Jessalyn: Different Perspectives

Yesterday began our tour of Auschwitz I where I connected emotionally to the past of what happened on those hallowed grounds. Stepping on the ground where over a million human beings perished was surreal. The atmosphere spoke for itself, but what truly impacted me were the artifacts I saw. 

 Walking into a room where there was piles of human hair was both shocking and repulsive. When men, women, and children were led to the gas chambers, there bodies had to be dragged out and either thrown into a ditch to be buried or burned. While there should not have been anything valuable left on these victims, there in fact was. Human hair was the last prized possession that the Nazis could use to their advantage. As Jacek, our tour guide, explained, the Nazis sold 200 kilograms of hair for one rice mark. The thought of selling the dead’s hear nauseated me. 

 Not only did I witness the dead’s hair, but also piles upon piles of their shoes, briefcases, and eye glasses. The magnitude of these items displayed in one room each was enormous yet this was only a small fraction of what the oppressed lost during the Holocaust. 

 Keeping in mind my visit to Auschwitz I yesterday and the impact it had on me, today our group drove over to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Although I expected my experience to be similar to the one I had yesterday, I was wrong. Auschwitz II-Birkenau is an expansive camp that goes on much farther than our eyes can see. It is a camp that is full of ruins due to the Nazis destroying the evidence of their misdeeds. Walking farther than I expected due to the small concentration camp I pictured in my head, I witnessed a small portion of the cattle car railway where thousands of prisoners were brought to their deaths, gas chambers that were completely destroyed, and photos of some of those who perished at the hands of the Nazis.

Walking through the rumble that was left after WWII in Auschwitz II-Birkenau was a completely different experience then the preserved museum I walked through in Auschwitz I twenty-four hours earlier. All I kept thinking to myself is why was my encounter so different? 

Thinking about my past two days I realized the difference came from my background. I am mathematics major and anyone that knows me understands I love numbers. Seeing and quantifying the physical items I saw in Auschwitz I is what resonated with me. The numbers, although on a miniscule scale, spoke to me in a way seeing ruins and photos could not. The hundreds of pairs of shoes and the ounces of hair I saw are the figures that connected with the analytical side of me. This is what made the Holocaust a real experience I could connect with instead of a concept I did not yet understand. 

While others may have connected at Auschwitz II-Birkenau better than I could, the important message here is that scholars relate to history in different ways and no one way is right. As Jonathon Webber writes in his article “Auschwitz: Whose History, Whose Memory?”, “Completely inclusive styles of Holocaust remembrance are unlikely, by definition, to be perfect, or fully authentic for those within a particular religious, cultural, or national tradition; they are perhaps best to be understood as platforms or opportunities for those of many different backgrounds and experiences to speak to the world about Auschwitz” (147). While we all may have our different opinions and experiences due to the backgrounds we bring with us to Poland, we all should share those attitudes to receive a better, more universal understanding of the past.