The origins of the Polish town of Oswiecim date back to the 12th century. It has many surviving historical buildings, and other traces of the past, but the largest tourist destination (nearly half a million every year) is the KL Auschwitz-Birkenau National Museum. My friend John and I set out to visit this site one beautiful May morning. The sky was blue, the countryside was green, and the birds were singing. It made for a strange backdrop to a tour of one of the most notorious killing centres ever built. The name
Auschwitz (the German variation of the Polish
Oswiecim) aroused fear in Nazi-occupied Europe for five years.
The camp was established in 1940 for Polish political prisoners, and was originally meant to be used as an instrument of terror against Poles only. As time passed, the camp grew, and the Nazis began to deport to it people from all over Europe, mainly Jews but also including Soviet POWs, Gypsies, Czechs, Yugoslavs, French, Austrians, and even Germans.
Poland had been defeated quickly in 1939, and the idea of setting up a camp had already been proposed. The need for a place to send existing prisoners from too-crowded camps and the new victims of mass arrests was the justification.
The deserted pre-war Polish Army barracks in Oswiecim were chosen because they were some distance from the town, and they could be easily expanded in isolation from the outside world. Another major factor was that the town was an important railway junction - convenient for mass transports.
The order was given in April 1940, and the first prisoners arrived in June.
Initially the camp comprised 20 buildings: 14 at ground level and six with an upper story. During 1941 to 1942 another story was added to all ground floor buildings and 8 new blocks were constructed, using the prisoners as a work force. The average number of prisoners fluctuated from 13 - 16,000, reaching at one stage in 1942 a record total of 20,000 people.
As the number of inmates increased, the area covered by the camp grew until it was transformed into a gigantic factory of death. The first camp became a parent, or
Stammlager, to a whole new generation of camps, including: Auschwitz II - Birkenau (about 3 km away), Auschwitz III - Monowice, the IG Farben chemical plant, as well as 40 other smaller camps that dealt with steelworks, mines and factories where the prisoners deemed healthy enough were exploited as cheap slave labour.
The camps I and II are now maintained as museums, containing the remnants of crematoria, cremation pits and pyres, unloading platforms, and the site of a pond where human ashes were dumped. Some of the constructions were destroyed by the Nazis in an effort to cover up the crime, but there are still many well preserved blocks and parts of the prisoners' barracks. The main entrances are intact, as well as sentry watch towers and barbed wire fences. The prison blocks in Auschwitz I contain exhibitions portraying the history of the camp, and trace the torments of the various nations whose people were murdered.
The first stop on any tour is the reception building, where a film about the camps' history is shown. From there it is a short walk to the main gate of the first camp - through which the prisoners passed every day on their way to work (returning 12 or more hours later). There is a cynical inscription over the gate which reads
Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Brings Freedom).
A walking tour took us past various blocks where the "must see" exhibitions had been set up. General exhibitions include: Block 4 - Extermination, Block 5 - Material Evidence of Crimes, Block 6 - Everyday Life of the Prisoner, Block 7 - Living and Sanitary Conditions, and Block 11 - The "Death Block."
Other blocks were devoted to specific nationalities and their experiences in the camp: Block 14 - USSR, 15 - Poland, 16 - Czechoslovakia, 17 - Yugoslavia and Austria, 18 - Hungary, 20 - France and Belgium, 21 - Italy and Holland, and 27 - the Suffering and Struggle of the Jews.
In 1942 Auschwitz became the biggest centre for the killing of the Jews, and the majority were killed in gas chambers immediately on arrival. There was no registration or identification with camp numbers, making it difficult to be precise about how many were murdered. 1.5 million is the most widely accepted number, and the search for documentation continues.
Room 1 of Block 4 contains an urn with a handful of ashes, gathered from the territory of Birkenau, to commemorate the dead. Room 2 exhibits photocopies from the original Book of Deaths, showing columns of fictitious causes and times of death. In Room 3 can be seen photographs of arrivals, taken in 1944 by one of the SS men in Birkenau, during the extermination of the Jews from Hungary.
Most of the Jews that were deported to the camp were told that they were being "resettled" in the east. The journey was made in sealed cattle cars. No food was provided. Deportees travelled from 7 to 10 days in this way, and many died before even reaching the camp. Those left alive were separated by SS doctors looking for those who could be judged still capable of work, and those who were to be gassed immediately.
Room 4 shows a reconstruction of the actual process of extermination. A model depicts people entering an underground changing room. They are composed, because after the initial "selection" all have been assured by the SS and camp prisoners that they would be allowed a shower. They were told to undress, after which they were herded into a second chamber resembling a large shower facility. Into this room, 210 square metres, around 2,000 victims would be led. After the doors had been firmly closed, the SS would pour a substance called Zyklon B into the chamber through special openings in the ceiling. Within 15-20 minutes the people trapped inside would be dead. The bodies would be searched for jewelry, the hair and gold fillings would be removed, and the remains would be taken to incinerators located on the ground floor. Three photographs, taken in secret at great risk by one of the camp inmates, show some women being driven into the gas chamber, and the burning of corpses on a cremation pyre (sometimes used when the crematoria were overloaded).
Zyklon B was produced by the firm "Degresch," whose profits during 1941-44 were almost 300,000 Reichsmarks. During the period of 1942-3, about 20,000 kilograms (almost 20 tons) was used. According to the camp commandant, Rudolf Hoess, about 5-7 kg was needed to kill around 1,500 people. Piles of empty cans are on display, as well as some of the crystals.
Room 5 contains some of the human hair discovered by the Soviet Army after it liberated the camp. They found approximately 7 tons packed into bags in the camp warehouses.
German firms used the hair for tailor's lining. There is also a display of how the gold fillings were removed from thee teeth of the victims, and how the human ashes were used as fertilizer.
Block 5 contains displays of personal possessions taken from the prisoners upon arrival at the camp. They were sorted, stored, and subsequently transported back to Germany. Luggage, shoes, spectacles, clothes, brushes, towels, prayer shawls, bowls, artificial limbs - the variety and size of the items left behind (only a small fraction of the total) staggers the imagination.
Block 6 has many displays that outline the everyday life that the average prisoner had to endure. Some were admitted to the camp, where they perished from hunger, executions, hard labour, punishments, or as a result of the appalling sanitary conditions. They were told that the only escape was "through the crematoria chimney." After their personal possessions were taken from them, their hair was cut short, they were sprayed with disinfectant, bathed, and then finally given a number and registered. From 1943 these numbers were tattooed on their arms. Auschwitz was the only camp to do this.
Prisoners were marked by different coloured triangles sewn onto their camp clothing. Red triangles denoted political prisoners, black was given to gypsies, violet given to Jehovah's Witnesses, pink to homosexuals, and green for common criminals. Jews were marked by two yellow triangles sewn into the Star of David.
The thin clothing was never designed to protect the prisoners from the cold, and underwear was left unchanged for weeks at a time. Prisoners could not do their own washing, which led to outbreaks of various diseases, including typhus, typhoid, and scabies.
The inmates' lives were timed with monotonous regularity, and head counts were taken often, not to keep track of them, but to punish them by having them stand in rows for hours on end.
Hard labour was an efficient way to finish off many prisoners, and most of the work done was in the area of camp maintenance: levelling off high ground, building new blocks, huts, roads, etc. They were made to work at a run, with no respite. They were constantly harassed by brutal camp guards. who beat them at the least provocation.
IG Farben had the first choice of prisoners, who were made to produce synthetic rubber and petrol. Other prisoners were involved in metalworks, the mining of coal, the production of weapons, and new plant construction.
A day's food ration amounted to 1300 - 1700 calories. For breakfast a prisoner would receive 1/2 litre of "coffee." Lunch was 1 litre of meatless soup, often cooked with rotten vegetables. Supper consisted of 300-350 grams of black clayey bread, 30 g of margarine, 20 g of sausage, and some herbal tea or "coffee."
Hard work and hunger caused complete physical exhaustion, and the inmates developed starvation sickness, which often ended in death. There are photographs taken during the camps' liberation that show some women who weighed only 23 - 30 kg.
Children were also sent to the camp, and many were treated the same as any adult. Most did not survive the selection process, and they died in the gas chambers. Some, like twins for instance, were subjected to cruel medical and scientific experiments.
In Block 7, we can see how the prisoners had to deal with the most horrendous sanitary conditions imaginable. The first train-loads had to sleep on straw scattered over concrete floors. Later, straw mattresses were introduced. An average of 200 prisoners were crammed into a space hardly adequate for 40-40 people. Three-tiered bunks were installed, where two prisoners to each "bed" was the norm. Their only covers were filthy threadbare blankets. In the main camp, the prisoners were housed in brick-built one- and two-story blocks, while in Birkenau they had to live in barracks with no foundations, erected on marshy ground. There is a reproduction of these, but the real thing is also on display.
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Oswiecim had a malarial climate, contributing to the various illnesses that the prisoners suffered. Combined with appalling living conditions, hunger, inadequate clothing, rats and insects, it brought about the decimation of the prison population. Large numbers of the sick reporting to the prison hospital found no respite, as they were subjected to selections that sent them to the gas chambers or to endure medical experiments conducted by such "doctors" as SS Dr. C. Clauberg (sterilization) and Joseph Mengele (genetic research).
Block 10 (left) and Block 11 (right) with the "Wall of Death" in between
Block 11, also known as the "Death Block," was a prison within the prison. The courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 is enclosed on two sides by a high wall, and the windows in block 10 are boarded over so that no-one could witness the executions taking place. Here is the "Wall of Death," where the SS shot prisoners in the thousands. Punishment, in the form of flogging, also took place, and some prisoners were hung from a special stake by their arms, which were bent behind their backs.
On the ground floor, you can see the room where summary trials were held by the Gestapo Police Court. In a session lasting two to three hours, anywhere from a few dozen to more than a hundred death sentences would be handed out. Prisoners would then be taken to a bathroom and made to undress before being taken out to the wall.
Punishment could be given for any number of offenses, or for no reason at all. They were all part of the plan to annihilate the prisoners in any way at all.
Cells in Block 11 basement
The cellars of this building witnessed the first experiments with Zyklon B, the imprisonment in cells of camp inmates or civilians, and the housing of prisoners sentenced to death by starvation.
There was a resistance of sorts within the prison, as people outside tried to smuggle in food, and inmates struggled to escape or send proof of the crimes committed to the outside world. There are photos who worked diligently for this cause, many at the cost of their lives.
The kitchens, with gallows in front
On the way from the blocks to the gas chamber is the assembly square, just in front of the kitchens. This is where the prisoners were assembled for roll call, and to witness executions and punishments.
The crematorium and gas chamber for camp I is still in existence, just outside the main fence.
In front of the entrance you can see the gallows used on April 16, 1947, to hang the camp commandant, Rudolf Hoess.
Going inside, the largest room (just to the right) was the mortuary. Converted into a gas chamber, this is where Soviet POWs as well as Jews from the Silesian ghettos were murdered. It is a spooky place. The bare concrete walls stand as mute witnesses to the terrible deeds done here.
The other part of the building houses the ovens, which could burn approx. 350 bodies daily. The firm of Topf and Sons built them, as well as the furnaces in Birkenau. These have been rebuilt by the museum from the original metal elements.
The next part of the tour is a short bus ride to Auschwitz II - Birkenau. Covering approx. 175 hectares, it contained over 300 buildings. 45 made of brick and 22 made of wood survive intact. Of the rest, only the chimneys are left to mark where they were. Row upon row upon row, like the skeleton of some great beast.
The camp was divided into several sections, each of which constituted a separate camp. The total number of prisoners reached its highest population of 100,000 in August, 1944.
The starting point for the tour is the main SS guardhouse, also known as the "Death Gate." It is the most recognizable structure, the one everyone thinks of when Auschwitz is mentioned.
The tower in the centre is a good vantage point, with a view of the whole prison complex. You can listen to a recorded commentary (in 12 different languages), before proceeding into the camp itself. Opposite the tower is the railway platform, where the incoming trains were unloaded and the selections were made.
On either side of the platform, you can actually go into the barracks where the prisoners were housed.
The first barracks were made of brick, much like those in the main camp, but the Nazis shifted to wooden barracks as more economical. The prisoners slept on three-tier bunks, which held up to 8 individuals at a time. There was no floor, just the bare earth.
The wooden buildings' design was based on field stables for 52 horses and given a minimum of modifications so that they could be used to accommodate up to 1,000 prisoners. There were two stoves at each end, with a chimney in between, used to heat the building.
Going inside, touching these berths, and breathing in the atmosphere makes one aware of ... ghosts. That's the only way I can describe how I felt inside those barracks.
At the far end of the unloading platform there are the remains of the gas chambers and the crematoria, blown up by the retreating SS in an attempt to conceal their criminal activities.
In the ruins it is still possible to discern the underground changing rooms, where the victims were made to undress.
Entrance to the underground changing room
Next to them are the gas chambers. On the surface are the hollows left by the furnaces, as well as the rails along which carts full of corpses were pushed.
The gas chamber
There are small memorials erected in places where the ashes were dumped.
To the memory
of the men, women, and children
who fell victim to the Nazi genocide.
Here lie their ashes.
May their souls rest in peace.
It took John and I the better part of the day to make the tour. It is difficult to put in to words what seeing this place meant to me. Everything contained in this museum is evidence of a crime so monstrous that no definition in words is possible. It was built by men who believed in one man's lies, and who followed him into hell.
Between the ruins of crematoria II and III there stands the International Monument to the Victims of Auschwitz, which was ceremonially unveiled in April 1967.
FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE
A CRY OF 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.
AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU
1940 - 1945
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