The beauty of this day was in direct contrast to the horror of the place, the place which, according to our guide, became the most important site where people were murdered during the Holocaust. I am forever changed by our visit here. What I saw was upsetting, and it is just as diffficult trying to put the experience in words. I have included a lot of details, many of which are sickening and hard to believe, but it's part of the remembering....
The Arbeit Macht Frei (work will make you free) slogan at the entrance to Auschwitz, was actually first used in Dachau, which was also the first "work" camp. Our guide told us that prisoners returning to the camp after a day's work, would be greeted by an orchestra, of all things. This further demonstrated the bizarre efficiency with which the Germans operated their camps. As the sign beneath the picture says, the orchestra played marches to ensure the prisoners kept pace, while also making them easier to count as they reentered the camp. Often times, they returned carrying the bodies of others who didn't survive the day's work, but their bodies still had to be accounted for, even though they were burned, not buried.
Before the war, Auschwitz was actually a Polish army base, so the Germans were only too happy to take over an existing facility, rather than build a new one to accommodate the overflow of prisoners from Dachau. In December of 1940, prisoners began working here, building infrastructure in and around the camp, which tripled its population from 5,000 -15,000 prisoners in 1941, and 20,000 by 1944. (It took3 years to finish all the barracks here.) Auschwitz was only supposed to house Polish political prisoners, but by 1942, it became the destination for Jews from all over Europe.
"I remember getting off the train and the doors opened up to a beautiful, sunny day. People were standing together, and the soldiers told us to leave bags and suitcases on the ground. Prisoners who were already there were told to take luggage of new arrivals. Then they began the selection. Men and older boys were separated from women and children, because they needed to decide who could work. A doctor decided who would live and who would die. Women and children, the sick and the elderly, were sent immediately to the gas chambers."
This picture brought tears to my eyes, as you might see the 3 little boys in the front, holding hands, "on the way to death," as the caption reads... This part of the tour was the most difficult. We were taken to the display of cylinders which contained Zyklon b pellets which were dropped into the gas chamber. It took anywhere from 1-5 minutes before people died from the hydrogen cyanide released by the pellets, so again, to ensure efficiency, guards usually waited 20 minutes before opening the chamber, just to make sure no one survived.
Zyklon b was not manufactured for killing people, but was intended to delouse prisoners and/or kill small rodents. Rudolph Hoss, the commandant at Auschwitz, was actually away from the camp when zyklon b was first used there. He was actually visiting other camps to see how he could make the killing process more effective, and while he was away, it was his deputy who experimented with the zyklon b in September of 1941. Hess was very proud of him and his findings when he got back to Auschwitz.........makes me sick....
Even as I write, it makes my eyes water when I remember the building which housed the hair....the hair left behind from women who were shaved then executed in the gas chambers. Nothing could have prepared me for this. It took my breath away, and my stomach wretched when I saw the entire glassed in "display" of women's hair--piles and piles. There are no words to describe the sadness I felt--as a female...as a mother...as a human being. Who could ever think of something so degrading and inhumane, especially considering the fact that the women's hair was used for commercial products, such as the manufacture of socks and gloves. (Women were also murdered because it would help reduce the chance of contaminating the Aryan race.) I still cannot get the image of this room out of my head.
In these pictures that follow are items, or "evidence," of crimes committed. It's heartbreaking when you see all these things, from the medical aids, to the suitcases, some of which still bear the names of the victims, to the 2 glassed in walls of shoes, to the thousands of pairs of eyeglass from nameless victims...
As I look out the window of the last building we visit, I am amazed by the present beauty of the surroundings of the horrible place where so much innocence was lost.....
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