Auschwitz

Friday morning we left our apartment and caught a street car to the train station. We were taking an 8:45 a.m. train to Auschwitz, in the Polish town of Oswiecim.

The distance is only about 31 miles but the train takes 90 minutes. The train is slow and there are many stops along the way. It was nice to see areas outside the cities...farmland (we could have been in Anywhere, KS), nice little communities, small houses, large houses, etc. We arrived in Auschwitz at about 10:15. From the train station we took a cab about a mile to where the concentration camp is located. We paid extra for our own tour guide. We ended up with a lovely young Polish woman named Daria as our guide. She is a university student, probably around 22 years old, studying history. She is passionate about history and sharing the story of Auschwitz. Her English was excellent, though she often asked us, "Did I say that right?"

We went as a family even though it is recommended that children under 14 not attend. I know Trey well enough to know that I could distract him easily and the vast majority of what we saw went right over his head. This was pretty heavy stuff for the girls (and for Ben) but we did not want to pass up this chance to experience this and discuss it as a family. We started at the Auschwitz camp. We saw the famous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign as soon as we walked in.

It means "work makes you free." We saw the barracks where the Germans housed Polish civilians starting in 1940. The Jews came later and were taken to the camp at Birkenau (Auschwitz II) about two miles away.

One of the things they did when people arrived was shave their heads. They would send all that hair to Bavaria for use in different textile products. When Auschwitz was finally liberated, there were hundreds of bags found that contained human hair getting ready for shipment out of the camp.

We saw many displays, and I cannot even venture a guess at the numbers of all of these things. It was so overwhelming. There were eyeglasses that people had worn in. There were lots and lots of pottery, cookware, rolling pins, dishes, and other kitchen utensils. The fact that these things were brought by the people leads us to believe that they really thought they were going to start a new life. They had no idea what their fate was. There were mounds of personal hygiene items like combs, brushes, shaving brushes etc. There is a display with childrens' clothing and toys. There was a huge display of suitcases. Each one had someone's name on it. But for us, the most moving and disturbing display was that of all the shoes. So many shoes. Huge mounds of shoes. It's easy to imagine human people in shoes, and to see the monumental pile is hard to comprehend. Further, it is completely overwhelming to realize that the shoes we saw are only a fraction of the people who lost their lives in Auschwitz.

We saw starvation cells. We saw the one in which Maximillian Kolbe died. He volunteered to take the place of another prisoner who had been sentenced to the starvation cell. After three weeks he still had not died and they finally killed him outright. He is now considered a saint and a martyr of the church.

We saw a cell where they would put as many as 39 people. There was not enough oxygen for all of them and some would die overnight. We saw so many different kinds of torture. It is easy to see how so many people died within weeks or even days of arriving at Auschwitz. It is amazing to me that people were able to survive for as long as they did.

We took a bus and went to Birkenau. This is where the Jews arrived starting in 1942. The train would pull in and a few people were selected to work. But most were sent directly to the gas chamber. They were told that they were going to take a shower. After days on a cattle car that sure sounded good to people, so they willingly walked themselves and their children right to the gas chamber. Sometimes they were even handed soap and a towel as they entered. The gas chamber at Birkenau could gas 1500 people to death at a time and it took a mere 20 minutes to murder that many people. Then prisoners would have to haul the corpses to the crematorium and burn the bodies. The ashes were dumped into one of three ponds on the grounds. The efficiency of this operation is chilling.

A few adults and a few children were selected for medical experimentation. The experiments were horrific and those who were selected for these suffered tremendously.

We saw much and learned much. It was an intense experience for all of us and perhaps the girls are a bit young for this. But when they are older and are discussing Auschwitz in high school or college, it will mean so much to them. They've seen it.

There is a memorial to the people (over one million) who were murdered there. There is a quote written in 22 languages so all who come can understand.

Our guide told us that one million people come through there every year to learn about Auschwitz and to see it for themselves. This is a somber field trip, but well worth the time.

We were headed back to Krakow on the train and got a call from one of the other Fulbrighters. We decided to meet at their place for dinner and we were just going to order pizza. They were going to pick up the pizza and we were going to bring drinks over. They have two little kids and so we were sure to tell them that we needed a couple of large pizzas for our family with our ever hungry teenagers. So we pick up the drinks and head over. When we get there we find out that when Barclay ordered the pizzas there was a "language glitch" and we ended up with five of the most gigantic pizzas I have ever seen.

It was way more food than we needed and it was certainly good for a laugh at the end of our very serious day!