What an experience... On our way back to Prague from Poland, we spent the day at the Auschwitz sites from the Holocaust. It was a very sobering experience.
We arrived first at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the place where the "prisoners" lived, some worked, and thousands died. The first occupants of the internment camp were Polish political prisoners, then Russian political prisoners, followed by Gypsies/Roma, and thousands of European Jews. This is where the prisoners entered the camp by train.
When people arrived they were immediately separated into people who are fit to work (men and stronger women) and people who are unfit to work (elderly, frail women, and children). Those who were unfit to work were sent down this road to the gas chambers.
Those who were fit to work were sent to one of the arrival houses where people were checked in, stripped of their clothing & belongings, shaved of all hair to prevent lice, and showered.
The original buildings for sleeping quarters looked like this. They were made of brick & concrete.
Eventually they built scores of similar buildings out of wood because they were imprisoning more and more people.
Each of these sleeping quarters held up to 450 prisoners. They would sleep 4 or 5 to a bed.
This is one of the latrine buildings. It is horrible to imagine how inhumanely the people were treated during their encampment.
The security was fierce at the camp. Many people tried to escape, but few succeeded. Most were killed in the process, or hung in a public location to discourage others from trying to escape.
As we walked around we just kept asking ourselves how this could happen. How someone could convince people to do the things they did & why did it take so long for it to be stopped?
There were not very many people visiting the site that day, but there were a few groups of Jewish and Israeli people. There were a few small ceremonies taking place throughout the internment camp as these groups remembered the events and cultural impact of the Holocaust.
Toward the rear of the camp there were a number of buildings in rubble. These were the incinerators or gas chambers. When the Nazi German's knew the war would soon be over and they would have to pay for what they had done, they tried to destroy as much evidence as they could of the horrors that took place at Auschwitz. They burned documentation and destroyed the incinerator buildings with explosives.
But much evidence was not destroyed. When people arrived at the camp, all belongings were taken away. This is what was left after the Nazis burnt down the store houses. It's mostly silverware and other items that didn't burn.
We left Auschwitz II - Birkenau and went down the road 2 kilometers to Auschwitz I, the work camp & now the location of the museum. The entrance has this famous gate with the sign over the top that reads "Arbeit Macht Frei." (Work Brings Freedom)
Each day, prisoners would walk from Auschwitz II to Auschwitz I where they would work for the day. Many people would die of exhaustion and undernourishment & other prisoners would have to carry the bodies back to the incinerators at the end of the day.
Most of the buildings here were built by prisoners. At the time, they were offices and housing for Nazi soldiers. The medical unit was also here, including the place where many unethical experiments took place on prisoners.
Now these buildings are each a different exhibit, dedicated to different nations and cultural groups that were impacted by the holocaust. The images we saw here definitely made everything sink in more.
We would definitely recommend that everyone experience this place. It is such a huge piece in the history of humanity. If you can't get to Poland, there is also an amazing Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC if you're ever in the area.
