Auschwitz (not for the faint of heart)
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2010
1
14
Trip End
Sep 07, 2010
Krakow, Southern Poland, Poland
Friday, July 23, 2010
The initial impression of Auschwitz is the appearance of a standard prison. Barbed wire surrounded the grounds which had previously served as a military base. Neatly arranged brick buildings once served many functions, mainly housing the concentration camp occupants who were deemed useful for slave labor and endeavoring in some of the more gruesome tasks required in running such a death compound. The buildings were filled with byproducts of their function; human hair, which had been removed from the heads of the victims and intended for use in producing textiles, was piled up in unimaginable quantity on display. The Nazis intended to "waste nothing" and this camp was like a refining plant, where human beings were the raw materials, run with German efficiency. Other displays included pairs of shoes taken from the executed and now piled up in the thousands, similar piles of eyeglasses, and an unbelievable display of prosthetic legs and crutches representing a mere fraction of the victims who were handicapped.
Those who were sent off to the camps were often told they were being relocated to Eastern Europe to start a new life and upon arrival at Auschwitz the masses were led into buildings resembling large communal showers. A huge deception as the Nazi guards would voice perhaps their only kind words: "Don't let the water burn you. It's very hot." Upon entering the showers holes in the ceiling served as entry points for canisters of Cyclone B gas which were dropped in amongst the people. This was the method of execution deemed the most effective for eliminating the largest number of people in the quickest period of time. An estimated 1,600 people per day at Auschwitz in 1944. As an engineer I imagine the intelligent thought and calculations that must have gone into designing such a camp. The brainstorming meetings that must have ensued to arrive at Cyclone B gas as the method of choice.
Standing in the very space after entering the same threshold where so many experienced their final moments of life was an experience hardly done justice in books or presentations. After the gassing the bodies had to be removed from the chamber, gold teeth extracted, jewelry removed, and bodies placed into incinerators which were in the adjoining room. These jobs were reserved for fellow concentration camp inmates.
From Auschwitz I took a ten minute bus ride to Birkenau, a significantly larger camp constructed to expand on the function of Auschwitz. One was free to wander among the sprawling array of warehouse-like structures. An unbelievably vast space resembling a grid from a bird's eye view, accounting for an estimated 1 to 2.5 million deaths (a precise figure is not known), this camp resembled an abandoned industrial area reminding one of its factory-like efficiency. Auschwitz allowed a perspective on the details of the methods while Birkenau highlighted the scale to which these methods were carried out.
For those traveling in the vicinity of these camps a visit, though sure to ruin your day, is an experience worthy of this cost; a much needed perspective into this grim chapter of recent history. I had visited other monuments to genocide such as the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and each historic episode contains its own slight variance but the constant lesson seems to remain in place: humans are sometimes capable of disgusting acts when they become a part of a much larger order. To surrender individuality one may also surrender their conscience. Many insects like bees, ants, wasps, etc. have what's called collective intelligence, possessing very little individual intelligence but collectively forming an intelligent functioning system. I sometimes feel humans are just the opposite, possessing the possibility of a collective stupidity, immorality while containing an individual brilliance. Just some thoughts and I must leave it at that. I highly recommend a visit to this site if one ever gets the chance.
