There is snow forecast today, and while we’ve had what can be described as drizzle, it’s not a full on snow flurry like I expected.
We had an earlyish start to the day, with 6.50 pick up by our bus at our hotel and just over an hours drive to Auschwitz followed by a quick shuttle to Birkenau and then back to the hotel.
Three years ago I did this tour with Jordan. It was a different feeling that day as this place was new and unknown. Today I approached this with a bit of a sense of trepidation. I remembered the sombreness of the tour, the overwhelming sense of disbelief at how this could ever have been allowed to happen, the total desolation for all who ever called one of these camps home. But this time I could approach it differently as I had felt the emotions previously and this time I could just listen to the stories told and hear the message behind them.
These camps are a desperate and bleak place. People were not meant to survive them. Today I stood out in the open elements in my thermals, jacket, jeans, woollen socks - layers to protect me from the cold, in -1 degrees and I was still cold due to the wind chill factor. Prisoners here wore “pyjamas” - a single layer, often with no underwear and usually barefoot. And they would stand for hours for roll call, labouring in the weather and I wonder how anyone survived. Today was warm for Auschwitz in winter - back during the 40s a regular winter temperature would have been -15 to -20 degrees.
There is no noise here at either of the camps - people are quiet, respectful and muted, but then so are the animals - there is no bird noise, nothing to break the joyless feel of the brutal history. Once again I say “Never again” can we allow this systematic eradication of groups of people to become the norm. While European Jews are the largest representative group that were eradicated in the camps, Russian POWs, Roma (gypsy) heritage, homosexuals and the disabled were also targeted by this regime. It is unthinkable to imagine how well indoctrinated both the victims and the perpetrators were until you hear the stories.
Well may people say “why didn’t they revolt, they had the numbers” - but if you go to this place and you see how they made their selections, listened to the language they used to encourage the people to move through their processes you would understand how masterful the Nazis were in their dressing up of the truth. Jews were told they were being resettled (not an uncommon theme in the history of Judaism) and were even sold fake parcels of land. The trains were organised to centralise them in camps prior to moving them to these new parts. So they willingly boarded these death trains with all of their most valuable worldly possessions, often travelling for days without food or water, all for the promise of resettling and being left alone.
On arrival, they were told that they would need to leave their possessions behind so that they could shower to enter the camp. They were encouraged to label their suitcases so they could identify them easily after their shower (there is a whole room full of these on display at the museum), and while there were selections made as they left the train, they were made to believe that they would see their loved ones after their shower.
They would walk about 300m down to the gas chamber/crematoria, holding the hands of their children, and were herded into change rooms that had been set up with benches and hooks where by all appearances they would come back and get their clothing after their shower. Down to the next room- a shower room where the Nazis has fitted fake shower heads to the walls so once again they still believed they were just showering. And it was only when the door closed and the Zyklon B gas canister was released in the purpose-built vents that many would have realised that this was their end. They died long, slow deaths (about 15-20 minutes), in agony.
Prisoners who had escaped selection then had the job of removing the bodies, pulling gold teeth out, checking bodies for hidden jewellery that had been secreted on the body and then cremating the bodies.
Systematic, brutal but brilliantly executed so that rebellion was never an option. Prisoners who survived selection were often forced to write home to family telling them of the wonderful time they were having at camp, the benefits of being there and that they would soon be free to join them. In reality they slept 8 to a bed, with a single blanket over them all, had about 1200 kilojoules of food a day and worked 10-12 hours in forced labour. When the Russians liberated Birkenau, the average weight for inmates was 30-35kg. Imagine yourself as 35kg. Imagine what it would take for your body to function at that weight.
And yet, when the museum was opened two years after the end of the war, former inmates served as tour guides around the camp. Until only recently, the museum was managed by a holocaust survivor. What would possess people who have lived through the hell that was Auschwitz-Birkenau to come back each and every day to the site of such atrocity to work? While I’m only guessing, I think it must have something to do with being able to ensure that this never happens again. To be able to curate history as one who has lived through it, who can authenticate the words.
I follow the Auschwitz Museum on Facebook and recently there has been a lot of talk about a book “The tattooist of Auschwitz” and the fact that it is not factual and is only loosely based on fact. While some like the idea of raising awareness, the museum’s concern stems from the point that facts are important, and any opportunity for the deniers to water down the history must be managed. It has been an interesting debate to watch unfold.
So many other things to talk about today but I think this needs to stand alone. Part two later with a little more brevity I hope!
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