Being a Witness to Auschwitz

     “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - George Santayna, this is a chilling quote located on the wall in a block in Auschwitz I. My understanding of this quote got better throughout the week. Spending 7 days at the Centre for Dialog and Prayer in Oswiecim, commonly known as the location of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II when Poland was under the control of Nazi Germany, taught me so much. Throughout the Spring semester our class has had the opportunity to learn about the Shoah or Holocaust and more specifically about the impact the war had on the Jewish religion and Jewish-Christian relations. As much as we learned in the 3 hour class once a week for weeks before leaving nothing can prepare a person for seeing what is in Poland. As a class we got to go to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II–Birkenau in addition to other places in Poland related to the Holocaust and Jewish-Christian relations.

Train tracks in the middle of Auschwitz II - Birkenau

            In Auschwitz I the class and I got to walk around and visit different blocks, the brick buildings in the camp. To the right when we walked into Block 4 was a map showing places where trains, full of deportees, mostly Jews, originated all over Europe. Also in Block 4 was an urn containing ashes of the murdered. During the existence of Auschwitz for a little over 4 years at least 1.3 million people were transported, including about 1.1 million Jews. This 1.3 million is only a fraction of the 6 million victims murdered during World War II. As we continued to walk we entered into Block 5. Block 5 contained glass containers full of prisoners belongings that managed to not be destroyed by the SS Soldiers. The containers contained thousands upon thousands of glasses, pots, pans, shoes and other belongings. These items were a chilling reminder that these people really weren't aware of what awaited them after their arrival in Auschwitz. One of the most disturbing rooms in all the blocks was the room containing the hair of prisoners. Male and female Auschwitz prisoners had their hair cut off once entering the camp, the hair was collected and used for industrial use.

            Throughout the day we saw and learned about different things that happened at the camp. We also learned about the stories of some prisoners. One of those stories was about St. Maximilian Kolbe. St. Maximilian Kolbe died voluntarily taking the place of a prisoner with a wife and child sentenced to death. Located in Block 11, Cell 20 is a small cell where now a memorial is located remembering the selfless act of St. Maximilian. We also saw the “death wall,” where people were shot as a method of execution, the gas chamber and crematorium that was built before the war as a Polish army ammunition bunker and the home a Rudolf Hess, the first commandment of Auschwitz, whose five children and wife lived just a fence apart from the concentration camp.

            The day after our first visit to Auschwitz I the class went to Auschwitz II- Birkenau. Birkenau looks like how most people envision what the concentration camps looked like, there are train tracks, trains and brick barracks. The thing that strikes most people about Birkenau is it’s size. Auschwitz II- Birkenau was the largest Nazi German concentration camp and the largest center for the extermination of Jews. It’s hard to put into words what the size feels like in person. It is bigger than thousands of football fields put together and today is very quiet. The silence can be scary when you realize how much noise was made in the exact spot you are standing in. Also in Auschwitz II - Birkenau is a memorial for all the victims of the death camp. The memorial was created in 1967 taking the place of an earlier memorial created in 1947. There are also granite memorial plaques located near a small pond into which the ashes of corpses burned nearby in a crematorium were dumped. Almost 30 million people from all over the world have visited Auschwitz II- Birkenau since it’s opening and have been a witness to what remains.

            Most people learn when they are younger about the Holocaust. Most people also question how an event like the Holocaust could have ever happened. After coming back from Poland that question has become one that I think about often and one that I know I will never have the answer to. But I have also discovered through this experience that knowledge is power. 

Entrance into Auschwitz I. "Arbeit Macht Frei" translates to "Work Will Set You Free"