Visiting Auschwitz: A blog
By Liv White, Maddy Desmond, Luke Arthur
22 March 2023
Leaving in the morning I still didn’t know what to expect about the site itself – this remained firmly in the back of my mind, getting up at 3am on Wednesday. My dad drove Maddy and I to the airport where we met up with Liv, and we all checked in at the departures lounge. After checking in we went for a 'Spoon's' breakfast, which was overpriced but warm and edible, I would say that spirits were high, but at that time in the morning everyone just seemed tired and slightly nervous with anticipation. I realised that no one in our group knew what to expect and that everyone would have different reactions to the horrors that lay ahead. On the plane our group leader gave me a small poem to read at the end of the ceremony (“I saw a Mountain”, by the Yiddish poet Moshe Svulstein) so I practised this for the duration of the flight.
Kraków Airport seemed very new, and checking in at the arrivals gate was seamless. Here we all made our way to the coach that took us directly to Oświęcim, the small town less than 2 kilometres from Auschwitz 1. Here we stopped in the square and took in the surrounding views. The sky was grey and dull, but this didn’t detract from the picturesque buildings surrounding the square – the town house stood out the most, along with the huge church that we had all spotted on the coach beforehand. Stood in the square in our group, we learnt about the significance of the role that the town played in the entire Auschwitz operation. Many SS officers moved here with their families from Berlin in 1940-41 to oversee plans for the continued expansion of the camp. The town had a prominent Jewish community before Nazi occupation of Poland began – over 70% of residents were Jewish.
We learnt how from the beginning, both welcome and prejudice marked the relationship between Oświęcim and its Jewish residents. Jews arrived in Oświęcim in the second half of the 16th century, founding a Jewish community with a synagogue and cemetery. Jewish communal and commercial life thrived, but economic competition with non-Jewish neighbours and religious conflict resulted in a 1563 prohibition on further Jewish settlement in Oświęcim. In response, local Jews established a Jewish district and the community continued to grow despite the ban. This Jewish district expanded and by the 1930s, it was thriving. When Jewish weddings occurred, the whole town was invited to participate, Jews and non-Jews alike. The people of Oświęcim lived in relative harmony, and the Nazis shattered this when they annexed the area to Germany in October 1939.
From Oświęcim square we walked to a small memorial site situated just by the banks of the river Soła to contemplate all the traditions and Jewish culture in the area that had been wiped out by the Nazis. We weren’t here long though, as we had a packed schedule ahead, and we needed to push on. The coach was refuelled when we got back, and we wasted no time driving directly to Auschwitz 1.
This was almost certainly the one part of the trip that surprised me the most – the camps' close proximity to local amenities and the town itself. Before the trip I had always held two assumptions about Auschwitz – firstly, that it was all one site, and secondly, that it was completely isolated (perhaps to hide the horrors from the local population). I was expecting that it would be miles and miles away from Oświęcim, but this was not the case at all. In reality, Auschwitz was a 5 -minute coach ride away, and I was shocked to see the huge barbed wire fence of Camp 1 on my right as we approached the junction leading to the museum car park.
I was expecting to find the museum relatively sedate (as it was a Wednesday) but this again was not the case. Getting off the coach we were greeted by a huge throng of around 500 people all waiting to gain entrance to the ticket shop. We spent around half an hour waiting in line to get inside, which built anticipation within the group even further. From our spot in the queue, we could all see some of the buildings that made up Camp 1 and wondered if we would go inside them.
In the queue, many different languages could be heard from all the other visitors around us and this reminded me how significant the site was. People had travelled here from all around the world, some would almost certainly have distant relatives that had been imprisoned at Auschwitz, more than likely many had relatives who had died here.
Once inside the museum we found our tour guide, went through security and started our tour. We began at the entrance to Camp 1, the gate.
The German words “Arbeit macht frei” written above the gate translate into English as “Work sets you free”. This is of course ironic, as the Nazis never intended to set anyone free from Auschwitz. For the many who came here, this must have uplifted those who didn’t know what lay ahead of them (the promise that if they did what they were told, they would perhaps return home to their families). This is the first example of the Nazis controlling the emotions of the prisoners, restricting the thoughts that could lead to the one event that would have the potential to topple the whole operation – mass panic.
Our tour guide told us that Camp 1 was originally built to house the German Army, hence the infrastructure was a far higher quality than that of camp 2. This made the 'living conditions' marginally better for the prisoners. We were told that all clothes were removed upon arrival, and that the prisoners were instead given striped overalls with a number. In one of the buildings, we were shown hundreds of pairs of shoes that had been taken away from the prisoners. This was a disturbing sight, as in a way the shoes represented the individuality of each man, woman and child who were imprisoned at Auschwitz.
We moved methodically through the various buildings at Auschwitz, learning in graphic detail how the Nazis managed to dehumanise the Jewish prisoners and ensure the genocide took place as efficiently as possible. Entering the gas chamber at Auschwitz 1 felt almost unreal, and it is still truly chilling to think of the various jobs the Sonderkommando had to complete after each gassing.
We left the gas chamber, took off our tour-guide headphones and returned them to the museum inventory. We then headed back to the bus for lunch, and prepared for the next instalment of the trip.
After visiting Auschwitz I, a ten-minute bus journey took us to the site of Auschwitz Birkenau. Immediately on arrival, I was shocked to see the openness of the landscape. I had always thought the sites would be hidden within forests and tree cover; however, Auschwitz Birkenau stands in an open field, with sparse tree cover – in plain sight. This seemed to be a continued theme from our previous visit to Auschwitz I, which was similarly in an obvious place, not even two kilometres from the town of Oświęcim. I think that this added to the horror of these places, as it is difficult to believe that nobody knew about it, seeing as the proximity they were to the normal, social life.
As shown above, this is the well-known signpost scene of Auschwitz Birkenau, with the train tracks leading into the gates of the building. When entering through the gates, a huge overwhelming feeling was definite within the group, seeing how the camp stretched on for miles. We could not see the end of it. To our right were hundreds of rows of wooden barracks, which were both sleeping barracks and the toilet areas. The sleeping barracks saw many wooden structures within them which could be loosely likened to bunk beds. Just one level of these would sleep up to five people, and the same above them. This area was a place of great disease spread, as hundreds of people were crammed together. The most common of sicknesses were skin issues, suffered by almost all prisoners. This included boils, rashes and abscesses as a result of the lack of nutrition and vitamins provided. Another consequence of the poor food given, saw diseases such as dysentery rife amongst the barracks, prisoners sleeping on the lower level of the barracks would have faeces, vomit and other human excrement dropped onto them during the night from the prisoners above, as times they were allowed to use the toilets were very controlled and limited. This just demonstrates the level of illness and desperation seen within the prisoners, thousands of prisoners dying from the conditions of the camps, starvation and diseases, specifically typhus, diarrhoea, extreme mental trauma and more.
Only some of the hundreds of rows of barracks fully survived to present day, with many of them being bombed and burnt down by the Nazis themselves, in attempts to cover up their crimes. However, within all sleeping barracks was a brick furnace, given just one piece of coal during the winter months to heat them, proving for temperatures way below freezing. There were huge fields extended for hundreds of meters back, littered with brick furnaces, the only surviving remnant of the wooden barracks. This again demonstrated the extent and the amount of people imprisoned here.
Outside the barracks, our groups met with a Jewish Rabi, who emphasised the importance of Jewish Culture, and it being the one thing the Nazis could not exterminate or take away from them. Jewish prisoners still praying, speaking in Hebrew and carrying out Jewish rituals with the materials found around them, as the Nazis could not take away their ways of thinking and their culture in their minds, which is what makes their faith so strong. This speech was incredibly moving, as he spoke of people managing to still retain some elements of hope and belonging in such awful conditions, and around people so determined to take it away.
Possibly one of the most moving areas of the camp for me, was the area of the cattle truck. Prisoners were transported to Birkenau in train carts, with each of the carts carrying around 50 prisoners. These journeys were long, dark and disgusting. With only one bucket in the corner of the cart for the 50 people to relive themselves over the days they were locked in this darkness, with no food and no water, it is no wonder that people arrived to the camp already sick and weak or even dead. When standing next to this cart at Birkenau, we were told about a young boy who had been deported to Auschwitz with his mother, father and sister. He talks of the separation between his mother and sister to him and his father, the last glances they shared being the last they would ever have. His sister and mother were sent straight to their death, however him and his father to a delayed death, work first. I think this was the most emotional part of the visit for myself, as it was there where I stood that families, couples and friends never saw each other ever again. Where I stood, I could see the workplaces and the barracks to my right, and the gas chambers and the large craters in the ground to my left.
The gas chamber at the camp was completely fallen in. All the brick and stone were collapsed in on itself and spread along the grass to the sides of the building. This was the Nazi’s attempt of covering up what they had done, a clear sign that they knew that what they were doing within these camps was unforgivable. Next to the rubble, was what seemed to be a small lake. This was in fact a wide and deep hole the nazis had dug in the ground as a place to discard of the bodies from the gas chambers before they burnt them. There were several of these holes dotted around the camp, another overwhelming feeling here, the thought of bodies piled up. We were read more recounts of holocaust survivors' stories, who talks of arriving at the camp to a rancid smell he couldn’t place. It was of course later that he realised this smell to be burning flesh, bones and blood. The recounts of the camp were definitely the most difficult to hear, being in the place during a time when there is no conflict, there was no burning of aggression, there were no prisoners or guards – but to think of this place, which is now an almost peaceful memorial site, to once have been so full of ruin and cruelty, and to be stood directly there is something very difficult to grasp.
At the end of our visit, we heard the Jewish Prayer for the Dead, led by a Rabbi. Although we had a copy of the English translation to read, I felt that I gained more from simply listening to it in Hebrew. He also told us the story of Gisella Perl, a Jewish gynaecologist who saved the lives of many suffering women from inside the concentration camp. This was a final reminder of the humanity and remarkable stories of individuals imprisoned there – a side to the history of the Holocaust which is often easy to overlook. We also listened to some readings, such as diary entries and poems written by the former prisoners, performed by students. Luke read the poem ‘I Saw a Mountain’ alongside sixth formers from other schools. This was a great way for everyone to express their thoughts over what we had seen throughout the day to the rest of the students. Even from within our county’s group, the diversity of people there was clear. One person in particular caught my eye; a deaf student whose teacher signed throughout the memorial service.
Afterwards, we laid down a candle at the memorial monument in Birkenau as a symbol of our respects to those who were not only affected by Auschwitz, but by all other areas of the Holocaust as well. It was also a brief moment in the day which gave us time to be with our more personal reflections. Stood beside the memorial, you could again hear the wide range of languages and peoples from around the world, and could see how they had chosen to pay their respects. Some were reading the plaques on the floor, others laid down flowers, or said prayers. This seemed to make the site peaceful, a representation of the unity established in the years after the war, and it served as a reminder that there are no barriers – cultural or otherwise – to learning about and remembering the events of the Holocaust. It was a fitting image to finish the day, perhaps the one I can remember now most clearly.
I recently came across a word in German which has no direct or easy translation into English, but was created to describe monuments like this:
‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’
Literally it means ‘past coping’, but is used to describe the feeling of coming to terms with the horrors caused by the Nazis, which I believe makes it the best description of our visit to Auschwitz.
