Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
japra | Jan 27, 2009 | Comments 17
Last night before I went to bed, I happened to glace at our wall calendar in the kitchen. There, in tiny letters, I saw the words “Holocaust Memorial Day” on today’s square. I have never heard of this, have you? Apparently, it was first marked in the UK in 2001 to remember the victims of the Holocaust. The date (January 27th) was selected because it is the day that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Soviet Union in 1945.
During our trip to Poland last October, I found myself a somewhat reluctant visitor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial site, a UNESCO World Heritage site. When we planned our trip to Poland, I knew this was going to be one of our destinations. But I have to tell you, I really wasn’t looking forward to this visit. After our trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial site last summer, I thought I knew what I was in for. The reality of it is, I had no clue how big Auschwitz was going to be or how deeply this would touch us. As you can see, I have put off writing this post for three months. But I think today, this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is a good day to finally write about our visit and to remember those who died.
Traveling to Auschwitz from Krakow
Traveling to Auschwitz by bus takes about 1.5 hours. We did not take a tour package, by the way. We just caught the bus at the main bus station, and it dropped us off right in front of the visitor’s building at the Auschwitz Memorial.
We woke up at 6:30 AM in order to get on the bus by 8 AM. We stayed at the memorial site for nearly five hours. The tour itself lasted three.
It was a picturesque drive. Most of the roads we took were small.
This was a market in a small town on the way to Auschwitz. There were quite a few women who got on our bus here with their shopping and got off at even smaller towns down the way.
I wonder what this person planted?
The bricks used in the homes are smooth. They almost look like cinder blocks. I wonder if they are?
A picturesque church in the countryside.
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, located outside the town of Oswiecim, is divided into three camps. Auschwitz I is the original camp and was established May 20, 1940. Two miles away is Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, which was built in 1941 to ease the overcrowding. Auschwitz III, or Monowitz, was a work camp (factory) and was established in 1942. Auschwitz III is not on the tour.
After we paid for our tickets, we were given a time to see the 15 minute film, which is much more graphic and intense than the one we saw at Dachau. After the movie, we picked up our headset. Our guide narrated live during the tour–the headset just helped keep noise in t
he camp down to a respectful level.
he camp down to a respectful level.
No photos were allowed in the buildings. Some of the displays were really gut-wrenching, such as the room filled with human hair. The hair was taken from prisoners and sold for weaving. There are also exhibits of piles of thousands of eyeglasses, shoes, and suitcases. It is very moving.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum recommends no children under 14. I would agree with that (though Roxi was 13 when we went). This is a very intense site.
The entrance to Auschwitz I. “Arbeit Macht Frei” or Work Shall Set You Free.
Auschwitz I was founded in 1940 on the site of an old Polish army camp. The barracks were built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Looking down this “street” today one would never guess what happened here almost 70 years ago.
A closer look at one of the barracks.
This is Block Number 11, the prison of the concentration camp.
It is in the courtyard of this Block that prisoners were executed by shooting.
Of course, the camp is surrounded by barbed wire.
This is where Rudolf_Höß, the camp first commandant, was executed in 1947.
The gas chamber and crematorium.
Another view.
Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
A bus takes you to the Birkenau site.
Here’s Birkenau’s main gate, photo taken from inside the camp. If you’ve seen the movie Schindler’s List, this building will look familiar.
The next few photos are taken from the main gate tower.
From the tower, we could see that the camp was big, much bigger than we imagined. It stretched far on the left and right with the train tracks going through the main gate in the middle. This is the right side of the camp. We toured that first row of buildings. Further on, we could see that many of the buildings are no longer standing, though many chimneys remain.
The train tracks through the middle of the main gate ended at the gas chamber.
The left side of the camp from the tower.
Inside one of the wooden barracks. About 1,000 people slept in each building. That narrow concrete strip running down the middle of the building is part of the chimney used to heat the barrack.
Here’s the heater. The building isn’t very well insulated.
The communal toilets. Our tour guide said that the prisoners didn’t get very long to use the toilets, which were located at the end of each row of barracks. Most prisoners didn’t even make it this far before their day started.
Another view of the camp. Those chimneys are sad reminders of the many, many buildings that are now gone. The prisoners were sorted near here.
The gas chamber and incenerator in the Birkenau camp was burned by the Nazis.
All that remains is this rubble.
This is the Auschwitz Memorial. By this time, I was totally drained, hence the odd angle for this photo.
All along the front of the memorial are plaques in different languages. Here’s the one in English:
FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE
A CRY OF DISPAIR
AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY
WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED
ABOUT ONE AND A HALF
MILLION
MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN
MAINLY JEWS
FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES OF EUROPE
AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
1940-1945
View from the memorial at the end of the camp toward the main gate. How many people looked this way, knowing they would never leave?
Filed Under: Auschwitz • Blog • Destinations • Featured • Historic Sites • Museums • Poland • What to Do
About the Author: JaPRA is an expat Texan living in England with her husband (Mr. DJ), their 17-year old daughter (Roxi), and their dog Trudy.
One and a half million. We must never forget.
That was draining and emotional to read. It must have been hard to go there and I can well understand your reluctance.
Have you read Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl? When you said how people must have looked up that track knowing they would never leave, I thought of his work and how human beings are such amazing beings and how we always have hope until the very end. I think people must have looked that way and hoped they would leave one day. Or perhaps I just wish and hope it to be so. :o)
Thanks a lot for such a heartfelt and passionate post. I can understand why you kept postponing it. Many thanks.
Greetings from London.
I’ve never had the nerve (or the courage) to visit the Holacaust Museum in DC.
Never again.
A Modern Mother–It is really hard to imagine one and a half million people. I guess that would be about a fourth of London. Or more than half of the people back in my home city in Texas.
Emm–No I have not read that book. I will add it to my list, though. Thank you.
A Cuban in London–I am glad that I did.
P-D–I didn’t visit the Holocaust Museum in Houston until right before I left (as part of a meeting I needed to go to). I was tremendously moved. I remember looking at a map of Europe and the concentration camps. When I saw where exactly Auschwitz was, I thought–wow, that is a long ways away. In reality, it isn’t so far. PS I hear the museum in DC is excellent. You should go!!
Susan–I really hope not.
JaPRA,
You’ve heard correctly that the DC Holocaust Memorial Museum is an excellent place to visit. The exhibits helped me to understand how innocuous or even seemingly quite reasonable actions led almost inevitably down the path of horror. It didn’t just come out of nowhere. When men are willing to sacrifice human rights of some for the sake of economic prosperity or security, REALLY BAD STUFF HAPPENS.
I’d like to invite you and your readers to comment on my posts calling for social justice discussion questions at http://halfirishrover.blogspot.com
Today’s the last of five days of posts about movies – the one most closely related to your post deals with the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II.
Thanks for a thought-provoking tour.
This brought back memories of our visit there, as you know we went round about the same time as you did. We didn’t get to see the barracks in Birkenhau because it was very windy and there were health and safety issues apparently but the feeling of despair reached us anyway.
Please God the whole place will serve as a reminder so it will never happen again. :(
Thank you for your post, which is very touching and so important.
We should never forget. Although some people are trying to convince that the Holocaust had never happened.
I live in Israel. All my family from my dad’s side was murdered in the holocaust. However I never had the courage to visit there.
I did visit the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. and it is an excellent museum.
There is Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem http://www.yadvashem.org/.
The Museum is the Jewish people’s memorial to the murdered Six Million. It Contains the world’s largest repository of information on the Holocaust.
A visit to Yad Vashem is a very emotional experience.
Again, thanks a lot for bringing this up.
Sharon
It really wasn’t that long ago, was it? And to look at it today, you can only imagine the horrors, it looks peaceful. Sort of like ‘in Flanders Fields’ where the poppies sprung up.
Fantastic Forrest–I have been following your posts with interests, but I’m afraid I feel unqualified to comment! Those films do look fascinating, and I will add them to my list. Thank you!
Akelamalu–Hmm. I wonder what the health and safety issues were?! And yes, most of the exhibits are on the Auschwitz I side, anyway. The main thing about Birkenau, I think, is it’s size, the barracks, the remains of the gas chamber, and the memorial. Oh and the place where the prisoners were sorted.
Sharon–Thank you for your comment. It was an immensely moving experience.
Christine–Exactly!
I get upset even look at pictures.
You are very brave to visit and record it for us.
Like Pigtown, I don’t think I could bear it
though I have been to the Holocaust Museum in lower Manhattan.
I just end up crying.
On a happier note
Happy Birthday Roxi!
Thanks for this tour of Auschwitz because I couldn’t bear to see it in person. Just seeing a memorial to the victims of WWII concentration camps in Boston made me weep. Their numbers were carved in granite. There were so many. Had my ancestors not left Lithuania…. My great grandfather paid for the passage and set many Jews up on farms in South America. It was like Schindler’s List (fabulous movie.) Thank you for remembering.
I have seen both The Reader and Valkyrie in the last two weeks, and I have been thinking a lot about the topic/issues that you touch on here. It is one of those things that you feel you should see — just to honor it — but you don’t really want to see.
My mother lived in Germany right after the war, and remembers visiting Auschwitz. Can you imagine, with the tragedy being so fresh?
You picked a fine way to memorialize the day, though.
Elizabeth–I had NO desire to go to a concentration camp, but I went anyway. I’m glad I did.
Sarah–I wonder if one day you will write about your family. It sounds like a fascinating story waiting to be told.
Bee–Oh my goodness. I cannot imagine visiting Auschwitz right after the war. There must have been lingering energy, don’t you think?
oh, my. Thank you for this… it is sobering just to scan it. I am now due to start work, but I’m printing this and I’m coming back again.
xo
Chris–I can’t stop thinking about the butterfly project for the Houston Holocaust Museum. I think I might have to make one too. Thank you for the inspiration!