Our trip to Auschwitz was the next morning at 9. I found a nice tour package that included transportation to and from Oscewim, which was an hour away, a guided tour of both Auschwitz & Birkenau camps, and a documentary video. It costed only $30 for all of that! it was well worth it. Auschwitz I was so different than I thought. To be honest, it looked very nice. Other than the haunting sign "Arbeit Macht Frei" hanging over the entrance. The buildings were red brick and were set up like a little village. The grass was green and there were trees around. I didn't understand how this could be such an awful place when it looked so nice! It blew my mind. But that all changed when we walked into the first block (building). They set it up like a museum so you could peer into each room, but the doorways were covered in glass. The blocks were where the prisoners lived. Some of them were literally just rooms full of hay. That's where they slept. SOME had beds, but you can hardly call them that. Just cold, wooden bunks. Up to 12 prisoners would be stuffed onto EACH bunk to sleep. When I looked at it, I squirmed at the thought of even 3 people being able to fit. That's how dreadful it was. In the hallway of this building they had hung photographs of each prisoner. It couldn't have been all of them, because it only filled one hallway. Left side women, right side men. They must have been taken when the prisoners first entered the camp because some of them even had a hint of a smile on their face. It hurt my heart to think of these people, having no idea what they were about to step into. Hell, really. We toured a few more blocks with original photographs, and maps of other concentration camps, and statistics. You can't even comprehend how many people were murdered here. I don't even want to show you the picture with the numbers, but I will.
We then saw the "Death Wall." This was a wall at the end of a courtyard where they'd place their prisoners to be shot to death. It had flowers placed all around it. We went into another block that held the "starvation room" and the "suffocation room." The title tells you. They were just cement rooms about as wide as a bedroom with nothing but a tiny window with bars on it. Where innocent prisoners were left to starve or suffer. One of the rooms that hurt the most was a tiny room with 3 little brick rooms in it. They were 1 square meter each. These were called the standing rooms. Not even enough room to lay down in. Prisoners were placed there to suffer as well. I can't even imagine the claustrophobia.
We went into another building that held all of the prisoners shoes, suitcases, pots and bowls, toothbrushes, razors and hair brushes, and...hair. Yes they had one glass room that was almost completely full of the human hair that they shaved off of each prisoner. I was staring at their hair...it was surreal and it still is. As I stared at the shoes I tried not to imagine a child having their favorite (if not only) pair of shoes ripped off of them and thrown into a mass pile to never be seen again. But, that was the ONLY thing I could think of. The tears couldn't stop. All of these belongings taken from people for no reason. When they were given a number, they couldn't even keep their own name. Who you were didn't matter anymore. All that mattered to them were people who could do work. 80% of the humans brought to Auschwitz were killed immediately. Before they were even registered into the camp. Children and babies, mostly women, and weak men.
We were taken to the gas chambers and crematoriums. I stood in a gas chamber in Auschwitz. Reading about it in school, the thought didn't even cross my mind that i would ever do that. Unreal. Want to know the sickest part? The Cyklon B gas that was dropped into each chamber had a subtitle: Gift Gas...
The crematoriums were small, but about 400 bodies were burnt per day in them. 400.
Our tour ended at Auschwitz I, and next was Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Now, Birkenau was what I've seen in pictures and probably what you've seen, too. It was a large brick building with an archway that you walk through. On the other side were train tracks in the middle and barracks on each side. Birkenau had many more crematoriums than Auschwitz I, but they were all destroyed by the Nazis near the end of 1945. At the end of the walk, there was a very nice monument with a memorial sign. Then there was a large stone plaque in over 20 languages with the memorial written on it. Flowers everywhere. That was the only nice thing I saw in that 4 hours. There were 5 latrines in the whole camp. And they had to be shared between over 20,000 prisoners. With only one hour in the morning and one hour at night that they were allowed to use them. And they weren't allowed to relieve themselves outside. That means they literally had no other choice but to urinate/defecate on themselves. No wonder there was so much sickness and disease. The tour ended after about an hour, and then we headed back to Krakow. You are completely humbled when you leave that awful place. Your first world problems no longer become as heavy and you learn to appreciate your uncomfortable bed or your cracked phone screen or your minimum wage job. I'm grateful that I was able to experience this. I wish that everyone could at some point in their lives. You can't completely understand it until you have stood in it.
Prisoner's blocks at Auschwitz I.
The Death Wall. Where they shot and hung thousands of innocent prisoners.
Block 11 contained torture chambers. Like small, dark rooms where prisoners were locked for several days with no food or anything. Others were punished to stand in standing cells. They are these TINY rooms where up to four prisoners would have to stand for night after night because there was no room to sit or lay down. And if they tried, they were shot.
The gas chamber & crematorium in Auschwitz I.
"Work Makes You Free."
Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Birkenau was huge. And so cold and misty. It added a lot to the experience.
The train tracks at Birkenau.
Guard watch tower.
One of the train cars that held prisoners on their way to Birkenau. Some of the journeys, like from Italy or Greece, took up to two weeks in these cars. The prisoners were forced to urinate/defecate on themselves, so a lot of people came down with awful diseases before they even got to the camps.
The ruins of the crematoriums at Birkenau, after the Nazis destroyed them.
Prisoner's blocks at Birkenau.
Toilets. They had a group called the "Sheist Kommando" which literally translates to "Shit Commander" in German. This group was forced to clean up all of the feces in these toilets.
Bunks in Birkenau. Up to 12 prisoners were forced to sleep on these. No blankets, no comfort. BUT the Nazis DID create them so they would be slanted, to offer more comfort for the prisoners. So after gassing and shooting millions of prisoners for absolutely no reason, they are concerned about their sleeping comfort? Mind boggling.
Prisoner's shoes. There were 2 or 3 HUGE glass displays with shoes in them.
Toothbrushes, brushes, razors.
