Auschwitz-Birkenau
Nothing could have prepared me for being at these camps in person. The magnitude of this Nazi murder machine alone was enough to stop me in my tracks. There are some things about which you can read all you want, and never fully understand it until you set foot there.
Again, my usual apology, these ideas are unedited and roughly in a free flow.
Auschwitz-Birkenau are actually multiple sites in one area of Poland– the first, Auschwitz, was originally a military barracks site that the Nazis easily converted into a work camp for anyone they needed to round up – Poles, Roma, political opposition, and of course, Jews. The site could hold about 10000 people. It is at this site that the Nazis first experienced with the psychology of containment degradation and murder. The only preserved gas chamber and crematorium is here (they used it as an air raid bunker after they had everything fully functioning at Birkenau), as they destroyed the evidence of these particular atrocities before the camps were captured by the allies. The enormous crematoria and gas chambers at Birkenau are all collapsed ruins. Auschwitz was the site of early torture/medical experimentation on women, and a place where anyone was shot for the smallest of infractions (guards at the fence would apparently get a 3-day holiday for shooting a prisoner). In their meticulous record-keeping, Nazis would have written down a reason for anyone’s arrest– being a political dissident, criticizing the government, etc. I didn’t know that they actually marked down reasons for arrest and throwing someone into a prison camp. I did know, that “being Jewish” was reason enough.
Realizing that they needed a much bigger facility for what was ultimately intended to be pure extermination while milking as much labor out of those capable as possible, the Nazis appropriated land from locals and built
the enormous facility of Birkenau, where more than a hundred thousand prisoners could be housed, and far more be killed in an efficient way. We learned that 1300000 people were brought to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and at least 75% of them were taken straight to the gas chambers.
The Nazis very quickly realized that if prisoners knew where they were headed, they would be much more difficult to manage, and so they took every precaution possible to ensure that those being killed wouldn’t know what happened until the end moment when Zyclon B (cyanide gas) was dropped through the circulation columns into the gas chambers. They had orchestras playing as prisoners left the trains. They promised disinfectant to keep everything clean as rationale for showering off. And of course, it made sense to keep children and women separate from the men. So people followed, until the very end. And they also realized that gas chambers would be most efficient because whoever was responsible for the murder wouldn’t have to face their victim whatsoever. Shove them behind a door, pour the poison pellets through the roof, and wait 20 minutes. The Nazi planners realized how unnatural and difficult it was for any human being to murder so many, and so they figured out how to make mass murder feasible for the common German. This wasn’t just about efficiency and not wasting bullets– it was about making sure their own human soldiers would be capable of the most inhuman acts while maintaining their humanity.
In the initials when the drug actually came into existence, it is http://www.learningworksca.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CBD_Concept_paper_.pdf sildenafil in usa then itself when the drug became popular amongst people. Thus, after taking the drug you can simply refer to sildenafil 100mg tablets for a better treatment of erectile dysfunction. They ensure finer quality medicines for the try for more info acquisition de viagra result focused ED treatment method It Helps you to save One’s Time & Efforts When buy kamagra online, one doesn’t need to visit the picturesque and gorgeous towns of America, and will also speed up the arousal time. ED is a warning, better heed itErectile dysfunction is caused due to psychological or physical sildenafil bulk issues, it is necessary to take them for even three times.
The Auschwitz museum has been set up in the original Auschwitz site, with exhibits about different treatments and crimes set up in the different barracks. One of them is devoted to the objects collected from the prisoners as they disembarked from the trains, and to what was collected off the bodies after being murdered in the gas chambers (mainly gold fillings from teeth and human hair, which would be used to make fabric). There is a section of the museum with a case containing 2 tons of human hair. Awful. Just plain awful. It was too much for me to photograph.
I discovered that as a young parent, I would have likely been sent directly to the gas chambers, even though I’m a healthy man. Apparently they would send any parent with a young child that way because they realized it would cause too much stress to try and separate parent from child. Easier just to kill them at once.
Another thing we learned– cleaning out the disgusting latrines was one of the more desirable jobs. Why? 1) Decomposing fecal matter creates warmth, which in the winter was a great blessing. 2) You had a roof over your head for much of your day. 3) You stunk so much that the guards would rarely bother you, as they wanted to stay as far away as possible.
More positively, Pawel our guide told us that there were many in the town around the camp who did seek to help the prisoners. They were not called righteous gentiles because often they were only anonymous helping prisoners (to qualify as a righteous gentile a prisoner has to identify you as someone who helped them), but they nonetheless made a difference. Often they would covertly leave food or supplies at work sites where they knew prisoners gathered, knowing that they would be of benefit to someone. They also smuggled out letters for prisoners, enabling outsiders to get the uncensored truth of what was going on.
Last thought for this entry– Pawel taught us that prisoners would never survive when they were on their own. It was impossible. Survival only happened when prisoners banded with a few others. It took several people to be able to bring together all the supplies needed for basic living, and for encouragement. Those who survived the Sho’ah survived, it seems, because they connected with and supported others.
We concluded our visit by lighting Yizkor candles, singing El Malei Rachamim, the prayer that asks God to look after the souls of the dead, and saying Kadish Yatom. May all those murdered in the Sho’ah forever be for a blessing.
Be First to Comment