Poland Day 6- Auschwitz Memorial

Warning: This post can be very graphic, hard to read and may make you sick to your stomach.

Ever since I was in the 7th grade, and had an amazing Language Arts teacher, Ms. Beckley, I have always wanted to go to Auschwitz and take in what happened at that awful place. She took the diary of Anne Frank, and turned Language Arts in to History class. I had never really known about WWII prior to then, and definitely did not know the awful things that happened. Never in a million years did I think I would actually get a chance to go to Auschwitz and remember those who lost their lives there.

We made the decision that the children should not go. At first I had planned to take them. I'm so glad I did not. We had reservations for Jon to do a self-guided tour of Auschwitz at 9am, and myself to go at 2:20 for a guided tour. However, after the incredibly busy week we had already had, that morning when the alarm went off at 6:30, we decided to skip Jon's self-guided and only I would go. We slept in and had a lazy morning at the apartment, which was desperately needed for all of us. We set out at 1 to get there. It took an hour to get there, so I thought with 20 minutes extra, we'd be fine. We weren't so fine.

There are two camps- Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau. If you're going for a tour, you want to go to Auschwitz, which is straight ahead- don't turn right. We ended up at Auschwitz-Birkenau first. When we finally found Auschwitz, I was unsure where I was suppose to go. There may have been signs, but I had the look of confusion on my face and some nice man stopped me to ask if I needed help. We finally figured out where I needed to go, but I was 10 minutes late and was able to catch up to my group after walking through the "Work will set you free" gate. I'm not sure what I missed, but the rest of the tour was well worth it, even if I missed the first 10 minutes. I'm not sure what Jon's self-guided tour was like, but I think it's completely worth the guided tour. The fee was very inexpensive. If you try to do a self-guided tour, the time options are very slim.

I felt bad and a bit guilty doing it, but I did take some pictures, because I wanted to be able to tell Jon about what I learned. It was incredibly heart-wrenching and beyond words. Many things we were told, I already knew, but to hear them again, in this spot, was unreal. I have dragged my feet to do this post, because it's hard to find the words.

Here are a few things I did learn. Some of the prisons were on the "Canada Team". It was well known at that time that if you left Europe and went to Canada, you'd become wealthy. Therefore, when they took the suitcases from all of the prisoners, the Canada team was in charge of collecting their belongings and taking them to the storehouse. There were several barracks dedicated to storing these things, known as the Canada Barracks. Auschwitz kept some of these, and they are able to be seen. A large semi-flat bed filled with lady's favorite pots and dishes, two rooms stacked with shoes, suitcases, eye glasses, brushes, and more. The most troubling by far was the room full of hair. Braids, long hair, short hair, different colors. The Nazis then used this hair for textiles, to make blankets. There was even a blanket that they disassembled and found strands of hair woven in.

Image of the Canada Team at work.

We also visited cell block 11. This was where they did the most horrendous forms of punishment, the three main ones being (1) standing in a small cell block all night long, then being forced to go work the next day, where they often died; (2) locked in a room with no ventilation until the person suffocated; and (3) locked in a room that had ventilation but no food or drink until you died. This is how and where St. Maximillian Kolbe died. He was a priest who gave up his life for someone else and was therefore declared a Saint of the Catholic Church. A prisoner in their block had escaped so some people had to die for it. One man was chosen and said please, not me, I have a family. Maximillian Kolbe stepped forward and told the Nazis to take him instead. The man he gave his life for survived.

The barracks at Auschwitz

Between barracks at Auschwitz

A reminder left behind that the gates are electric.

Execution Wall

Immediately outside Cell Block 11 was a place where they would have a firing squad shooting people. Next to that was another building with an OB. This OB, prior to WWII, had worked to try to help women with infertility to get pregnant. During the war, his whole purpose switched and he set to work figuring out how to make women sterile, and doing horrid experiments on the women prisoners. Some he would keep them away for to see how they reacted. Some he'd kill them to then preform the operation to see what would happen. The guide told us much more and it was very sickening.

One of the barracks we went to had pictures of the prisoners. Keep in mind, not all the prisoners were Jews. There were many Poles, Germans, gypsies, etc. They took pictures of everyone who wasn't a Jew to keep records. But no records of the Jews, which is why it's so hard to know exactly how many lost their lives. It was pointed out that the pictures of people on the walls had people who already had broken noses, black eyes, bruises, etc. because they'd been through hell before they even got to Auschwitz. After a while, they decided that the cost of photography and the time was no longer worth it, so they started tattooing the arms (or the thighs for children). Our guide said Auschwitz was the only came that did this, but I am not sure how true that is.The prisoners would have different badges for what kind of prisoner they were. Jewish, political, homosexual, gypsy, etc.

There was a room with pictures of children. That's when I completely lost it. I just wanted to reach those children and hug them. My heart could not take it. They looked so sad and you could tell some were crying in the pictures.

The gas chambers at Auschwitz Birkenau were destroyed a week before the Soviet's invaded the camp. They left the remains as a memorial. There are pictures below of one of them. You can still visit all 4. However, the one at Auschwitz was not destroyed, and we were able to walk inside. I absolutely cannot find the words to describe it. There is a video of it here. You can see the video scans the ceiling- that's where they would drop the Zyklon B gas in.

Empty Zyklon B containers, the gas used to kill in the gas chambers.

Part of the gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau 

Part of the gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau 

When we stood outside the gas chamber at Auschwitz, we could see the house of the commander of the camp. It was less than 1/4th of a mile away. He lived there with his 5 children, with a pool and a slide in to the pool, with the smoke of the gas chamber so close by. Prisoners were his gardeners and cooks. I cannot understand or fathom this. After the war, he was tried and found guilty, and they brought him back to Auschwitz and hung him next to the gas chamber. There is a plaque letting you know that. They eventually stopped using this gas chamber because the screams could be heard by the prisoners inside the camp.

The gate leading from Auschwitz to the gas chamber at this camp.

After touring Auschwitz, we loaded a bus to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This is the one you usually see pictures of, where the trains drove up between the gates and many, many people were immediately sent to the gas chambers. We did not have a lot of time here, but here's the important things I learned. This whole camp use to be a village. They rounded up the Jews and sent them to ghettos, and kicked the Poles out. Then they bulldozed the entire village, and used the bricks to build some of the barracks! After a while, the barracks were over crowded, so they tried to figure out what to do. They saw the stables that held approximately 50 horses, and decided to use these to house up to 500 people! Because they were built so quickly, the majority have been torn down for safety reasons, but you can still see the foundation of all of them, for as far as the eye can see. We went inside one that was used half as a wash room and half as toilets. This is a good aerial view to give you an idea. The long line down the middle is the train tracks, where my pictures below are taken from. The large yellow area is where there is only the foundations left of most of them. The buildings you can see below the two smaller yellow squares are the buildings that were made from the village and also pictured below.

Looking from the train tracks to the foundations left behind.

The main gate leading in to the camp, where the trains would enter through.

Looking to the back of the camp. To the back left is where the gas chamber was pictured before. 

The barracks built from the bricks of the village.

A train car used to bring thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Germans were out of money and the Hungarians were rich, so they went there and rounded up all the Jews they could. From May 15-July 9 440,000 Jews were rounded up, the majority sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and gassed immediately. 

One of the horse stables turned barrack. I believe these were reconstructed for memorial purposes.

Israeli military members coming to pay their honor and respect. They played a version of TAPS to remember those lives lost here. It was very moving. 

Inside the 'bathroom' barrack.

The "toilets" if you could call them that.

A fireplace was in each barrack, but they really provided no heat.

Sometimes people would sit along the part in the middle trying to get warm.

Overall, while it was very difficult, I am so thankful to be able to have gone here and to remember those who lost their lives at this awful place. Here is a great link with better photos then mine.

While I was touring the camp, my husband took our kids here. It was a decent little place for them to hang out for the afternoon. Then we went to McDonald's for dinner, another great way to help them have fun during the day.

Day 1: Reservations and Day 1
Day 2: Bastei Bridge
Day 3: Old Town, Krakow
Day 4: Salt Mines and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Day 5: Shindler's Factory and Shrine of Divine Mercy
Day 6: Auschwitz Memorial