A few weeks ago (January 27) was the International Holocaust Remembrance Day which commemorates the tragedy of the Holocaust. It also marked the 75th anniversary of the day when the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated. We visited the camp this past fall and I had debated writing a blog post and had mixed emotions about doing so but so many people I spoke with encouraged me to write it. With its remembrance day and the mark of 75 years since its liberation, I felt it was appropriate to share my experience. It is an impactful visit but extremely difficult (probably one of the most difficult things I have witnessed) but I am glad I went as I have joined over 30 million people who have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau to pay homage to those who lost their lives in its tragic history.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, also simply called Auschwitz concentration camp, is the largest and most notorious of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Most people deported to Auschwitz were sent immediately to the gas chambers. Those who did not die in the gas chambers died of other causes, including starvation, infection, medical experimentation, and forced labor.
I spent the ride from Krakow, Poland to Auschwitz mentally preparing myself for what I was about to experience. Before you enter, you pass through a serene landscape of trees and grass which threw me a bit off-balance as it didn’t fit with the various posters outside of the camp.
Seeing the camp can be difficult but I knew I had to personally do it to honor those who suffered the atrocities there and to be a part of those who must never forget. You just can’t fathom what it must have been like until you witness what still remains at the camp.
Since 1947, the site houses a memorial and museum that also offers guided tours and an education center to deepen the peoples' knowledge about the mass horrors committed at the Nazi camps.
“Arbeit Macht Frei” are the words above the entrance to the main camp that translate into “Work will set you free”. That was obviously a lie and was probably the first of many lies the prisoners heard.
Over 1.1 million people died here between 1940 and 1945, 90% of whom were Jews. It started as a camp for Polish political prisoners and then for Soviet prisoners of war. From 1942 onward, the camp was built to deal with the huge numbers of Jews brought to be murdered as part of the Nazi’s Final Solution. Auschwitz is now recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage site. Auschwitz is in fact not one camp, but two: Auschwitz I, built in an abandoned Polish military base, and Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, a much bigger complex that went up later about two miles away to expedite the Nazis' 'Final Solution'.
While you are here, you will tour the barracks, view photographs taken while the camp was in operation, and learn more about the horrific details behind the history. What some don’t realize is that many came from other countries throughout Europe, not just Poland. Some had lived in Jewish ghettos for so long and were promised a better life by voluntarily boarding a train with all their belongings. One of the saddest things to me was seeing a large room filled with suitcases. People had put their names on the outside of their luggage thinking they would be returning home one day. This was sadly not the case for many of them. The inmates in fact usually only survived here for a couple of months. One room had thousands of pairs of shoes. Another with eyeglasses and so on. Throughout the tour you will see barbed wire and the electrified fences, as well as the daily horrors of life in the camp.
The “Wall of Death”, now usually covered in flowers, was once the location used for executions by shooting – it now serves as a place of remembrance to the victims.
Roll Call Square was were the guards took a roll call of those there. It was taken every day at least once a day but up to three times a day – sometimes taking up to many hours each time taken.
The crematoriums and gas chambers are painful emotionally to see yet an important part to understanding the magnitude of what happened here. Up to 700 people could be gassed at one time yet was still considered ineffective so the second camp was built two miles away. This was called Birkenau or Auschwitz II. You can still see the train tracks leading from the main camp to here which was absolutely chilling. This camp held over 100,000 people at a time. Families from all over Europe were sent here. Immediately upon arrival, their fates were determined: those who could work survived and those who could not were immediately killed.
A rail line was made to link both entrances of the two camps and was called Hells Gate or Gate of Death. Just looking at the rail is chilling and hard to imagine how scary it would have been to be in those crammed train cars and seeing that brick structure.
Some of the barracks at Birkenau still stand here and are extremely disturbing when you imagine that anyone, let alone children, were living here. Two chimneys provided heat in these large buildings but I’m sure were still beyond freezing especially during the winter months. At Birkenau, over 4,000 people were gassed per day. As it was evident that the war was coming to an end, the Nazis bombed most of the gas chambers to destroy the evidence, but the ruins are kept intact as a reminder of what really happened. Birkenau is massive. Just before liberation in January 1945, the Germans blew up most of the barracks and the crematoriums to hide their crimes, but just seeing the sheer size of Birkenau provides you with a sense of how big of an operation this was.
The two toilet facilities (one for men and one for women) were equally humiliating. There was no heat inside these buildings. You can just imagine how awful it was just by looking at the photo.
Some details about visiting: If you can, reserve your tickets in advance. This saves you waiting in the ticket line and you can get the time slot you prefer. Block off a minimum of three and a half hours to tour both former camps. I can’t imagine doing this tour on my own and recommend using the guides (educators) who are available by reserving online (visit.auschwitz.org). And ladies, make sure you do not bring a purse any larger than an 8 ½ x 11 standard sheet of paper. You will go through security and this is strictly enforced – I actually bought a small purse in Krakow before we left just to be safe and was glad I did.
As I mentioned earlier, this was probably the most difficult, yet most important visit on our last trip. I feel that people recently have inappropriately used the term “concentration camp” too freely and this prompted me to go to Auschwitz this past time I visited Europe. I had been avoiding the visit up until then not knowing if I could handle it. I could say that it was emotional, unsettling, and horrific — and it was, but I am glad I went. It is hard to fathom until you are able to see for yourself the purposeful atrocities mankind committed against itself. We must never forget.