Men to the Left and Women to the Right By Shristi Gajurel

Entrance Gate to Auschwitz I

 “In a fraction of a second I could see my mother, my sisters, move to the right. Tzipora was holding Mother's hand. I saw them walking farther and farther away; Mother was stroking my sister's blonde hair, as if to protect her. And I walked on with my father, with the men.”

These are the words of Elie Wiesel explaining his experience inside Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Birkenau went on to become a major site of the Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” Almost 1.5 million people were killed at Auschwitz and most of the killings took place at Birkenau. I was always curious of why the Nazis chose Auschwitz as one of their biggest concentration camps. It was interesting to find out that the Nazi’s chose Auschwitz because it was the center of Europe and Poland had the biggest Jewish population. Out of 11 million Jews in Europe, 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland. Poland wasn’t always the closest destination for all Europeans. It took a 2 week long train ride from people of Greece to get to Auschwitz. As a result 60-65 percent of people died on the train.

Cattle Cart used to carry Prisoners to the camp

Birkenau was constructed by the prisoners because the SS army wanted to speed up the killing process. Something that absolutely shocked me is that 7,000 SS army officers controlled 1.5 million people in Auschwitz. They planned everything and gave authority to some prisoners they knew would be absolute dictatorial to other prisoners. One of the Holocaust survivors mentioned that some prisoners who were in charge of certain cells were their own worst enemy and they were the ones that would go and report to SS army about other prisoners. My tour guide said that Holocaust was successful because thousands of intellectuals and leaders believed in it and joined the Nazi team. During this trip, I learned that even among the prisoners there was constant fighting to survive among themselves. Block of Death was the first building we visited today. It was given that name because women who couldn't do hard labor anymore were kept there to die. Seven to nine women slept together in one bed to stay as warm as possible. Bottom level is the worst as people who were weak slept at the bottom as bottom row increased their chance to be bitten by rats and insects   Also, since the prisoners were only allowed to go to the bathroom twice a day most prisoners would pee in their sleep so the last bunk was considered the worst place for prisoners. 5,000 women only had 96 toilet holes and 5 latrines. They only had 5 washrooms so they would only have 25 seconds to go to the bathroom.

Beds in the women's death block 

It was extremely difficult to be at Birkenau today. Auschwitz I was extremely difficult the other day but being at Birkenau felt so real. The hardest part was visiting the pond where Nazis dumped the ashes of tens of thousands of people, mostly Jews, who were gassed at Crematorium IV, just behind and to the left of the pond. Being at Auschwitz has been extremely hard but I have also learned the importance of remembering the victims, survivors and all the families affected.

 As Elie Wiesel  once said "To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."

Pond with the victims ashes