Auschwitz-Birkinau – A Ghastly Reminder of a Horrid Crime
By the looks of a busy summer day at Auschwitz it is difficult to feel the horror that awaited thousands upon thousands of Jews as their awaited their cruel fate, cowering together in gas chambers. The peak tourist season bring in crowds numbering in excess of two million people, as such consider visiting during winter when the area is less crowded.
The story of the holocaust is not a simple one. It takes its roots in generations of European antisemitic pogroms and is inspired by the Armenian genocide perpetrated a Word War earlier. My interest in the Jewish people has taken me around the world over several years and I can say that a year after my visit to Poland, I visited the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, thus terminating my journey.
This post should be read in conjunction with my Krakow entry.
Table of Contents
Geography
The camp is located in the historic region of Silesia, just fifty kilometers west of Krakow. Upper Silesia, the sub-region where Auschwitz is located also hosted many camps. It was here that most eastern European Jews were exterminated. Silesia was a logical choice for the location of such a camp. Outside of Germany’s borders, Silesia was a center of Industry. As such it was a logistics and railway hub allowing for the rapid movement of goods, material and people.
History
As mentioned previously, the Holocaust has its roots in European Antisemitism. In a time where Sheperdic Jews were driven out of Spain and Jews lived in walled ghettos in Italy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (its a long story!) offered a constitution of tolerance. Major urban localities like Wilno (Vilnius), Warsaw and Lublin had expansive Jewish quarters where life seemed good in comparison to neighbouring nations. The commonwealth swelled with Jews. The once great country was eventually split between Russia, Austria and Prussia. During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries anti-Jewish pogroms took place in much of Russia occupied polish-Lithuanian territories. These were a prelude to greater action to harass the Jews. In 1933, the Nazi party took power in Germany, the Nuremberg laws were passed in 1935 and this lead to the most famous pogrom, Kristallnacht in 1938. Shortly after Poland was invaded and concentration camps constructed.
Although this article focuses primarily on the Second World War in Poland, I think its important to be aware of some light background for the sake of context.
Pre Second World War
The masonry complex you see today at Auschwitz I, looks much different than that of Auschwitz II. That is due to the fact that the former was completed before the war. Originally conceived as a camp for transient workers in the First World War, it was converted to a barrack complex for the newly founded polish army shortly after. The later was conceived during the Second World War.
Second World War
At the outbreak of the war in 1939, Poland was quickly subdued by an unholy alliance of Germans and Soviets. In 1940, during the occupation of Poland the Germans took over the camp and used it to house Polish POW’s. In 1941, Germans invaded the Soviet Union and gassing at the complex began was first experimented with. The second camp was laid out three kilometers from the first in 1941, and subsequently expanded after a visit from Himmler who found the first camp to be to small. In 1942 the final solution was laid out and train shipments of Jews poured in from all over. The camp was not liberated until 27 January 1945, by Soviet Union troops. After the war the Nuremberg trials were conducted and judgment rendered on many of the perpetrators of the camp system. Only fifteen percent of the prison guards stood trial for their crimes but camp commander Rudolf Höss was extracted to Poland after his conviction and was hung in 1947 at Auschwitz.
Exploring the Concentration Camp Camp Complex
Most people take a tour of the Concentration camp complex by bus from Krakow but organized options exist from Wroclaw as well. Otherwise you can drive but it is relatively affordable and simple just to take one of bus tours there.
Auschwitz I
The first camp is of particular importance to the Polish nation. It is the smaller of the two, with a capacity of 7000 people. Although it held a staggering number of Jewish prisoners, this was primary a camp for Poles, Prisoners of War, Academics, Czechs, Roma’s Homosexuals, “Traitors” and other “undesirables”. Unbeknownst to many, Poles were the second most targeted ethnic group during the holocaust and the number of poles exterminated at this camp number roughly 75 000. In fact, the construction activities regarding the camps here prompted the secretive Germans to gas many of the poles living nearby so that they could not bear testament to what was being constructed.
Standing outside the camp you will find the gallow where Rudolf Höss was hung in 1947. To get your tickets you will have to enter the former prisoner reception area, now the visitors center.
After purchasing your ticket, you will enter through the classic gateway into the camp itself.
In the camp you can walk around will have the chance to enter several of the masonry buildings. Inside you will learn the stories of the people who once live here before their extermination.
You will learn about the conditions they faced as well as have items recovered from the camps on display. This includes the suitcases confiscated from the victims as well as other personal items like jewelry, shoes and hats. Inmates were branded with a serial number, striped, given new garments and shaved. It is said that when the camps were liberated there was over 7000kg of hair ready to ship. Prisoners would routinely be beaten for infractions as minor as putting their hands in their pockets and punishments, such as flogging were perfected to a point that they reached the level of torture. Block 10 is where the medical experiments took place.
You will also find a wall called the “death wall”. It was used for shooting political prisoners. A first round of poles was executed on their national independence day and for many Czechs and Russians the wall would be the last thing they would see. This was used primary in the early years before gassing was invented.
You will notice one grey building in the camp. This is the commandant’s and administration building.
One curious thing I learned about is that some “lesser” people were used as official comfort women by the guards. They were mainly eastern and central European women held prisoner here. Against their will they were forced to act as official prostitutes and the guards would gain the privilege to use them. They were exploited in this fashion until many dies of venereal disease.
On the premises you can find a reconstructed gas chamber. The first Nazi flirtation with gassing prisoners happened here and as the war came to a close the guards tried to hide the evidence of their crimes. This early model early model gas chamber was then transposed to Auschwitz II. It was then improved to hold two to three thousand people. This model is slightly smaller. Located in the basement of block 11, the first gassing was a group of 850 prisoners, mostly poles and soviets. When inside the concrete bunker they would be doused with Zyklon B. Their bodies would then be moved to a second chamber to be incinerated.
Unfortunately when inside the chamber as a tourist, there is usually a large crowd. I would that many of them acted in disrespectful ways such as shouting loudly and posing for selfies. This is one of the many reason I recommend a winter visit.
It is important to remember that as awful as Auschwitz I was, it was still better then the hasty built second ad third (now destroyed) super camps. Two more camps were planned but never completed.
Auschwitz II – Birkenau
The classic railway camp from film and picture, Auschwitz II – Birkenau was the leviathan of death camps. It could hold up to 30 000 prisoners and was built for the quick removal of “undesirable elements”. Overall it is estimated that 1.3 million were sent here and that 1.1 million died in its premises. Keep in mind these are minimum numbers and that the estimate is a conservative one. Due to the fact that this camp is much larger, you will have more room to roam around and reflect on the tragedies that happened here.
You will enter the camp by the historic gatehouse, here you will see the old rail tracks wind their way in. At one time they would bring in trains filled with human capital, those some cars were then filled with goods and valuables stolen from the victims and shipped out. This is the first industrial-scientific camp, where extermination was turned into an art. Inside the gates a long avenue surrounded by barbed wire takes you though to a series of gates, with their barbed wire sub blocks. In this central avenue you will find a railcar put on display. The idea of transporting prisoners by rail like cattle actually comes directly from the Armenian genocide, where the Young Turks transported their victims into the desert at the killing fields of Deir El Zor for their liquidation. The Germans just added gas chambers.
This is primarily the home of the Jews. At the outbreak of the war, large urban centers in Poland were occupied by the Germans. One of their first acts was to put the star of David upon the jew and to restrict his lifestyle. Shortly after they were forced out of their homes to make room for Germans, the new colonists of German Poland. The Jews were the given a squalid quarter of the city to live in, a wall was built around it to separate them form the general population – these were the ghettos. Many cities had these ghettos but most prominent among them were Warsaw and nearby Krakow. To make matters worse jews were brought in from other town and cities and the ghettos soon began to be overcrowded. At first the Jews were made to do backbreaking forced lobar, that is how Oskar Schindler, a German businessman in Krakow, made his money. Of course Oskar would soon realize the horror in what the Germans had planned for the Jews. For more information visit my entry on Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory in Krakow.
Slowly Jews began to be deported from these ghettos to the camps. At first it was but the sick and unproductive but then it expanded to others. In 1943, Krakows ghetto was “liquidated” and many Jews ended up here. But it was not just Polish Jews in Auswitz. Slovaks, Czechs and other ethnicity were also shipped all the way here.
During a visit to this camp you will be able to see many differences from the smaller Auschwitz I. Most of the camp is in ruins, hastily set alight by retreating Germans (covering their crimes), but there is a section of reconstructed bunks on the south side. The bunks here are more rudimentary, the streets layout is in perfect rectangular shape to accommodate as many of these as possible. Inside the dormitories are so cramped that it almost seems stiffing. As a tall man I could but not help to think that this would be my nightmare . Ceiling are low and people were stacked in little compartments like farm animals.
I must say, although my knowledge of the holocaust was expansive, I had not really taken much time to read about this camp specifically outside of general details. A great book to read before you go is the tattooist of Auswichtz detailing life in the camp and how one could survive if you were lucky enough to land a trade such as tattooing the distinctive number codes on prisoners arms.
One trade that was not so lucky was the gassing crew. They would perform their task for a fixed period of time and eventually get gassed themselves and then get gassed themselves so that the secret of the chambers doesn’t get out. Knowing their impeding fate some of the crews would fight back or sabotage the chambers in heroic acts of resistance. Speaking of the gas chambers you should take the time to visit both the White House and the Little Red House. This figures of Auschwitz lore are located just north of the camp. The former is better known as “Bunker 1”, the foundation first official gas chamber of the camp, it is located behind crematorium IV & V. The later seems to be an empty field but was one a red brick farmhouse belonging to a polish family. The property was expropriated and in early 1942 was converted into a makeshift gas chamber, the first gas chamber at Auschwitz. The bodies were buried out back in a mass grave and later an incinerator was built. Although an unofficial gas chamber its history is no less gruesome. One again the retreating Germans attempted to hid the scale of their crime by destroying the building before they left. A soviet war memorial can be found nearby.
At the back of the camps main avenue you will find a large concrete socialist era memorial built in realist style. It is the Pomnik or memorial park and is addressed to the memory of the victims of all nationalities. Another concrete plaque installed by France mourns the loss of French Patriots assassinated in the camp.
For further reading check out the story of polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki. A polish resistance fighter he infiltrated the camp to document its atrocities and organized a rebellion, escaping in the possess. He was later murdered by the soviets. Pilecki as well as General Anders (see anders army and Wojtek the bear) and Sikoski are some of the greatest men the polish nation produced. They are a living testament to the fact that Polish nationalists were often friends to the Jewish people. A memorial to Anders exists today in the catholic cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
Conclusion
Although it almost seems tasteless that this place has become a major magnet for tourism, it feels right that this house of horrors has been laid out for all the world to see. Somehow the influx of people has scrubbed much of the pain away, the busy crowds allowing less space for reflection and filling the dead space with lively spectators. Yet, it all still feels real, the narrow a few of the bunk and gas chambers still stand and in the dead of winter when the crowd have retreated back home the place offers a sorrowful solitude unmatched by any others.
