Oświęcim (Auschwitz-Birkenau)

On our way home from Kraków we made our last top to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps. It is by far the most accurate symbol of human suffering and cruelty that has plagued the twentieth century. We planned out our visit ahead of time, hired a guide to show us around (you can do this on their website) and explain to us the history of what was happening here during WWII.

The sign "Arbeit macht frei" meaning "work sets you free" looms above the entrance to the Camp.

Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp built by the Nazis.  It was a prison and labor camp, later it became an extermination camp for 'processing' almost 20% of the Holocaust's total death toll.

There are wooden watchtowers looking down on the thoroughfare with double barriers of electrified barbed wire.

The Nazis picked Oświęcim to start the concentration camp because at first there was little building to do since the barracks were requisitioned from existing Polish army barracks.

We toured the inside exhibits, but no photos were allowed.  Quite frankly, you need to see it to experience it.  Pictures can't explain the immensity of sorrow that is here; rooms filled with hair, luggage, shoes, eyeglasses and belongings that belonged to people who innocently died. It's hard to imagine all the pain and suffering.  We saw the "standing cells" and "starvation cells".

Outside one of the barracks after interrogation, the Nazis would line up the prisioners against the wall, and shoot them.  Here is the memorial:

In the center of this area, an SS officer in charge of the roll-call received reports on the number of prisoners present.  If there seemed to be anyone missing, prisoners had to continue to stand at attention until the SS were satisfied-regardless of the weather, sometimes for twelve hours or more!

From Auschwitz we got in our car and drove to Auschwitz II, formerly known as Birkenau, the death camp.

The Nazi's built Auschwitz II-Birkenaeu in 1941 to ease congestion at the first camp; and was designed with the soul purpose of extermination of the masses.  

We learned that trains would pass the checkpoint and unload passengers onto the platforms, sorted according to their worth before being herded-like cattle-to either holding pens or the gas chambers.

 They are unsure of the exact number of people murdered at the death camp, because documents were not maintained of those who exited the trains and headed straight to their deaths.  They estimate it was over one million.

The view from above in the checkpoint tower

Hundreds of dormitories were destroyed by the SS at the end of the war, and all the remains are the chimney stacks.

There are a few dormitories that we were allowed to go into.  About 700 people would be living in one room; I just can't imagine living in the harsh conditions they had to endure.  Bunkbeds would be lined up in the stalls, packed with people, lice, and disease. In the summertime it was sweltering hot and in the winter freezing cold.

Each row of dormitories had a bathroom:

Our guide walked us through one of the crematoriums; which I did not take photos of-not a happy sight to say the least. We walked around the collapsed ruins of Krema II.  It is hard to comprehend how a pile of brick abandonment was once the scene of the largest mass murder in human history, with over 500,000 Jews gasses in this building alone.

I love this memorial

 Forever let this place be 

a cry of the despair 

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.  

Our trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau lasted around four and a half hours.  We learned so much from our tour guide (we really recommend having the guide) and we could have easily spend all day, if not two or three seeing the exhibits.  There is so much to see, and the sorrow is so heavy that we thought the four hours was a good amount of time to learn about the historical sites.  After we left, we had one more meal before heading back home.  Can you guess what we had at Chata Na Zaborskiej? The biggest perogies my eyes have ever laid sight on (filled with meats, cheeses, and mushrooms) and these beautiful pastries (kind of like a calzone) one filled with ground beef, vegetables, goodness, and love.

With our bellies and hearts full, our trip came to and end, and back home we go...but only for a short time!