there) but I still have them in my head, and will forever.
I feel like people always see something about the Holocaust and say we should never let it happen again, but it is, even today in places like Darfur, and others that aren't even televised and brought to the attention of the masses.
As for the Holocaust deniers, well, I probably shouldn't type the words I have for them...
No comments:
Post a Comment