A trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau – Reminiscent of hell on Earth!

About Holocaust

Holocaust – a word that evokes sad memories, anger, a feeling of helplessness, but most importantly, fear!

What began as an attempt by the Nazi party of Germany, headed by Adolf Hitler to exclude and eliminate Jews from the European soil ended up being the one of the largest state-sponsored genocide event in the history of mankind.

Statistically speaking, approximately 6 Million Jews were systematically tortured and murdered in between 1941 and 1945, accounting for about two-thirds of the European Jewish population.

While there are many hair-raising stories which will instantly fill you with hatred for the preparators of this event and those who played a part in its execution, one story, that of the infamous Auschwitz – Birkenau concentration camp will make your heart crumble in disbelief of what our ancestors, people of our own race (human beings) have done under the self-imagined veil of racial supremacy and cultural cleansing.

What is the significance of Auschwitz

For starters, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, located at a distance of 66 KM’s from the Polish city of Krakow, was the largest concentration camp set-up by the Nazi’s to persecute and exterminate political prisoners, those who opposed the Nazi party, enemies of the German state and most importantly, the Jews.

It is believed that close to a million Jews were brought to this camp from all over Europe from 1941 to 1945, made to stay in horrendous conditions, tortured in ways unimaginable and then exterminated by burning in gas chambers, being shot or hanged till death. In hindsight, those who were killed in gas chambers or shot to death were the lucky ones, for death came so easily and instantly to them. Others were made to labor in harsh winters and terrible summers alike before they died of exhaustion and starvation.

      (Photo of an urn at the Auschwitz museum that contains the ashes of those who were killed here)

I can go on forever about the atrocities committed at this camp, but there are already too many write-ups, news items and videos that will give you the entire story in detail.

Here, in my blog, I share my perceptions about Auschwitz, my thoughts and experience of visiting this Godforsaken and cursed piece of land and details about how you can get there and what to expect.

How it all began

Being an Indian, I knew about the Holocaust and had heard about Auschwitz, but that was only because of the various Hollywood movies that I had seen on this topic. I am sure that most Indians are ignorant about this place and the tragic events surrounding it (largely because India was never voluntarily involved in World War II and partly because we had our own set of agonies and problems from the British Raj to worry about).

Towards the end of 2017, I and a colleague of mine were traveling to a rather small town in Poland, called Kędzierzyn-Koźle on business when my colleague realized how close we were to the historic town of Auschwitz and made a plan to get there for a day’s tour.

How to reach Auschwitz and how much does it cost to reach Auschwitz?

Since we were located in a remote village with no real good public transportation (worse still because no one spoke English here and we did not know Polish) we did a quick search and finalized ‘Silesia trip’, a tour operator who agreed to pick us up from our hotel and take us to Auschwitz via Katowice. The total trip (pick up, drop and guided 2-hour tour of the camp cost us 75 Euros per person (I would say it was a reasonable price). There are many tour operators who operate day trips from Krakow and Katowice and offer customized guided tours for you to select from.

First impressions:

Having researched a bit about the place already, we knew what to expect out of it. What we didn't see coming was the surge of emotions that took over us on realizing the fact that we were walking on the same path where, until less than 70 years ago, prisoners were being paraded upon and subjected to tremendous torture, with only one way of escaping from this hell – death!

‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ – the German for ‘work sets you free’ are the first words that you see as you enter the gates to the township of Auschwitz. The irony of these words dawned upon us when our tour guide explained that the prisoners were brought here with the promise of a better life and a good job that would make them independent and eventually set them ‘free’. Well, they were eventually set free after all!

(The entrance to the camp with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” displayed overhead)

Into the heart of the camp

In order to display the cruelty that took place here, the camp has been magnificently maintained. The buildings, police posts, barracks, fences, rooms, toilets and everything else has been well preserved.

(Police patrolling posts from where they were free to shoot down any inmate at will)

(The actual clothes that were worn by inmates. Once a prisoner was killed, his clothes were removed and given to another prisoner)

(The open public toilets at the camp. For the thousands of prisoners here, there were hardly any toilets available)

The few photos that exist and are displayed here throw some light on the modus operandi of the camp operators. The goods trains where thousands of passengers were locked up and brought to the camp, how they were separated from their families and were assigned to their death-beds has unfortunately been captured for the world to see.

(A file photo that shows the arrival of a train with prisoners and the subsequent separation of women and children from men. Some of them would be straight away sent to gas chambers on the pretext of taking a bath and freshening up after a long train journey, to be followed by a delicious meal. Only once inside, would they know of what was actually happening with them and their babies)

Our guide explained to us how the trains would come in, how relatively strong men and beautiful women were separated from the others to do labor work or serve the German masters before being killed. Those who were deemed unfit for any work were straight away sent to gas chambers and poisoned to death.

Those who were not instantly put to death were given a number, which was tattooed on their forearm. From then on, they would only be known by that number. 

(The canisters in which Zyklon B, the chemical used in the gas chambers was brought to the camp)

The most striking feature of the camp is not one of its gas chambers that is open for public to see, but those rooms which still preserve the various items such as shoes,  glass frames, tooth and hair brushes, boot polish cans, luggage boxes and such other items that the inmates brought along with them while them.

            (Top to bottom - Glass frames, daily utilities, shoes and luggage boxes of the prisoners)

The section that will give you goosebumps is where the hair of inmates has been preserved. A huge mound of hair, that was apparently shaved off of the heads of the prisoners before they were killed in order to make wigs have been preserved to show to the world the depth of atrocities committed by the Nazi’s (photography of hair was not allowed for preservation purposes)

(View of the wooden beds in one of the barracks at Birkenau camp. While the capacity of one such bed was to hold 3-4 persons, at-least 10-15 prisoners would be stuffed into each such bed)

The Birkenau camp, located at a short distance from Auschwitz main camp was no different. Most gas chambers here were destroyed by the Germans when they learned that the Russian army had discovered the camp and was on its way to liberate it. In the eerie silence and the stillness in the air around this camp, you can still hear the desperate cries of mothers being separated from their children and feel the air around you carry the smell from the burning of human beings alive.

(Entrance to the Birkenau camp)

Lest we forget.....

It took almost 5 years for the world to discover this camp. The true intensity of the atrocities committed here dawned upon the world only when the surviving inmates narrated the acts of crime to the Russian army. 70 years later, only a few hundred Nazi personnel have been convicted and prosecuted, but the last few inmates who are still alive, keep coming back to the camp every year to educate the young generation and the World at large about the sins that were committed here. They say that it is important for the world to know what happened in Auschwitz, “lest we forget” and the same crime will be committed again by some other tyrant.

(Oskar Groening, famously know as 'the accountant of Auschwitz' was responsible for finding the 'most financially economical' way of executing the prisoners. He was convicted by a German court for his involvement in the Holocaust in 2016 - 70 years after the crimes were committed. He died on 9th March, 2018)

I don’t know whether I am fortunate or unfortunate to have visited such a place, but I am certainly thankful for the fact that I got a chance to visit Auschwitz and experience it first-hand. This is tour that I will never forget in my life.

(The 'Death wall' at the camp. The prisoners were stripped naked, at times chased or made to parade around the camp and then brought to this wall to be shot dead)

Some famous movies based on Holocaust and Auschwitz

1.     Schindler’s list

2.     Holocaust

3.     The boy in the striped Pyjamas

4.     X-men (First class and Apocalypse – Magneto was a survivor of the camp in the movie)

A special mention to Mr. Kamil Witor and Ms. Maja Swinder of the 'Silesia trip' for facilitating this tour for us and being perfect guides throughout.