Oswiecim, Poland (Auschwitz/Birkenau)

I gave Oswiecim (pronounced Osweekim or close to it)/Auschwitz its own page because I feel the subject matter merits it. A lot of horrible, horrible things happened there, although to visit and look at the place, you'd never know it if not for the memorial. And the flowers, left by other visitors to honor all of those who suffered there.

We arrived at the camp, or what's left of it, sometime in the middle of the afternoon. Let me explain one thing before I get into the tour itself - most of the 27 or so people on the tour were Jewish. Many of them, understandably, were in tears at the end of the tour. The tour lasted about 2-3 hours.

Our guide for the tour was named Wanda. She is from the nearby city of Krakow, which was our destination after we left the camp. But for now, we were here. Auschwitz is the German name for Oswiecim. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, they annexed a large portion of western Poland into Germany, and this portion included Oswiecim. This land was to be used for "Lebensraum", to settle Germany colonizers for which Germany itself did not have land. It must be nice to be able to take something that has belonged to someone else for centuries and just kick them out. Because, in essence, that's what the Germans did.

The concentration camp started in the early 1940's from an existing Polish Army Camp. This camp was composed of brick buildings, most of them two story, which you can kind of see in this picture. In this picture also is the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign. This is the actual position of the sign. A lot of pictures and movies show it close the the railway lines. Untrue. Given this position, I doubt if many of the later camp arrivals ever saw this sign.

Auschwitz, as we know it, was actually composed of many smaller, satellite camps plus this main camp, designated Auschwitz I. The largest and most infamous of the satellite camps, and where most of the atrocities took place, was at Birkenau/Auschwitz II. Most, if not all, of the other camps no longer exist. More on Birkenau later.

Auschwitz had two purposes for the Germans: it was a concentration camp and it was a death camp. The "concentration" camp part of Auschwitz was mainly located in Auschwitz I, with the brick buildings. Most, if not all, of the inhabitants of the "concentration" camp were non-Jews. This doesn't mean they were treated any better; it just means that, in the camp hierarchy, they were above the Jews. The Germans were equal-opportunity atrocity-committers.

About 1942/1943, the Germans decided upon the "Final Solution" and also decided that Auschwitz should be the main place for this to occur. Jews from all over Europe were transported here via cattle car. Those that didn't die en route faced a "selection", during which the camp doctors (Mengele among them) chose who would live and would die. All children, old people, those who could not work were all sent to the gas chambers and crematoria. The selection, gassing, and cremation all occurred at Birkenau.

Birkenau is also where most of the Jews lived. Jews were not the only ones who lived there - Poles, Slavs, Russian prisoners of war, and others also were housed at Birkenau. The Germans did want to exterminate the Jews, of that there is no question. But they also wanted to exterminate any Poles, Slavs, and other, sub-humans as well. To take their land, their property, their goods, and because they were not considered to be as racially valid, for lack of a better description, as the Germans themselves.

Some of the brick buildings at Auschwitz have been turned into a museum. We went through about 4-5 of the buildings. One of them showed a model of the gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau. The four sets of gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau no longer exist - they were destroyed by the Germans prior to their evacuation of the camps. However, the first gas chamber and crematoria used at Auschwitz, those of the main camp, still exist. The Germans built the rest when they realized the volume was much greater than the capacity of that lone gas chamber and crematoria.

A second building showed the living conditions of the prisoners at the main camp. They differed greatly from those at the satellite camps and those at Birkenau. What I remember most about this building is that the downstairs hallway had rows of 8x10 photographs of some of the Polish people killed in the camp. On one wall are pictures of men and on the other, pictures of women. Amongst the women's pictures were two of sisters, twins. They died after only a few months at the camp. On average, women tended to die within 3-6 months after entering the camp; men lived slightly longer.

Two other buildings, aside from the gas chamber and crematoria, affected me much more than any other part of the camp. Near the center of the camp, where most of the museum buildings are, is a building with remnants of belongings taken by the Germans from their victims. There are eyeglasses, briefcases, suitcases, toys, baby carriages, dinnerware, etc. But what got me the most was this huge collection of women's hair. The Germans cut their victims hair and shipped it to factories to be used in things like coat linings. Most, if not all, of the hair has grayed because, let's face it, the hair is 50 years old. And most of the hair was in disarray, just kind of balled up and tangled. And, in amongst all of that hair, I saw a braid. Just laying on top of other hair. Neat, untangled, smooth. All in contrast to what her, the owner's, life must have been like once she arrived at Auschwitz.

The second place was barracks 10 and 11. Sterilization experiments were conducted on women prisoners in barracks 10. Horrible experiments which severely damaged the women upon whom they were conducted. Radiation, surgical procedures, and so on. And next door, the "Death Block", barracks 11. The windows of barracks 10 were boarded up so that the women could not see what was happening next door. But they could hear.

In between the two barracks was a courtyard, shown in the picture, where prisoners were executed. Sometimes the prisoners were executed in the barracks 11 itself. The first gassing experiments were conducted on Soviet prisoners of war in the basement of barracks 11. Prisoners were also tortured in these same basements: starved to death, made to stand for days on end in square enclosures not much bigger than a foot, squared, rooms crammed with many more people than they were designed to hold. The Germans also beat the prisoners of this barracks and sometimes hung them from special hooks, with their hands bound behind their backs.

And then there was the gas chamber and crematoria. They existed on one end of the camp. Before Birkenau came into existence, prisoners were led here from the railway station, made to disrobe outside, and then led into the gas chamber on the pretext of having a "shower". Once the prisoners realized what was happening, they would attempt to break out by beating on the doors. Sometimes, the Germans did not let the gas work long enough and not all the prisoners would have died. Or they might wait too long and then they would have a hard time prying the bodies apart. I know this sounds awful, but it is true.

The gas chamber is dark and small, pretty much would you think it should be. There is more light in the crematoria. Only two ovens exist in the the crematoria, and previous visitors had left liberal amounts of flowers in their mouths. Fittingly, the first and last commandant of Auschwitz (it was the same man, Rudolf Höss) was hanged by the Poles after the end of World War II right outside the gas chamber of the main camp.

Unfortunately, we did not really have enough time to visit Birkenau properly. Some of the large wooden, barn-like structures still stand there, the ones so familiar from television. Eventually, the Germans had a railway spur built out to Birkenau so that the prisoners did not even go through the main camp, and the selections were conducted there. The remnants of the four gas chambers and their crematoria, as well as several large fire pits, can also be found at Birkenau. The Germans used the pits when the crematoria could not keep up with the gassed bodies.

The Germans did not destroy all of the gas chambers and crematoria. In 1944, a group of prisoners revolted against the Germans and blew up number 4. These prisoners worked in the gas chambers and crematoria, and were in a position to know what was really happening at the camps. For that reason, they were kept separate from all other prisoners. The Germans also did not let such prisoners live long - I read somewhere that some prisoners were killed after 90 days, no matter what physical condition they might be in or what need there was for their services. Some German knew how distasteful the outside world would feel once they fully realized what was happening.

Because people did know. Our government, those of our allies, they knew what was happening in Auschwitz and in other camps. And they did nothing.

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