Oświęcim
Or in German: Auschwitz.
The effect that visiting Auschwitz has on one’s psyche is hard to put into words. Just reflecting on the experience now is enough to make my eyes well up and my stomach cave in. It’s difficult to say what is more atrocious – the amount of human suffering that went on there, or the idea that human beings are capable of such terror. The incredible gloom is just too much to take in at once. I feel like it trickled in as if through an hour glass until by the end of the day Lauren and I were both miserably dejected.
Auschwitz is actually two separate concentration camps; Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau. Auschwitz 1 was a small Polish military base until the Nazis selected it as one of their first “work camps” due to its ideal location. This is where they initially did small-scale experiments with mass murder techniques while forcing the mostly Russian first wave of inmates to work themselves to death. The Nazis put the methods for genocide developed at Auschwitz 1 into wide scale use at the expansion Birkenau.
The museum’s exhibits are on display in the barracks of Auschwitz 1. Lining the halls between exhibit rooms are hundreds of mug shots the Nazis took of the incoming inmates (before they decided photos were too expensive and started tattooing the prisoners.) The most disturbing of these are the pictures of the elderly and children. One group of photos made me want to burst into tears. They were kids who couldn’t have been older than 12. They looked so scared you can’t even imagine and their eyes were obviously pooling up with tears.
The exhibits showcase everything the liberators found when they arrived. There are entire rooms filled with things the Nazis collected from those they killed. There were gigantic piles of innumerable eyeglasses, shoes and prosthetic limbs (the handicapped were among the first to die,) suitcases (the Nazis encouraged Jews to bring their belongings,) human hair (shaved from the dead and used to make German uniforms,) empty cans of Cyclon-B gas (chemical cleaning agent toxic at high doses bought by the ton,) shoes (upon arrival all inmates were given the same wooden clogs,) and pots and pans.
At Birkenau there is nothing on exhibit other than the vast rows of barracks built to house around 100,000 inmates and the remains of 2 gas chamber/crematoriums that killed over a million innocent men, women, and children.
Arriving back in Krakow was unsettling. Suddenly we were back in the real world with lights and shops and music. After merely a few hours at Auschwitz our brains had become so isolated and despondent that being thrown back into regular society was almost a shock. We hadn’t realized how much of an effect Auschwitz had had on us until that strange feeling getting off the bus.
Being confronted with one of the most disgusting things every to have risen from humanity was a terrible experience. It was appropriate, however, after so much time enjoying the benevolence of the world around us. We got a more balanced view of human history, of a side without the fluff of Renaissance art, Baroque churches, monastery beer, and Parisian avenues. The proprietors of the Auschwitz museum want people to visit the grounds to ensure that no one ever forgets what happened there. I know Lauren and I will never loose such a bitter memory.
Tags: Travel
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