This posts replaces the original one, lost while in Bratislava....
I set off from the centre of Krakow at 8.30 feeling that two hours would be sufficient time to drive the 40 kilometres to Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial Site for my tour start time of 10.30.
http://auschwitz.org/en/
Thankfully with no further alarms and no reason to drive through parks, leaving the centre of Krakow was fine. Soon after I was held up by one problem after another, not reaching the site until close to 10.30. A 'fast' walk to the main tourist entrance got me through the security check and out to join my group just before walking under the gate with the lettering 'Arbeit Macht Frei'.. 'Work sets you Free'...
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| My hat on the bottom left.. in a rush to join up with the group... |
Two principle reasons why this site was chosen; its geographical location, being the centre of the recently invaded countries, and its railway links to these countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
Auschwitz 1 contains the main memorial and museum, located in a number of the original blocks. Lead by the guide (no one is allowed to walk unattended) the group is slowly immersed in the unfolding history and the horror of the camp.
Auschwitz 1:
Arriving at the location where those who entered the site were given a 'welcome' by the camp orchestra. There to play marches to help the daily count of prisoners, if the playing didn't satisfy the guards, the individuals would be led off to join those waiting for extermination.
A stark summary of the numbers murdered in the whole site at the start of the tour...
In particular, the number of Children murdered in the camps.. approximately 230,000. The majority were led immediately to the gas chambers.
The site plan of Auschwitz Berkenau with the huge IG Farben industrial complex close by. It employed over 30,000 which were housed in their own concentration camp, Auschwitz III, constructed and funded by IG Farben; a private concentration camp. IG Farben also made the Zyklon B gas used to kill over one million in the gas chambers. The real scale of the site didn't become clear until walking across the Berkanau site (see photos below).
IG Farben was a German chemical and Pharmaceutical conglomerate formed in 1925 from the merger of BASF, Bayer, Hoeshst, Agfa and two others... divided back into the constituent companies in 1951.
The plan shows the final extent of railway lines feeding both main camps.
Empty tins of Zyklon B..
A reminder of the countless nameless people that entered but never left.....
All these items are those not processed before the Russians entered the site in January 1945. During the preceding years every item, including human hair, was re-processed and circulated into use to the army and the general population.
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| The mountain of shoes intermingled with those of children was particularly haunting |
Crematorium 1 was developed and by 1942 could exterminate approximately 340 in 24 hours. The first gas chamber was developed from the morgue and could accommodated
The tour of Auschwitz 1 completed after leaving the crematorium. The group was asked to re-assemble in 15 minutes for a bus ride to the entrance to Birkenau. Most just wandered to the waiting position, absorbed by what had been seen.
http://www.auschwitz.org/
The bus arrived and the short trip takes you past a recently constructed hotel and restaurant with other plots laid out for development. While the specific sites are protected by the Polish State and identified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, space in between is covered by local authority development plans. These buildings have supporters and detractors but they also show how tenuous preserving the past can be. The site is a memorial, not a visitor experience. I would like the whole site to be protected with the removal of the small food and drinks kiosk in front of the visitor entrance; I think that people can wait to eat until after their visit....
Arriving at Birkenau the group is lead towards the instantly recognisable brick building; the train gatehouse into Birkenau.. constructed in 1944 to accommodate the huge influx of Hungarian Jews but has become the symbol of Auschwitz II.
The ground is flat and entering the site the enormity and scale of the site is overwhelming.
This site was designed to be an industrial site for extermination and for those who were set aside to work until they died: in the case of women, on average 3 months and for men double that.
Over 100,000 transient prisoners were kept within the camp (transient meaning from arrival until death), controlled and manipulated by over 7,000 SS staff.
I visited on a hot summer day: imagine arriving here in the pouring rain or driving snow.. there is no cover... I expect had my visit been in January my appreciation would have been completely different.
I had a misapprehension that most women were sent straight to the gas chambers. this wasn't the case; those that looked fit enough to work could be set aside to work. The key difference at this point between men and women was that the men tended to be specialists in trades so for the period that they survived worked in trades that required less manual labour. Women that were set aside did not have the same specialism so were set to work on manual work, on starvation rations, with prevalent diseases waiting to kill those that became weak.
On the site map, this view is looking across the short section of the site standing in front of the brick gatehouse.
The map again.... The photo above is looking from the entrance of the railway line to the short end in the west of the brown Auschwitz II site....
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The wagon below has been left as a memorial to those entering the site.. normally holding over 100 at the start of the journey, somewhere in Europe. On arrival only 60 could only be left alive to be marched straight to the gas chambers...
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| A gate on the northern side... |
Our guide explained the process of arrival, segregation between those chosen and set aside to work and those to be led straight to the gas chamber. The building behind the boards is the one in the picture on the board. Those in the line have been been selected to go straight to the gas chamber, including the man at the front with the white hair....
A photo taken of children that had recently arrived, marching unaware towards their deaths..
The segregated lines after de-training....
The end of the train line... either side are the gas chambers and crematoriums... in the distance the brick gatehouse, the 'short' site section...
The memorial beyond the train track... there is a memorial text for each nationality killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Models in the museum showing the process of moving entering the gas chamber to the crematorium.. all specifically designed to minimise cost....
'Sonderkommandos', picked from the arriving trains to move material and bodies from the gas chambers to the crematoriums without understanding what was happening, often had to clear their own families, wives and children from the gas chambers into the crematoriums.....
A week before the Russians arrived in January 1945, the crematoriums were blown up: the ruins have been left as a memorial too.... The remaining Sonderkommandos were all killed being witnesses to the crimes..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando
One of the 'ash pits' are identified with simple remembrance stone slabs....
On the south side of the train tracks are brick blocks, now preserved.
We were shown into one block, the 'Death Barrack'....
This one to house dying women prisoners.. those prisoners that the SS had decided were unfit for further work. Three levels of prisoners lying above each other; boiling hot in summer (as the day visited; unbearably hot and stuffy) and freezing in winter.. the brick floor was only added late in 1943.
Those women who entered the block were given no food or water. Sometimes other prisoners of other blocks tried to smuggle food, but if caught would be shot.
Once the hut was completely full, they were taken to the gas chamber and afterwards the block started to fill again.
The memorial plaque to this block...
Finally, we were left to walk the site or leave, back through the way we came in.
Our group's host and guide..
At the beginning of the tour, her 'Sotto' voice was difficult to pick up. But by the end of the tour it was completely the correct voice.
I wondered how I could have spoken about Auschwitz-Birkenau each day without showing emotion, but this is not what is required.
Speaking the truth and making sure that those like me who visit understand what happened and can help to explain is what really matters.
A quite return to Krakow.....
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