"The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again." - George Santayana Please be advised that readers of Jewish descent or readers who are sensitive to this subject may wish to avoid reading this e-mail. Today my vacation ends temporarily as I take a day out for a solemn visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, site of the most notorious Jewish concentration/death camp during World War II. I wake up early and catch a mini-bus out of Krakow to Oswiecim (Auschwitz). The weather today is gray and cloudy - quite appropriate for the feeling I have as I approach my destination. The Auschwitz museum (as it is called today) is free to all visitors, but I pay for an English tour. I highly recommend the tour, as it covers all significant areas of the camps (saves the hassle of wandering aimlessly) and gives much information which one might miss otherwise. Prior to the tour, I watch a 15-minute Russian film, shot the day the Soviets liberated the camp. There is an age restriction on the film due to the serious subject matter. In the film, one gets a glimpse of the horror leading up to the liberation - Scattered corpses lying around the camp; A man who looks 70 years old when in fact was only 40; Children requiring amputation from frostbite, as they were forced to stand in the snow for hours on end; Frail survivors who had to be carried out on stretchers; The bewildered looks of survivors as they taste the unfamiliar freedom from their ordeal. Contrary to what one might think, the liberation does not bring about mass cheers and celebration, but rather a grave exodus from the camp. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/entrance.jpg The tour begins at the gates of the Auschwitz camp, with the ironic entrance sign "Arbeit Macht Frei", or "Work Sets You Free". The guide gives no warning as she lunges straight into detailing the grisly past of the camp. There is no need to hide information or present the facts in a more pleasant form. As we walk through the converted barracks/museums, I see several displays, artifacts, photographs, and information regarding the history of the camp. Here are some of the things I learned and witnessed: - Massive piles of items in separate displays including: Cans of Zyklon B extermination agent, artificial limbs, prayer shawls, eyeglasses, brushes, dishes, suitcases, very worn shoes, clothing. The most eerie one of course is the 100,000 pounds of women's hair used for making fabric, faded but preserved over time. Note that the original piles were much larger than the ones shown in the displays. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/zyklon.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/limbs.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/shoes.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/glasses.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/hair.jpg - The warehouses for these items were nicknamed "Canada" by the Germans, in reference to the abundance. - The Jews were told they were limited to 50 pounds of luggage to bring to the camp. This was a ploy of deception so that they would pack their most valuable items to be plundered upon. - Extermination was not limited to the Jews. Thousands of Gypsies, Poles, and Russian soldiers were also murdered. Russian soldiers were included as their president had not signed the Geneva convention on the treatment of POWs. - The evidence of the murder of children. This area was particularly sorrowful, disturbing, and angering for me. In the piles of suitcase, people would write their or their children's birthdates. Simple mathematics allowed me to deduce that infants and toddlers were not exempt from the atrocities. The presence of small shoes and clothing in the displays only further welled up tears in my eyes. - One dramatic photograph, entitled "Before Death" shows a 4 year old holding his younger siblings' hands as they enter the gas chamber, completely unaware of their circumstance. - Another photograph (not the below link) shows the selection process, where healthy prisoners were taken for work, whereas all others were sent for extermination. Of course, if there was no work to be done, then everyone would be exterminated. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/selection.jpg In all the photographs of victims heading to the gas chambers, none of the victims have the look of fear or horror. Partially because the Nazis played music upon arrival and described the camps as graceful places. However, the lack of fear was mostly due to the fact that the Jews did not believe anything worse could happen to them after the ordeals (e.g. the ghettos) they went through in the past years. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/waiting1.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/waiting2.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/approach.jpg The amount of information available is incredible. For some reason, the Nazis were meticulous in the documentation and photographing of their sinister handiwork. The guide takes us to two of the more dramatic buildings. Block 10 was where experiments were performed on children by Dr. Joseph Mengele, mostly twins. Although none of the experimentation equipment is present, there are numerous photographs of the survivors of these cruel experiments. Dr. Mengele himself escaped to Argentina where he died and was never punished for his crimes. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/twins.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/children.jpg Young children and newborns born in the camp fitting the Aryan description (blond hair, blue eyes) were taken away for adoption. Their histories were never revealed to them, and to this day they believe they are German. Near the exit of Block 10, we come across a hallway of small photographs of many Jewish prisoners, including youths capable of working. Each photograph is labelled with two dates: the date of entry into the camp and the date of extermination/death. The difference between the dates vary. Some are three years, but most are in the range of a few months. For women, the dates are much shorter, with many being in the range of 3 weeks. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/heads.jpg Between Blocks 10 and 11 lies the "Death Wall", where 5000 Poles were shot to death, often hundreds at a time. To further ridicule them, they were forced to strip before being shot. Today, the wall is draped with memorials, flowers, and wreaths. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/deathwall.jpg Entering Block 11, the camp prison, is like travelling back in time. All of the original furniture and items are present. There is the courtroom, essentially a long table with "judges" who will sentence everyone to death. Beside it lies the change/stripping room for the Death Wall. I can't even imagine the horror and fear victims felt in this room. Descending to the basement, we enter the isolation and starvation chambers. In a brick cubicle only 1 yard by 1 yard in size, four prisoners were forced stand at night, before being sent out for a 10 hour shift to work during the day. The standing cells were used as a form of punishment. The below picture shows the entrance to a standing cell, with the cell itself partially deconstructed for visitors to view. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/standingcell.jpg Prisoners who escaped Auschwitz and were caught were left in the standing cells to die. Nearby the standing cells lie the starvation cells. This torture cell is self explanatory, but the cell itself is interesting as there is an intricate carving in the wall made by a former prisoner. Beside the starvation cells lies the suffocation cell. It is appropriately named as there is only a tiny window in it, maybe 5 inches squared, and prisoners often suffocated in this cell. There is a famous story here of a Polish priest, Maximilian Kolbe, who voluntarily took the place of another prisoner sentenced to die in the starvation cells, who was part of a random selection of 10 prisoners chosen as a form of punishment for an escaped prisoner. Frustrated at his ability to endure two weeks in the cells, the Nazis eventually shot him. He has since been canonized as a saint. As for the man he replaced, he survived the camp and eventually died of old age. We exit Block 11 and pass the kitchens. Here we see the gallows, where public executions took place. When a prisoner escaped, other prisoners were hung here to intimidate everyone else from escaping. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/gallows.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/gallows2.jpg There were also portable gallows for various executions. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/port_gallows.jpg We finally make our way into the dreadful gas chamber. Not originally designed for execution, the Auschwitz gas chamber is not nearly as complex as the mass extermination chambers located nearby in the Birkenau camp. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/chamber.jpg There is an extremely eerie and sobering feeling I have as I enter and reflect on the horror the victims experienced here. The complete extermination process is visible. First the change room. Then the gas chamber. In the ceiling of the gas chamber are pipes where the cans of Zyklon B were dropped. The agent was activated and converted into a gas by the body heat of the victims. During the gassing, a truck outside was started so the engine would drown out the screams. Death would take only 5 to 10 minutes, although the gassing would continue for 30 minutes. At the end, there were pyres of people in each of the corners. During the gassing, the victims would climb on each other in a frenzy to get air. Children were always crushed at the bottom of the pyres. Victims were then taken into the crematorium in the adjoining room to be disposed of. I pass many visitors in tears and it's really hard not to be emotional. We continue our walk at the perimeter of the camp, along the double rowed electrified fences. I really wonder how prisoners escaped - it was impossible to dig out due to a 6 foot concrete slab under the fences. At the end of the path lies a single gallow, constructed by the Poles for the sole purpose of hanging the SS commander of the camp after the liberation. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/fence.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/fence2.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/ss_gallow.jpg We board a bus to Birkenau, the infamous camp designed to be brutally efficient in the extermination process. Trainloads of Jews were murdered here upon arrival. The gas chambers themselves are in ruins here, as the Nazis burned them down in an effort to conceal their crimes. Amongst the ruins lies a memorial, designed in the form of a pyre of victims. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/birkenau.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/arrival.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/ruins.jpg http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/ruins2.jpg A small pond where the ashes were disposed of still appears murky and gray from its contents. Nearby are large pits excavated to perform mass cremations. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/pond.jpg A famous secretly taken photograph of the cremations pits, revealing to the world the atrocities in the camp: http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/burning.jpg It is a very quiet and solemn experience as I walk around this massive camp. All the barracks are open here and I venture into many of them alone, even crawling into one of the harsh wooden beds to get a small feel of what the prisoners went through. http://www.variance.ca/auschwitz/bunks.jpg An estimated 2.1 to 2.5 million Jews perished here at these camps, though the numbers could be as high as 4 million. "I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I am not feeling it. I believe in God even when He is silent." - Anonymous Jewish holocaust victim