Walking in the victims footsteps -- Birkenau

Railroad tracks in Birkenau

When I applied and considered the trip for Poland, us being able to tour the concentration camps was one of the main reasons why I wanted to be able to experience this. I have always been fascinated by the Holocaust and wanted to learn more about why and how something catastrophic like this could occur. Auschwitz-Birkenau housed over 80,000 people in the camp although the aim was to hold about 100,000 but wasn’t completed because of the camo being liberated. Before Birkenau became a concentration camp, the land was a village occupied by locals who were all eventually kicked out. A main reason that we learned about why the Nazis chose to put the camp here was because there were railroad lines created and in place way before, giving them easy access. Around 500,000 people were sent to this railroad line and most of those who were murdered were Polish Jews. I had already had a lot of knowledge about the Holocaust because of all the reading and movies I have watched on my own time, I learned so much more new information

than I expected. Although at Auschwitz there was a lot of information given because it has since been turned into a museum, Birkenau was raw. We had visited Auschwitz the day before and had a guided tour, but Birkenau had a different feel. Seeing the camp in person was so different than I had expected, it looked like all the photos I had always seen but I couldn’t believe that I was walking where harmless people were murdered for no reason other than they were thought to not fit the “Aryan” race. Most of the people brought to Birkenau were killed in the gas chambers but some without any documentation, so although we have numbers it could also be much higher than we’ll ever know. One thing that stuck out to me was when we were told about the Sonderkammando. This was a group of prisoners, mainly Jewish, who were forced with their own death to aid in the disposal of the bodies from the gas chambers. 450 of those in the Sonderkammando revolted and destroyed a gas chamber on the camp, after this occurred 250 prisoners from the camp were then shot as the punishment for what they had done. You can sit and question all day why people would revolt or go against the Nazi’s knowing that it would result in some other innocent prisoner being killed. But, the fact is they were nothing more than scared for lives and unless we could walk a day in their shoes choosing to be “selfish” may have been the only option to them if it meant possibly becoming free. Something I questioned a lot, which I could only imagine the victims of the Holocaust were questioning as well, was where was God during this time? But, I don’t think there is an answer to that question at all.