The Experience of Auschwitz


During our trip to Poland we decided to visit Auschwitz.. i really don't think you can visit Krakow and not visit the place..
however.. saying this.. i really didn't want to go, i knew it was going to be awful, and it wasn't going to be fun, it was just going to be depressing!

The atmosphere was very hard to pin down because it was such a hard thing to imagine, as i walked around the camp i just couldn't imagine all those things happening around me which only happened 60 years ago! -it was a lot to take in.


Arbeit Macht Frei= meaning working and you will be free.. but of course this wasn't true

In the first camp which was known as 'Auschwitz 1' it had lots of information put up in the original buildings that were used.
It showed some horrific sights! In one window it had tons and tons (and i mean tons!) of shoes....before the jews were sent into the gas chambers they undressed removing their shoes aswell.. and all these shoes around me on both sides of me behind glass were the actual shoes, their shoes, un-touched.. and this was just the ammount collected from only one day at the peak of the gassing.. unbelievable.

But moving on i discovered seeing these shoes was nothing.. the next thing that was presented in tons was actually disgusting, I really did find it revolting and utterly breath taking.. for what i saw pearing through the glass.. was hair.. loads and tons of hair.. After the Jews dead bodies were taken out of the gas chambers they cut of their hair to use in pillows etc before burning the bodies.. seeing this before me really brought it home, my mum almost passed out and i was disgusted!
We also saw other things like toothbrushes, hair brushes, glasses, etc. The germans didn't like to waste anything and stripped the jews for everything they had and owned.

The only remaining gas chamber left was at 'Auschwitz 1' which we also got to go into to..
As we entered we weren't told we were entering the gas chamber, but it was strange, as i entered i was thinking how this could be a gas chamber.. and we were led in just how the Jews were, they had no idea what it was.. then i look up.. wonder what the strange holes in the ceiling were.. i find out that's where the gas showers were.. oh.. so im standing in a room where thousands of people sufficated and died??.... great..

We then moved onto the next camp.. 'Auschwitz 2'.. this was the much bigger camp, the one which most people know about, mostly everything had been destroyed by the Germans here, no gas chambers remained, but everything that was there was original and hadn't been touched, just like in Auschwitz 1..

I think this camp was the one that really got me, because it didn't have loads of added information, it was how it had been left 60 years ago. The whole place was completely dead. It was unbelievably big, i couldnt begin to imagine how many bodies would have been walking around. That day it was actually really sunny, and i was actually seriously trying to imagine it being the beautiful day it was when it was happening... i couldn't.

It was a lot to take in.. Looking at the pictures we had i was thinking of how much different it looks, i mean you look at the pictures and you see all these tourists tramping around with their high-tech cameras.. but the difference between looking at it on a photo and actually being there.. it's a completely different story. The feeling you get from that place is not something i would like to feel again.

Auschwitz is a very interesting place to visit, it may not the ideal happy holiday tour, but it's one hell of an experience that i think many people should keep visiting.
It was an experience for me, now i have done it i hope to never return.


Black and White 'Arbeit Macht Frei' Snapshot: http://www.jyskefotoklubber.dk/2005.html
Black and White Barracks snapshot Link: http://camp.online.fr/Rubriques/Geographie.htm
Shoe Heap Snapshot: http://www.remember.org/jacobs/ShoeHeap.html


| | Posted: Thu - August 18, 2005 at 08:37 PM          

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