Auschwitz

In August 1999, aged 24, I travelled to Poland with a group of friends for a three week tour of the southern end of the country. As we were based in Krakow for much of the stay we took the opportunity to spend a day visiting the Auschwitz Concentration and Death Camps near the village of Oswiecim. I was about to start my first year as a history teacher and so the trip was particularly poignant and left me with strong memories which are as vivid today as they were when I wrote this diary entry at the time of the trip.

“Up early to get to the Hotel Crackovia and get on the bus for Auschwitz. This was part of the holiday that I had been both dreading and looking forward to. I wasn’t really sure what to expect despite all the things that people tell you. I guess you have to experience these things for yourself. Personally, as I’m sure for the others, it was going to be a very unique experience. Writing about it now I don’t think I can explain the day sufficiently in words so I’ll just make some general comments.

The bus into Auschwitz was, as you’d expect, a sombre affair, especially as we entered the town of Oswiecim and the camp itself. The tour started with a short film using some footage taken by the Red Army on liberating Auschwitz and Birkenau. After the film we met our guide, Sebastian, a guy of about our age who turned out to be a wonderful guide. He explained to us that he had his own strong opinions about the camps and didn’t mind expressing them. I was glad of this – Auschwitz is not the kind of place where you want some monotone, tired commentary, the history of the place is too complex for that. It turned out that the guide stopped doing the job for some time because he was letting his personal feelings get in the way of his job, but was persuaded to rejoin.

The tour started in Auschwitz I, the first of the camps in the area established initially for Polish political prisoners. The buildings here are all stone; many of them were administrative and housing areas for the Nazis and so had to be fairly respectable for official visits. Auschwitz I now holds the exhibitions of remains from the death camp at Birkenau. The personal belongings (piles of glasses, named suitcases etc) make the horrors of what happened come to life. The platted hair was particularly poignant. The guide was keen to make us understand the individual tragedy of Auschwitz rather than concentrate on the incomprehensible statistics – he pointed out some specific suitcases with dates of birth on them, some of which were owned by very young children.

We were taken down some of the cells, which were tiny and completely isolated. We saw some of the etchings on the walls which prisoners drew before being taken to their deaths, such as a picture of Christ. Many of the political prisoners were executed against what became known as the ‘Wall of Death’ which can still be seen, an old lady was carefully laying flowers by it while we were there.

Auschwitz I was also the place where they first experimented with the gas chamber and we were shown one of these along with the incinerators. The guide told us how the prisoners were kept in the dark about their fate, often being told they were going to be given a shower, and were even given soap and towels. Whilst undressing guards would ask prisoners what their occupation was, telling them how useful they would be after the ‘shower’. This was all done to prevent any kind of panic – the Jews had been living in unbearable conditions in the ghettos and could only believe they were being taken to a better place where they would be used as labour for the war effort. Unaware of their fate panic was avoided which would have disturbed other prisoners. During the gassing a motorbike would drive up and down the street to muffle the sound of the screams. The first experiments of gassing were horrifically unsuccessful – it took 3 days for the victims to die.

Auschwitz I was where the experiments on Jews began, but following the Wannsee Conference (January 1942) it proved to be insufficient for the realisation of the Nazis’ ‘Final Solution’. Auschwitz II/Birkenau was therefore built with the sole purpose of the extermination of the Jewish population of Europe.

After a short bus journey we entered Birkenau and I was immediately struck by the sheer size of the place. It was enormous. We entered into the camp through the famous gatehouse and past the railway line. Like they say, the birds don’t sing, there is a deathly silence about the place and the scale of the camp only exaggerated the silence.

The crematoria and many of the buildings were destroyed by the evacuating Nazis and some of the more useful materials were used to help rebuild Warsaw, but a large number of accommodation blocks and toilet blocks remain. The bed bunks were made of old horse beds and prisoners often had to sleep three to a bunk, literally on top of each other. The description of the living conditions was chilling.

Outside the blocks we were told how the guards, positioned on the fences, would beckon prisoners over by throwing food down. The prisoners were so hungry and desperate they would run to the fence and be shot immediately by the guards as a potential escapee. The guards got a bonus for every potential escapee they shot and knew the prisoners were going to die anyway so didn’t really see anything wrong with getting something out of it themselves.

The toilet blocks were also a horrific sight. Prisoners could not go to the toilet when they needed it, only twice a day at set times. There were not enough seats/holes in the room for everyone and so the floor quickly became awash with mess – the conditions to us are unimaginable. Getting a seat in the toilet was a much sought after acquisition – it gave the prisoners a semblance of dignity as they could still sit to go to the lavatory – the toilets were also the place where information was passed as well as a black market where food could be bought at a price.

Again, to introduce the individual element, the guide told us a moving story about two friends. One of the men was big and strong and his friend was weak – weak prisoners were very quickly selected for the gas chambers whereas stronger ones were put to work for a few months before being killed. During a selection process the weak man somehow managed to stay on his feet and avoid being sent to the gas chamber – he thought this was some kind of miracle but on his return to the accommodation block he fell to the floor and in despair told his friend he was going to commit suicide (run to the fence) because his body would not be able to stand up to any more tests. But his friend managed to persuade him that he had to stay alive, despite all the hardships and horrors it was their duty to stay alive so that they could tell people exactly what had happened in the camps – they were the witnesses to the crimes. Both men survived and were able to tell their stories. It was this kind of belief that kept many people going in such adverse conditions.

We were finally taken up into the sentry tower in the entrance building where we could view Birkenau. It was here that our guide left us; his final remark was that we didn’t treat Auschwitz like just another tourist attraction to cross off the list - a very apt remark at the end of an extremely well-presented tour.

Birkenau was an incredibly moving experience and it angered me to see tourists taking photos of their smiling children standing in front of buildings where millions of innocent people met their deaths.”