Blogging on a phone is very frustrating. Especially when it deletes all your work...
Anyways, I also wanted to note that in the death row blocks was also another building, barrack 10, where the SS conducted experiments and had underground cells. The experiments involved the sterilization of woman, genetic experiments of twins and handicapped people, and trying new medical and chemical preparations with toxic substances rubbed onto the skin. Hundreds died during these experiments, and if you lived you suffered serious damage to your health. They also deliberately murdered people with lethal injections to do autopsies on them. Sick, sick people.
The underground cells consisted of three types...all equally a painful way to die. One cell was where prisoners were condemned to starvation, another was death by suffocation, and the last was a standing cell in which it was so small you could only stand. Despite all this, there was still resistance by the prisoners! Good for them!
Lastly in Auschwitz, we came to the crematorium and gas chamber. The original had been destroyed, but the museum did well to renovate it. You will also find gallows next to the crematorium. This is where they hung Rudolf Hoss, the first commandant of Auschwitz, in April 1947 for everything that happened at this camp. Ironic. When you first enter the crematorium you enter the gas chambers...Just like the prisoners and Jews would have done. Kind of surreal. You will see the holes in the ceiling where the deadly crystals were dropped through. In the next room are the furnaces where 350 bodies were burned daily. However, the ability to kill at Auschwitz was not sufficient for the SS. That is when Birkenau was built. By the way, for those that don't know. Auschwitz used to be a polish military base that the Nazis took over. There were only a few buildings then. The prisoners built most of them later on.
We had lunch at noon and then caught the bus to Birkenau. It is only 3 km away from Auschwitz.
When the bus first drives up, you see the very recognizable main gate. However, the Jews and many people brought to the camp couldn't see this because they were in tiny, sealed off train cars. Those coming to concentration camps were sometimes tricked and told they were being moved to a safe and new land. They packed their best things, and then were put on a train for days without food, water, and bathroom breaks. You can imagine how awful it was. Now imagine the shock of arriving to Birkenau if you survived the train ride.
When you get off the train, the separation begins. Women and children on one side and men on the other. They also selected who would be fit to work and who would go straight to the gas chambers. There were 4 crematoriums at Birkenau. The ones on the women and children side were much bigger. Only 25% of those that got there were said to be fit to work. When you see how big this camp is, with 300 buildings...700-1000 in each barrack, you start to realize how many people were truly murdered.
Of the 300 buildings that were there, only 45 brick barracks and 22 wood barracks are still standing. However, you can still see the outlines and chimneys of the barracks the Nazis tried to destroy. It was very eerie.
At the main gate was where the processing began. Shaving the heads, being given their new clothes that were never washed out intended to keep them warm, and they were given their numbers.
When you walk to the very back of the camp, you will see a memorial for those that died and the ruins of the crematorium. The smaller ones were in much worse shape than the bigger ones.
You could see the underground part where the people would go being told they were guaranteed a bath. So they go underground, take off their clothes, enter the gas chambers, the gassing took 10-15 minutes, SS waits about 30 minutes, then pulls out the corpses to burn in the crematorium and pits. The pits are still there with water in them, along with the ashes.
We then continued back towards the front entering two of the wooden and brick barracks that remain. It was very eerie knowing how awful it was to sleep there. I know night trains are bad, but at least we had our own beds. They had to sleep 4-8 to a bed and you were lucky to wake up in the morning of you hadn't died from being suffocated, a sickness, or the rats and bugs. If you were being punished, they had standing only cells in the barracks as well. On the grounds were also torture barracks.
Birkenau was made for mass murder with no remorse. After about 5 hours, we left, knowing we had to catch a bus. I know we couldn't spent much more time, but with the amount of time we did spend, I have been changed forever.
Nothing can take away the pain and death the holocaust caused. It wasn't just Hitler who caused it, it was a group of people that had been tricked into thinking killing was right. Don't let history repeat itself. There is always room to fight the crime, no matter how big or small. Even in the face of certain death, these prisoners and Jews still had the fight of resistance. I like what Ellen Degeneres says, "be kind to one another". I hope we can always remember this.
Ta ta for now.
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