Thursday, July 2, 2015

Day 2 - Auschwitz-Birkenau

We are writing this blog post on the bus ride from Oswiecim to Krakow after another emotional and impactful day at Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Our morning began with another guided tour with our same guide from yesterday, David. He was an unending bank of knowledge for us and we're so grateful to have had him guide us through the two camps these past couple days.

David picked us up at our hotel this morning and took us to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Birkenau is located just over a mile from Auschwitz. This is the largest of all concentration camps in Europe; over 1 million Jews were killed within its borders. 90,000 prisoners were held at Birkenau at any given time, and plans had been made for expanding it prior to its liberation.

When we first arrived, we climbed the guard tower at the front of the camp, where we could look over the expanse and see what remains of buildings, guard towers, gas chambers and crematoria, and the railroad tracks leading directly into the camp through the main gate. Inside the watch tower were some photographs taken of recent prisoners arriving on the train in 1944 and disembarking onto the train platform within the walls of the camp. I was struck by the lack of panic or concern on their faces and asked David why they looked so placid. He said that the arriving prisoners would have had no idea that they were arriving to a camp which housed five enormous gas chambers and crematoria, and instead were told lies about what the next couple hours would hold. In reality, 75% of all prisoners arriving to Birkenau were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Seventy-five percent. This number was overwhelming and as I looked at the faces in the photograph, I could easily imagine my family's faces instead. If my family had been arriving, three of the four of us would have immediately been sent to our death, not knowing that was what lay ahead but instead believing, as we clutched hands, held our few personal belongings close and walked in a mass towards the gas chambers, that we were being taken to warm showers after a long and crowded train ride. This realization today struck me as I continued to try and process the senselessness of what happened in these concentration camps.

As we walked through Birkenau, I couldn't help but be shocked by the sheer size of the camp. The camp can only be described as vast and knowing what happened there only made its size seem more immense. We walked passed guard towers, barracks, man-made ponds, and other buildings toward the back of the camp where the crematoriums and sauna stand. The crematoriums came first. These structures are currently in ruins as the Nazis destroyed them with dynamite on January 18, 1945. Millions of people died and were burned in these buildings with their ashes spread in the forest beyond. Despite the awful actions that occurred in these buildings, I was struck by the beautiful trees they were surrounded by that were planted in a perfect line. I asked our tour guide, David, if the trees were planted after the war, and he said no. The trees were planted during the construction of the camp to "beautify" it and to help convince the victims that Auschwitz-Birkenau was an "innocent" place. The S.S. truly thought of everything.

After we had examined the ruins of crematoriums I and II, we walked through the portion of the camp known as "Canada." This is the area where those who survived the S.S. selections were sent to be processed and were taken to what is known as the sauna. These people were taken here to be stripped of their belongings, shaven, disinfected, tattooed, and to receive camp attire. Their belongings were stored in warehouses which were set on fire before the camp was liberated. This area was also near crematoriums 4 and 5. Because prisoners waited here both to be processed and to be sent to the gas chambers the land is saturated with small artifacts that resurface as the ground shifts and the soil is disrupted by people and the weather. Our tour guide told us about a trunk found buried in this area filled with family photographs. Some of these photographs were labelled and have enabled the museum to identify some of the victims and give them a face and a story. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those who perished at Auschwitz are unknown, so this was an extraordinary find. We walked through the sauna to see where the victims were processed, and in the final room we were able to see the photographs that were found in the trunk. The photos contained images of families, friends, weddings, and other family occasions. Some of the photos revealed their subject's personalities consisting of silly faces, artistic selfies, serious postures, and candid moments. Looking at all of the images, I couldn't help but think of my own family photos and special moments. I thought of all of the people that are in those photos with me. My husband, my brother, and father, and mother. My grandparents. The people in those photographs loved each other and tried to save a piece of their lives by burying their photos in the camp grounds. I was sad to see them but happy that the museum found them, because visitors like us get to see these people as more than just prisoners of Auschwitz.

As we left the sauna, I was again struck by all of the nature around us, and the fact that there were thousands of visitors at Auschwitz to be seen in the distance, yet it was silent. It was a comfort to know that those that died in the crematorium just meters away and those in the photographs at least have a peaceful place to rest.

We spent our afternoon participating in a workshop and lecture designed for students. The first workshop addressed complex frequently asked questions that many people have after touring the camps. Our instructor assigned each of us 2 questions, and in order to answer the questions we watched videos of various experts sharing their answers to those question. Our assigned questions covered a variety of topics:

- Where was God during the Holocaust?
- Why didn't the Allies bomb Auschwitz?
- What happened to the concepts of good and evil after the Holocaust?
- Could Auschwitz and the Holocaust have happened without Hitler?
- How did ordinary people respond to the persecution and murder of the Jews?
- Could Jews and other victims have escaped their fate?

Responders ranged from professors to rabbis to survivors to historians. After watching all the videos, each of us shared what we learned and discussed the complexities within each response and the differences in perspective, what was said and what was not said.

As we walked to our final lecture about survivors and history of the camp, we discussed how we could re-create something like this in our own classrooms, without access to the same resources. We wonder how we can get our own students to think about the questions and how we can expose them to a variety of responses using documents and videos already available in the States. We want our students to read Maus and discuss more than just the theme statements and literary elements that prove those themes. We want them to engage in understanding the true and complicated experiences behind the text. This is our challenge.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. I have seen photos, but I cannot imagine what it would be like to be there where all these tragic things took place. You three must be very emotionally drained. Thank you for taking the time to write this blog and share with us your experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

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