So as I mentioned in the earlier post, Auschwitz is separated into two visitable sites. The first was Auschwitz I and the second is Auschwitz-Birkenau. After finishing up at the museum we caught the bus over to Birkenau which was about 3 km away. The bus was free but we had to wait an hour for it. For how much my feet hurt that was an easy wait.
A little history. Once Auschwitz began expanding past the political prisoner phase they were in need of more room, so they created Birkenau. Most of the very famous atrocities committed were at Birkenau. Unlike the previous post, which was turned into a museum, Birkenau was left in the same condition as it was left by the Nazi's (with a few exceptions). This was to show exactly how the prisoners lived and what the camp was like.
These are the very famous train tracks in which prisoners would come in on. Once they reached the end of the tracks they would be sorted. One group would live and work in the camps building ditches and more housing, and the other would be sent directly to the gas chambers. About 90% of the people went straight to the gas chambers.
These are some of the ruins of the Barracks. It looked like there were approximately 50 barracks with housed between 20,000 and 30,000 prisoners at a time.
This place was massive. It was really well done. You can walk up to the majority of the barracks and look around. There were only a few that were open.
We walked along the train tracks all the way to the end. At the end of the tracks is where the sorting happened, and the people were sent to either the right crematorium or the left crematorium. This is what remains of the gas chambers. When people were sent to the gas chamber, they were sent under ground and told to take off all their clothes. They were told they had to take a shower to be deloused. Once undressed they were put into the gas chamber, which had fake shower heads installed. This is when the Zyklone B was administered. Approximately 50 minutes later they would open the chamber and search all the bodies for gold teeth, glasses, fake teeth, or anything else that was valuable. From there the bodies would be sent to the incinerator.
Once the Allies were moving in to liberate Auschwitz the Nazi's decided to cover their tracks and destroyed all 5 crematoriums. None have them have been rebuilt, but there are maps illustrating what it looked like.
There were two crematoriums at the end of the tracks (both in pieces) and on the far side are these memorials. In the water is where the ashes of hundreds of thousand of people were carelessly dumped day after day.
(Translation: To the memory of the men, women, and children who fell victim to the Nazi Genocide. Here lies their ashes. May their souls rest in Peace.)
The end of the Train tracks have been removed, and there lies this memorial. On the ground in front of it there are placard in almost 20 languages. We thought they didn't have an English one but it was at the very end. There was no explanation for the meaning of the monument.
The monument and placarded lie on a built up pathway (hard to describe) that let you see the lay out of the crematoriums better. Here, is the placard in English.
(Translation: For Ever let this place be a cry of Despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazi's murdered about one and a half million Men, Women and Children, mainly Jews, from various countries of Europe.)
This is one of the ruined buildings. It is the bathroom. The seats are within two inches of each other. One sign I read said they were permitted to use it once a day, and that was it.
This is a replica of a train car used to transport the Jews to the prison camp. This one was dedicated to the Hungarian Jews which made up 400,000 of the 1.1-1.4 million murdered at Auschwitz. The exact number murdered is unknown.
These are the train tracks leaving the site.
After a really emotional day we didn't really want to do much else. We took the two hour train ride back and had some authentic Polish dinner!
Brent had pirogi's and I had homemade pasta.
This was an amazing day, and really made the whole Poland trip worth it. There is something very disturbing, humbling, miserable, unsettling and tormenting about Auschwitz. It was was really really well done, and it was wonderful to visit, which seems odd because of what it was and what happened there. Overall it was a once in a lifetime experience and I am very glad I was able to participate.
A little history. Once Auschwitz began expanding past the political prisoner phase they were in need of more room, so they created Birkenau. Most of the very famous atrocities committed were at Birkenau. Unlike the previous post, which was turned into a museum, Birkenau was left in the same condition as it was left by the Nazi's (with a few exceptions). This was to show exactly how the prisoners lived and what the camp was like.
These are the very famous train tracks in which prisoners would come in on. Once they reached the end of the tracks they would be sorted. One group would live and work in the camps building ditches and more housing, and the other would be sent directly to the gas chambers. About 90% of the people went straight to the gas chambers.
These are some of the ruins of the Barracks. It looked like there were approximately 50 barracks with housed between 20,000 and 30,000 prisoners at a time.
This place was massive. It was really well done. You can walk up to the majority of the barracks and look around. There were only a few that were open.
We walked along the train tracks all the way to the end. At the end of the tracks is where the sorting happened, and the people were sent to either the right crematorium or the left crematorium. This is what remains of the gas chambers. When people were sent to the gas chamber, they were sent under ground and told to take off all their clothes. They were told they had to take a shower to be deloused. Once undressed they were put into the gas chamber, which had fake shower heads installed. This is when the Zyklone B was administered. Approximately 50 minutes later they would open the chamber and search all the bodies for gold teeth, glasses, fake teeth, or anything else that was valuable. From there the bodies would be sent to the incinerator.
Once the Allies were moving in to liberate Auschwitz the Nazi's decided to cover their tracks and destroyed all 5 crematoriums. None have them have been rebuilt, but there are maps illustrating what it looked like.
There were two crematoriums at the end of the tracks (both in pieces) and on the far side are these memorials. In the water is where the ashes of hundreds of thousand of people were carelessly dumped day after day.
(Translation: To the memory of the men, women, and children who fell victim to the Nazi Genocide. Here lies their ashes. May their souls rest in Peace.)The end of the Train tracks have been removed, and there lies this memorial. On the ground in front of it there are placard in almost 20 languages. We thought they didn't have an English one but it was at the very end. There was no explanation for the meaning of the monument.
The monument and placarded lie on a built up pathway (hard to describe) that let you see the lay out of the crematoriums better. Here, is the placard in English.
(Translation: For Ever let this place be a cry of Despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazi's murdered about one and a half million Men, Women and Children, mainly Jews, from various countries of Europe.)This is one of the ruined buildings. It is the bathroom. The seats are within two inches of each other. One sign I read said they were permitted to use it once a day, and that was it.
This is a replica of a train car used to transport the Jews to the prison camp. This one was dedicated to the Hungarian Jews which made up 400,000 of the 1.1-1.4 million murdered at Auschwitz. The exact number murdered is unknown.
These are the train tracks leaving the site.
After a really emotional day we didn't really want to do much else. We took the two hour train ride back and had some authentic Polish dinner!
Brent had pirogi's and I had homemade pasta.
This was an amazing day, and really made the whole Poland trip worth it. There is something very disturbing, humbling, miserable, unsettling and tormenting about Auschwitz. It was was really really well done, and it was wonderful to visit, which seems odd because of what it was and what happened there. Overall it was a once in a lifetime experience and I am very glad I was able to participate.
2 comments:
I couldn't imagine what it would be like. Thanks for describing it.
Lovely blog. Glad i stumbled across it before i return to Auschwitz and Birkenhau in two days time
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