9) Field Trip 3
Yesterday I had the life changing experience of touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp while I was in Poland. Through years of schooling and numerous educational projects, I have learned quite a bit about the holocaust. While studying European history in Olomouc, I have received an even more in depth view of the massacres that were carried out during the holocaust. However, none of these lessons truly prepared me for seeing a concentration camp first hand.
Before the atrocities of the holocaust began, there were 11 million Jewish citizens living in Europe. Hitler and the Nazi party murdered 6 million of these people leading up to and during World War Two. There were a total of 6 death camps around Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the death camps, was where one and a half million people lost their lives. The majority of these people were Jewish.
It all began when the Jewish citizens were "relocated". These people were deceived by the Nazis. They were told that they were simply being rearranged to work in another area of Europe. The inhabitants of the concentration camps even had to pay for their transportation to the camps. 80 people and their suitcases would be packed into one tiny rail car for the journey to the camps. These trips would last between seven to ten days depending on the distance. The people would not be given any amenities; no food, water, or restroom facilities. The train car also had no windows. 30 to 40 percent of people died before they even arrived to the death camp.
Once the trains arrived at the camp they were instructed to write their name, deportation number, and birthday on their suitcases so it would be easier to find later, another blatant lie. Today in Auschwitz 1 you can see some of the suitcases that survived the war. Some of these belonged to children that were under the age of five. The suitcases with the prisoners valued possessions were sent to warehouses called the “Canada” Warehouses. They were called this because Canada symbolized wealth. The items in these warehouses were sent back to Germany for the military and citizens.
After the prisoner’s suitcases were confiscated they were put in a single file line. The Nazi's separated people based of if they were fit to work. All of the prisoners that were capable of performing intense labor were sent one direction and all of the people that were not healthy were sent another direction. This selection process was done by a SS doctor, and only 25 percent of people were chosen to live. Pregnant women, children, the elderly, mentally ill people, and everyone deemed unfit to benefit the regime were immediately sent to the gas chambers. They were told that they were going to the showers, the Nazis even installed fake shower heads to make the story more believable. These innocent people were forced to strip and were locked in the gas chambers. There were a total of seven gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It took about 20 minutes for everyone in the gas chamber to die. Some of the gas chambers could fit 2000 people in at one time. It only took 12 cans of chemicals to kill 3000 people. After everyone was murdered the doors were opened and left to air out for 30 minutes. The heads of the deceased were shaved. The hair was sent to Germany to be used in the textile industry. The people receiving the hair knew exactly what was happening to the prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Next, the Nazi's would search for any valuables on the bodies including necklaces and wedding rings. These items were confiscated and the bodies were sent to the crematorium. The human ashes were used as fertilizer around the camp. The people that were immediately sent to the gas chambers were killed before they were put on record, which makes it hard to estimate the exact amount of murders the Nazi's carried out.
Polish citizens were actually the first prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Poland was the first country that resisted Nazi occupation and was therefore considered part of the resistance. During World War Two the Nazi's killed around 20 percent of the polish population.
The 25 percent that were chosen to work were shaved, showered, and given striped pjs. They were given no underwear, socks or shoes. The prisoners had a mark that showed why they were imprisoned. For example, there were different colored patches for homosexuals, political prisoners, Jewish people, professional criminals and so on.
In order to keep prisoners from attempting to escape, whenever someone escaped the camp they would randomly choose 10 prisoners to kill. They would take them from the section as the run away and put them into a starvation cell for 10 days until they died.
Men and women were sentenced to death for various reasons. There were many different methods that the Nazi’s used to kill. One way was being shot by the death wall. When this happened, they were forced to strip and shot in the back of the head at the death wall. When children were ordered to die at the death wall, the Nazi officers smashed their heads into the wall in order to save bullets. A total of 10,000 people were shot at the death wall. The original wall was dismantled, but it was remade by survivors of the camp in order to honor the innocent people who lost their lives there. Another form of death was standing. There were tiny cells that prisoners could only get to by crawling. Once they crawled through the entrance they were forced to stand all night and then were retrieved in the morning to resume their work as normal. This process continued until they died. An equally awful death was the suffocation room. The Nazi’s would put around 40 people into a sealed off room and simply wait for them to die.
When I was touring Auschwitz I didn’t think I could see anything worse, until I entered Birkenau. The Nazi party expelled polish farmers from the area in order to build the death camp. Men lived in wooden buildings as they were cheaper to build than brick buildings. The living quarter that we visited was originally a stable for 50 horses, but the Nazis used the area to house 400 men. There was no central heating, as the prisoners were giving no gas or items to burn. For breakfast prisoners received black coffee water. Lunch consisted of rotten vegetables. Finally, black bread with cheese and a teaspoon of jam was served for dinner. On average, prisoners were given 250 calories a day while being expected to work 12 hours a day. The Nazi’s calculated that the average person would live no longer than three months under these conditions.
Prisoners were also only allowed to use the toilet facilities once in the morning and once at night. Prisoners would be shot if they were caught leaving work to use the restroom. Each prisoner only had 30 seconds to use the "restroom". This was because there were so many men and so few toilets. The female section of the camp had 15,000 occupants and 16 toilets. Prisoners were starving and weren’t allowed to use the bathroom, so those on the top bunk often threw up and used the restroom while sleeping. As you can imagine, this lead to extremely horrible living conditions that allow disease to spread rapidly.
When Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, there were only around 7000 sick people that were left to die in the camp. All of the others were marched to other concentration camps in Germany. 56,000 prisoners were forced to march to Germany, but 9000 died on the journey. The Germans knew the Soviets were coming so they destroyed 3 separate gas chambers. This was an attempt to hide the true horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It's difficult to explain what I gained from visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. At first, it was in complete shock. I've learned about the holocaust since I was a young, but visiting a concentration camp helped me to grasp the hell that the prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau knew as a reality. I've read about how many people were ruthlessly murdered, but seeing thousands of shoes made the numbers seem even bigger. It's terrifying to think that only 75 years ago the Nazi party murdered millions of innocent people.
In hindsight it seems like something that would have been relatively easy to stop. Maybe France and Britain should have stopped Hitler before he gained as much power as he did. After all both France and Britain were well aware that Hitler was breaking the sanctions placed on Germany after World War One. Some argue that the United States should have joined the war earlier. Some people would simply say that the people of Germany should have never elected Hitler in the first place. The immediate question is how did this happen? How did a democratic society elect someone into office that had irrational views of a sector of society? Jewish people were simply a scape goat for Germany to blame all of their problems on. The Nazi party then used massive amounts of propaganda to convince the citizens of Germany that this was true. It is incredibly important to study the horrific parts of the world’s history, but what is most important is to ensure that something like the holocaust never happens again.
Sitting here writing this blog it is easy to proclaim that the world learned their lesson and would never allow something like the holocaust to happen again. But I have to ask myself if that is honestly true? We still live in a world where discrimination is part of people’s everyday lives. People are constantly treated differently because of their race, sex, religion, sexual orientation and many other unimportant things. According to UNHCR, there are more than 50 million refugees around the world, half of which are women and children. So I am challenging myself and everyone else to ask themselves some difficult questions. Do you truly believe in equality? Do you stand up for those who aren’t being treated equally? How far are you willing to go to ensure something like the holocaust never happens again? Do you take part in elections in order to vote for a candidate that will better not only your country but the world?
It is essential to fight for human rights. With power in the wrong hands, appalling morals can turn into horrific actions in a short amount of time. In Germany, the Nazi party slowly introduced a distaste for the Jewish religion into the public sphere. After gaining more support and more power, they exterminated millions of innocent men, women, and children.
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