Auschwitz-Birkenau

Yesterday Karolina and I went to Auschwitz concentration camp.  I've been in an odd state of mind ever since, so I thought i'd share some of my experience there.  I took photos when I thought it was appropriate, but decided not to take pictures of the more dark things we were shown.  I'll begin with some photos:

Entrance of Auschwitz.  "Arbeit Macht Frei" translates as work makes free.  All of the prisoners at the camp were under the impression that if they worked hard enough at the camp, they would be set free.

Painted photo by a survivor.  The prisoners going off to work each day.

View of Auschwitz I.  The entire concentration camp consisted of two parts.  The first, is Auschwitz I-- the life expectancy in this section was 6 months.  3 KM away was Auschwitz II, called Birkenau.  It was roughly 3 times bigger than the former section.  The life expectancy here was only 3 months-- conditions were much worse over there.  For example, in Auschwitz I the inmates slept on small bunk beds and were given a small blanket.  In Auschwitz II inmates slept in rooms with no heating, with wood & concrete beds covered in straw and no blankets. 

Here is a map of the total amount of concentration camps, 48.  As you can see, Auschwitz was the absolute largest one-- it is estimated that 1.5 million Jews were killed by gassing and 500,000 died of starvation and exhaustion.

To avoid panic amongst the Jews, the Nazi's lied the the inmates-- even when they killed them.  The Nazi's explained to the Jews that they were all being transported to these camps to work, and would eventually return home.  Believing this, the inmates brought things necessary for their return-- including pots and pans, ^^ which is shown in the picture.

Here is a collection of thousands of shoes.  Once the Jews entered the camp, they were forced to give their civilian shows up and wore wooden shoes.

This photo is titled "On the way to Death."  Young children and babies were the first to be killed, because they were considered useless & unfit to work.

The camp is completely lined with electrical fences.  

This was the most feared building & one of the hardest for me to see.  In this building was a fictitious court, which sentenced inmates to immediate death or torture.  If they were deemed to be immediately killed, a guard would take them to this exact court yard and shoot them.  In the lower level, you can see that the windows have cement around them-- in this basement are the torture chambers.  There were three types of torture: 1.) Starvation 2.) Suffocation  3.) Standing cells.  In this type of cell the inmates would work 14 hour days, then return to this cell and were forced to stand up all night.  Eventually, they died from exhaustion.  

I was composed for most of the tour (it was 4 hours in total,) except when I saw these torture chambers.  They were completely preserved from their original form, including the deep scratch marks covering the walls.  I just lost it when I saw it.  How can anyone be capable of such evil??  It broke my heart.

We took a short bus ride to the second half of the camp, called Birkenau which was much bigger then I could ever imagine, and with absolutely horrible conditions.

Inmates arrived to the camp by train.

Once the victims arrived they were put through a selection process.  Those who were directed to the right were considered fit for work (young women and most men.)  Those who went to the left were immediately taken to the gas chambers (older men and women, and all children.)  

The cattle cars the inmates came in on-- they had no windows or anything.  Per car was 60 people, with at least 10 dying on each trip over.

The barracks for inmates.

5 people per bed.

Once the Nazi's caught word that the Soviets were approaching, they tried to blow up the gas chambers.  It was disgusting to find out how they worked-- the Jews were deceived.  They Nazi's told the inmates they were going to take a shower.  The building had shower hooks, and fake shower heads covered the building.  There were also these large holes in the ceiling.  Instead of a shower, poisonous gas erupted from the holes.  It only took 10 minutes to kill each group (1,500 in each group) but they kept them in there for 30 minutes to make sure no one came out alive.  After 30 minutes, the workers would start ventilation of the building and begin to use a lift to move the bodies & cremate them.

Going to Auschwitz-Birkenau was an unbelievable experience.  Yes, it was dark tourism.. but I am so glad I went.  To see how real the devastation was and what man kind is capable of.  If we do not remember this, history can repeat itself.  I wanted to pay my respects to the absolute tragedy of the mass murders by learning about it.  To say the least, this was a life changing trip.