Many people died at Auschwitz. Where are the graves? The whole camp (and surrounding area) is a graveyard. The victims were creamated in their ash was dumped in the nearby river.
There is a sign over the entrance to the camp. "Arbeit macht frei" means "Work brings freedom." Of course, nothing brought freedom, but the prisoners didn't know the truth of this cynical inscription.
We saw the barracks at the camp. They were two story and around 700 prisoners would sleep there. The rooms had concrete floors and people had to lay foot to head, head to foot, on one side in three different rows per room.
Did you know that the Germans didn't invent the 'concentration camp?' The British did. They had concentration camps until the 1930's. Germans created the death (extermination) camps.
We saw some barracks with bunks also. The prisoners in the camp had to sleep two to a bed. The beds were tri-level. I will talk more about this later when I get to the Birkenau section.
The prisoners were photographed when they got to the camp. Some of these were displayed in the halls of the blok with the barracks. Some of the people looked SO YOUNG..... There were two dates below the pictures. The first date was the date of arrival. The second date was the date of death. Some dates were days or months apart. :( All had a second date. All.
Blok 11 held the prisoners of Auschwitz. Yep, there was an even WORSE place to be in Auschwitz. These people committed horrible crimes like sharing rations with others or stealing extra portions. Terrible Crimes. They went through a trial to be convicted. We learned of three different types of punishments. The first was the standing cell. The standing cell was about 3 feet by 3 feet, with just enough room to stand. Five people would stand in it at a time. They would stand there at night and be released in the morning to work with the other prisoners. They would have to return to the standing cell at night. One person who shared his rations was sentenced to three nights in the standing cell. The second type of punishment was hanging in 30 minute increments. The video is of our tour guide explaining the story.
In the background of the video, you can see the third type of punishment: The Death Wall. I also posted a close-up pic of it. This was the most common punishment for those convicted of crimes in Auschwitz. Prisoners would have to strip their uniform off before making the walk to the Death Wall. This was so the uniform could be used again. They would then walk, naked, to the wall. When they were facing the wall, one of the guards would shoot them in the back of the head. Their naked corpse would be carried to the crematorium to be disposed of. The guide told us that the guards sometimes made prisoners line up single file and shoot one bullet. This was an experiment to see how many they could kill with one bullet.
I also took a picture of Blok 4. This is the one that got to me. The extermination blok. The whole building is full of prisoner's belongings found when the camp was liberated. Eyeglasses, blankets, suitcases, (I'll explain later) clothes, shoes, pots pans, hair. HUMAN HAIR. Heads were shaved and hair was sold to a nearby textile company in order to make blankets and clothes. DISGUSTING. The suitcases really got me. There were s0o0o0o many. Right after the suitcases, was a case of BABY CLOTHES. After that one? A WHOLE CASE OF BABY SHOES. At this point, I am hysterical. I was wearing my sunglasses in the building, trying to cover it up, gasping for air because I was finding it hard to breathe, and wiping MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF TEARS away from my eyes with my scarf. I'm in HYSTERICS at this point. Then I walk into the next hall. More shoes. A long hallway with glass cases on each side FULL OF SHOES. It just proved the number of people who lost their lives here. HYSTERICS. Oh, I didn't mention another glass case: empty Cyclone B cans. The gas used in the chambers. One can would kill about 1,500 to 2,000 people. The case was FULL! TERRIBLE. AWFUL. SICK. DISGUSTING.
No comments:
Post a Comment