STUDY ABROAD: Poland_Auschwitz + Birkenau
Today’s article is going to be a little different. I recently visited Auschwitz, located about an hour and a half west of Krakow, and it’s a very moving experience. I think that the best way to write about something like this is to directly quote that day’s entry in my travel journal. Sometimes the gut-reaction emotional responses capture things better than carefully researched articles, and that’s exactly what you’re getting:
I woke up at four in the morning to shower, eat, and catch a bus from my dorm to the mall downtown, where there’s a sizable bus station. The bus left at 6:30, and I paid the equivalent of four US dollars for a ticket for the one and a half hour ride. Upon arriving at Auschwitz, I stood in line for an entry ticket. Because they have so many tourists, there are many times during the day that visitors must join a guided tour, which costs about ten dollars. However, if you get there really early, like I did, you can get in without having to join a group, and it costs nothing.
Auschwitz is actually three campuses, two of which are open to the public (the third costs money and has limited visiting hours). The original camp is Auschwitz, and a second larger camp was built soon after, called Auschwitz-Birkenau [I will refer to it as Birkenau to make it less confusing].
I went to Auschwitz, the original camp, first, and it looked a little different than I had expected. There are many photos of all three Auschwitz camps in history books, but Birkenau is the most heavily pictured campus (more atrocities took place on there). Auschwitz does not look quite like Birkenau, which is why I was surprised.
Auschwitz is a much smaller campus, with rows of two-story brick barracks and office/medical buildings. Today, most of the buildings have museums in them, and I visited each one. Most of them are heartbreaking showcases of the things that took place, but there are many small museums dedicated to those of non-Jewish descent who were sent to the camp as well. It was hard to see pictures, read accounts, and look at displays of the atrocities committed. From cruelty to medical experiments, those in Auschwitz went through unthinkable pains.
There was one office building in particular that stood out – the camp’s first gas chamber and incinerator. Walking in was probably the worst experience of the whole campus, especially with the knowledge that four larger buildings devoted to the same purpose were constructed in Birkenau.
The camp is surrounded by tall barbed wire fences (concrete, not wood, posts hold it up), with guard towers frequently placed around the perimeter.
I spent about two and a half hours wandering the camp before boarding a shuttle bus to the Birkenau campus, located about five minutes away.
The strangest thing about visiting Birkenau on a sunny day, over seventy years after it closed, is that the campus is now incredibly beautiful. If you had absolutely no knowledge about what occurred there, you’d think it’s a lovely collection of ruins and little wood and brick buildings. Wildflowers grow in all the fields, and the nearby forest is picturesque. Of course, there was a time when it was absolutely nothing like this, and desolation and depression ran rampant.
It’s incredible to think about what happened there, until you walk through the campus’s entryway, and are faced with the train tracks that brought so many people to their deaths.
Most of the original buildings have fallen, and a few have been reconstructed. Most look like long wooden barns, with an equally long brick heating system in the middle (which I suspect rarely had the kindling needed to produce heat). The "barns" have cracks in the walls, and absolutely no insulation, and it’s horrific to think how many people were crammed into the buildings. Because few structures survived, there are large expanses of the camp that have remnants of the brick heating system, and perhaps a little bit of the foundation.
Some of the buildings are constructed of brick, and they are still standing, although they have extra reinforcement. They have less heating than the wooden ones, and the dim light that does filter through hardly helps with visibility. Large numbers of people were crammed into these buildings, too, and it’s almost unthinkable to imagine the living conditions.
The remaining buildings in the camp only get worse. There’s a reconstructed shower building, where prisoners’ clothes were sanitized, newcomers’ belongings were seized and sorted, and prisoners “showered.” Conditions were horrible, and prisoners typically had to wait for many hours to go through all of the processes, in all kinds of harsh weather.
Storage buildings were located near this, filled with confiscated belongings. Only the foundations and a foot of the original walls remain.
The last buildings, located at the far back of the camp, are the hardest to write about. There are four total: two built after the first gas chamber was improvised at the Auschwitz campus, and two constructed after the first two were tested and evaluated. All four were very efficient gas chambers and incinerators, although the first two buildings often had fires burn outside, too.
The four buildings are in ruins, destroyed by the Nazis as the Allies approached, but there was still enough evidence to piece things together, and determine floor plans for the different buildings.
These are by far the saddest buildings, because the worst atrocities took place there. The pictures in history books often depict these buildings, and Birkenau itself. Each building has a memorial for those who did not make it, and each memorial has items left by visitors paying their respects.
But the most tear-jerking thing for me is the fact that the information signs around both campuses have their messages displayed in three languages: Polish, because the camp is in Poland; English, because it’s a language commonly used by tourists; and Hebrew, because so many people come to learn about their history, or about lost family members. The third language, especially, adds weight to the atrocities of the camp.
There are some pleasant things at the camp, though. A memorial has been constructed, and many of the ruins have prayer candles left by tourists. Visitors leave with a strong resolve never to let something so horrific happen again.
I spent a total of seven hours at the two campuses, and the bus ride home was a long one, weighted with lots of thought. It was a long day, and a sad day, but it was one I do not regret, and never will.
That’s it from the journal. I cannot do Auschwitz justice, but then again, no mere words can. The best we as humans can do is to strive for strength and kindness, and do everything in our power to prevent events such as these from ever happening again.
Allison’s Recommendations for Auschwitz and Birkenau:
Bring a lot of tissues. Whatever amount you were planning to bring, just go ahead and double it.
Tourist websites indicate both camps will take three hours to visit, but plan for a longer stay just in case you want to spend more time there.
Read all of the signs. I know, reading can be boring, but you will learn a lot.
If you go during typical tourist hours, you will have to go on a guided tour (about ten dollars). However, if you get there early, or come later, you are allowed to travel on your own (and it’s free).
Be prepared for occasional disconnects between reality and what you read in books. Seventy years is a long time, and not all buildings are the same today as they were a long time ago.
Reread the tip about tissues, because you will need them.
Take it all in and learn as much as you can. It’s incredibly sad, but it is perhaps one of the most effective compilation of history and life lessons you will ever learn.