L: Auschwitz I, which started off as a camp built on Polish military barracks. This was, however, much smaller compared to Auschwitz II, which was found in Birkenau (hence, Auschwitz-Birkenau), a few kilometres away. That was where the majority of prisoners were kept & gassed.
R: The sign on the wall of the watchtower in Birkenau
The camp didn't just incarcerate or exterminate Jews, although they were the majority (90%). There were political renegades, Soviets, Poles, (Roma) gypsies or any other persons who were deemed out of line with the Nazi philosophy. For the purposes of this blog entry, I shall refer to the Jews since they were the majority and the reason for the camp(s) as part of The Final Solution.
L: Arbeit Macht Frei or simply translated, it means work sets you free. It was the slogan that was found in every concentration camp in the Third Reich and was found at the entry points of the camps. We know that it was all a lie because the only way the prisoners became free was probably through escape (if they were successful) or death.
R: A warning sign to prisoners to keep out of that strip of ground they call 'No Man's Land'. The soldiers could fire at will if any prisoner strayed in. However, the soldiers would always find reasons to get the prisoners to 'stray' in there. And they get 3 deutschmarks per head for each killing made.
There have been many films such as Schindler's List & The Pianist which capture what it was like back then but it truly is difficult to describe the place or the experience. I cannot find the right words to express how I felt and still feel about the place where man reared his ugliest and beastliest to another man. It sickens me that those bloody Nazis had no qualms about commiting atrocities towards another who has the same bodily functions, capable of experiencing the same emotions of joy & pain. They seemed to take great (sadistic) delight in torturing and brutalising the Jews. There was no form of reprieve or kindness at all. Were the Nazis even humans?! Just who were they calling sub-humans?
L: The watchtower and the railtrack that carried the Jews in and went out to pick up more of them. This is where most of them would have arrived, in Birkenau. They often arrived after travelling in overcrowded boxes for days & weeks. They had to put up with unspeakable conditions - no air, no toilet facilities, no food or water. By the time they arrived, the whole train would have been in a foul state filled with human excrement and the human remains of those who did not make it through the journey.
R: And this was where the infamous selections took place. The trees in the background are part of the forest where the ashes & remains of the gassed & cremated bodies were thrown into. The crematoria were situated next to the forest.
The only form of charity that they showed was to lie to them and keep the truth of what they were headed for from them till the very end. The Jews were told that they would all be relocated to the east and to pack for it where they will lead new lives. Some of them even paid the Nazis money for 'plots of land' as part of the resettlement in the east.
L: The suitcases that they brought along with them were taken away upon arrival. They were often stored away in warehouses & the items often 'plundered' by the kapos (they were Jewish prisoners selected for physical labour) & the SS or shipped back to Germany for sale
C: The shoes were removed from the new arrivals before they were sent to the gas chambers. It was just overwhelming - the mountain of shoes that filled the length and height of the wall where they were being displayed.
R: The hair that was shaved off the heads of the Jews & other prisoners. I was speechless when I saw that & even more disturbed by the next display which I couldn't bear to see - bales of cloth weaved from hair.
L: The bunkers were no more than a 100m long and up to 2,000 people shared the space. 30 people slept on 3-tier bunk beds.
R: Toilet facilities in bunkers
L: Gas chamber. I didn't know how or what to feel as I stood in there. It was a completely surreal feeling & too overwhelming to imagine the suffering and pain of the innocent people who were sent there to die.
R: The Zyklon B used in the gas chambers. The pellets would react & turn into a gaseous state upon contact with heat (think about how much heat there would have been with 400 people holed up in a small space) which would ultimately suffocate the people in there because of the fumes.
The visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau will stay with me for the rest of my life. I had so many questions 'Why?' 'How?' I don't think I will ever understand how it is possible for humans to inflict such cruelty upon other humans. The sadness that I felt and still feel is something I can't explain. One of the other things that made me angry, besides how the Nazis were running the camps, was why didn't the Allies do something about it even though they knew about it from as early as 1942. They could have stopped or prevented so many people from being exterminated.
The visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau will stay with me for the rest of my life. I had so many questions 'Why?' 'How?' I don't think I will ever understand how it is possible for humans to inflict such cruelty upon other humans. The sadness that I felt and still feel is something I can't explain. One of the other things that made me angry, besides how the Nazis were running the camps, was why didn't the Allies do something about it even though they knew about it from as early as 1942. They could have stopped or prevented so many people from being exterminated.
This is the best I could manage in capturing Birkenau. It's so massive and no camera lens is able to capture the entire grounds. In another sense, it is impossible to envisage the true extent of what happened there. This didn't happen a few hundred years ago. It happened only 60 odd years ago, not too far back in the past. Yet to this day, it seems that people haven't and probably never will learn from history. Why do people deem themselves superior over others and therefore engage in hostility and conflict? We are all equal, all made with the same flesh & blood. And how dare we condemn another & subject them to such beastly treatment & behaviour?
Perhaps Shakespeare put it best in The Merchant of Venice when Shylock was being persecuted for being a Jew.
"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Perhaps Shakespeare put it best in The Merchant of Venice when Shylock was being persecuted for being a Jew.
"Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that."
The Merchant of Venice Act 3 Scene 1
I know I will think about the place for as long as I live and I want people to know and remember that we are the same and no one is more equal than another.
I know I will think about the place for as long as I live and I want people to know and remember that we are the same and no one is more equal than another.
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