Hell on Earth March 7, 2018
(post written by Bruce Webb)
Prior to our visit to Krakow, Poland, I knew that Schindler's List, a movie about the Holocaust, had been filmed there, the actual location of the story. I have seen the movie and have read much about the Holocaust, so I was interested in visiting Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp built by the Nazis, not far from Krakow. Linda was ambivalent about the venture because of the subject matter. In the end, she decided to go, so we signed up for a tour of Auschwitz, located in the town of Oswiecim, 35 miles west of Krakow.
On a frigid morning, we gathered with our small group and boarded a minivan for Oswiecim, where the 3 different camps are located. The German SS had selected this location for a couple of reasons: the town was the site of a Polish Army base and had a large number of barracks and buildings; the site is on a major railway line to facilitate transportation to the camps; and the town was thought to be far enough East to be largely hidden from world view.
As we rolled along through the countryside, we watched a movie about the liberation of the camp by the Soviet Army in January, 1945. The film was shot by a Soviet Army cameraman who was documenting the fighting and had been present to film the liberation. His testimony was moving, as were the scenes of the prisoners greeting their liberators. We sadly learned that the only prisoners freed were those who had been left behind by the Nazis, due to their fragile condition.
We started out at the original camp, known as Auschwitz 1, the site of the old army base. We had a wonderful guide, David Kennedy, a Polish American fellow from Chicago who now lives in the town of Oswiecim. He did an excellent job of explaining what we were witnessing in a very clear and respectful way. We were pleased that his tenor was reverential yet informative and that we could easily hear his every word through individual headsets.
We witnessed the barracks where hundreds of prisoners were crammed together without heat, adequate sanitary facilities, or food. These folks were essentially slave laborers who were expected to work until they died, only to be replaced by others. We witnessed the piles of eyeglasses, shoes, luggage, and personal items that were confiscated from prisoners and were shocked by the huge piles that represented only 40,000 people out of the million plus prisoners who passed through the camp. We also witnessed the notorious
building 11, where prisoners were tortured by the SS and then killed by firing squad.
After an hour, we piled into the van and were driven to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the much larger camp a few kilometers away. This camp was built by slave labor from the original camp and is huge by comparison. This was where the majority of people were killed in the gas chambers - over 75% were gassed within hours of their arrival by train. We wandered around the iconic buildings where the prisoners arrived by train and were selected for gassing, slave labor, or medical experimentation. We saw the huge piles of rubble where the two largest gas chambers stood before being blown up by the Nazis just prior to the arrival of the Soviets in January, 1945.
Iconic arrival building at Birkenau, with train tracks leading to it
We entered one smaller gas chamber that had not been demolished and learned about the process by which prisoners were killed by Zyklon B pellets dropped from the ceiling. One enduring image was the scratches on the walls made by desperate prisoners in their last minutes before dying. The horror was unfathomable and the scale of the killing was even more so.
We went into a brick barracks where prisoners had lived and saw the crowded, primitive conditions that the prisoners had endured. We also walked by the double rows of high voltage electric fencing and trenches designed to prevent escape. As we wandered back through the camp to our waiting van, we were impressed by the scale of the place - it really is a huge site and a mixture of intact buildings and some foundations where buildings once stood. We again were struck with the bleakness of the site on such a cold day and were happy to head back to the warmth of the van.
We were both glad that we had visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, in spite of the difficulty of trying to take it all in. We were moved by the resilience of the survivors and the creativity and luck needed to survive. We can testify to the grossest depravity of which humans are capable. We are grateful that the Polish government and a large number of individual contributors have combined to make it possible to keep this museum open and available for all to see. We are also aware of how this could all happen again and the potential for great evil that still exists. It is sobering to realize that we are living in perilous times where these horrors could revisit the human race. We must vigorously guard against a recurrence.
After an hour, we piled into the van and were driven to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the much larger camp a few kilometers away. This camp was built by slave labor from the original camp and is huge by comparison. This was where the majority of people were killed in the gas chambers - over 75% were gassed within hours of their arrival by train. We wandered around the iconic buildings where the prisoners arrived by train and were selected for gassing, slave labor, or medical experimentation. We saw the huge piles of rubble where the two largest gas chambers stood before being blown up by the Nazis just prior to the arrival of the Soviets in January, 1945.
We entered one smaller gas chamber that had not been demolished and learned about the process by which prisoners were killed by Zyklon B pellets dropped from the ceiling. One enduring image was the scratches on the walls made by desperate prisoners in their last minutes before dying. The horror was unfathomable and the scale of the killing was even more so.
We went into a brick barracks where prisoners had lived and saw the crowded, primitive conditions that the prisoners had endured. We also walked by the double rows of high voltage electric fencing and trenches designed to prevent escape. As we wandered back through the camp to our waiting van, we were impressed by the scale of the place - it really is a huge site and a mixture of intact buildings and some foundations where buildings once stood. We again were struck with the bleakness of the site on such a cold day and were happy to head back to the warmth of the van.
We were both glad that we had visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, in spite of the difficulty of trying to take it all in. We were moved by the resilience of the survivors and the creativity and luck needed to survive. We can testify to the grossest depravity of which humans are capable. We are grateful that the Polish government and a large number of individual contributors have combined to make it possible to keep this museum open and available for all to see. We are also aware of how this could all happen again and the potential for great evil that still exists. It is sobering to realize that we are living in perilous times where these horrors could revisit the human race. We must vigorously guard against a recurrence.
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