Auschwitz. The name conjures horror and sadness. Auschwitz is a symbol of terror, genocide. The Holocaust. Auschwitz was established by Germans in 1940, in the remote suburb of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was taken over by the Nazis. The construction of a second camp Birkenau began in October 1941. Birkenau was the Nazis’ major killing centre and became the largest cemetery in the world.
The most moving and sobering day of our 3 week Eastern Europe Road Trip was spent at Auschwitz-Birkenau. We spent hours and hours wandering through Auschwitz (with a tour– which is highly recommended) and then Birkenau (both with a tour and then more on our own). Birkenau gripped me in a way I just can’t even describe, perhaps because you could just silent wander throughout and really let the magnitude of the Holocaust seep into your soul.
While being heartbreaking and devastating, a (long) visit to Auschwitz – Birkenau is an experience that should not be missed if you are in this part of the world.
It is important to remember. To witness. To not ignore.
It is estimated that 11million people died in the Holocaust and that about 1.1million of those were children. About 6million of all the people killed were Jewish (about half also Polish) and the remaining 5million were made up of Poles, Roma, gays, disabled people, political prisoners and others.
I am not going to get into the details of history, because that is better found elsewhere. The Auschwitz-Birkenau website not only provides a brief history, you can also take a series of lessons on line to learn about the history of the Holocaust in more detail.
Mostly, I will let the photos speak for themselves ….
Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum Tour and Tickets
To go to Auschwitz- Birkenau, we learned the hard way– BOOK TICKETS IN ADVANCE! We got there and had to wait over 1.5 hours and apparently it sells out.
The tour was excellent and well worth taking. If you are there before 5pm you MUST go with a tour. Tours are in a range of languages. Take the tour.
Gays and Roma in the Holocaust- a missing focus
We noticed in the tour of Auschwitz- Birkenau, there lacked a focus on two groups in particular — the Roma peoples (previously known as the Gypsies- a term now considered derogatory) and Gay / Lesbian people. Both groups were targeted by the Nazis and put in concentration camps. We hypothesis that this avoidance is because there still remains significant prejudice of both the Roma and gays in Poland.
- For more on the plight of the Roma during the Holocaust see this article published by Time Magazine “The Persecution of the Roma Is Often Left Out of the Holocaust Story. Victims’ Families Are Fighting to Change That”
- For more on the persecution of gays and lesbians during the Holocaust see this article published by the Independent “The gay victims of the Holocaust must not be forgotten – their stories are a reminder of today’s inequality”.
Auschwitz
It is in the Auschwitz compound where you’ll see the gate with the new infamous Arbeit Mach Frei (“work sets you free”) sign above it.
Auschwitz was actually three camps: Auschwitz began functioning in May 1940 and is in a rather beautiful military compound that the Nazi’s had taken over. It was like a pretty school campus, turned horror show. While there was a small gas chamber here, the camp was mainly a prison facility. Prisoners were forced to work and some were subject to experimentation by Nazi doctors and many faced sterilisation and castration, among other tortures.
The Auschwitz site is now the main museum site, and various barracks hold the story of a particular group, or history. The tour of Auschwitz was excellent- it was extremely educational and the best way of getting the history regarding the Holocaust. I definitely suggest doing the walking tour rather than just walking through on your own (which you can only do at restricted times in any case).
I didn’t take many pictures here at Auschwitz, as in the tour you are with other people in close quarters, and frankly it felt disrespectful to me. So most pictures stayed in my minds eye here.
Birkenau
I found Auschwitz II Birkenau the truly horrifying part….because it was so so so large. The vast reality of Birkenau hit me in a way that the words of the tour guide couldn’t. The place went on as far as the eye could see and made it all so real for me.
Birkenau was constructed for the sole purpose of killing large numbers of people at once.
This massive lot held barracks for 70,000 people, that at times held 200,000 people, many for less than a day, as they ran the people into the compound on a train track through the now famous front gate (pictured above).
Those who stayed, stayed in large cramped barracks. The barracks went on and on and on as far as the eye could see. It was overwhelming and for me, the vastness brought it all home for me.
The barracks would be crowded with people, often with multiple people per bunk with no bathroom facilities.
70% of the new people to Birkenau(women, children and those who couldn’t be worked to death first) were often sent to the gas chambers the same day. Their train car would just continue down the line all the way to the back of the camp where there were large gas chambers.
As the war was ending, and the Nazi’s realized they were about to be overtaken, Birkenau was razed to the ground, and the gas chambers were crushed, in an effort by the Nazi’s to destroy evidence.
The best part of our day-long visit to Auschwitz- Birkenau was when the tour leader showed us where the man who ran Auschwitz was hung after the war for war crimes. He was hung overlooking the compound where he had been responsible for the torture and deaths of thousands. He was also within sight of the house that he had lived with his family– he and his wife and children LIVED next to the compound and could hear, see the people and taste the ashes. He hung looking at that same view. It felt like the tiniest bit of justice.
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