Most are Gone, but All Aren’t Forgotten

Returning home from Poland and attempting to fully explain my experience was tough.  Sharing my new knowledge about the Soah, Pope John Paul and Krakow wasn’t difficult.  Sharing pictures with my loved ones was a bit of a struggle, merely because I remember exactly how I felt when snapping them.  Oddly enough the hardest part for me, was answering the simple question of “How was Poland?”  When someone first asked me this question, I was dumbfounded.  How does one fully explain one week of their life that was life changing, eye opening, humbling and incredible in a few sentences?

To be honest, I don’t have an answer for my own question and still have some trouble answering it today.   However, I found when I set aside time to have a lengthy conversation with a family member or good friend, I can fully explain my thoughts, feelings and experience, so talking about Poland becomes easier.  I am aware that everyone who asks about my trip to Poland doesn’t actually want to hear every detail, so I describe my experience to him or her as educational, unimaginable, bewildering and mournful. 

Flowers left on prisoner’s sleeping area

Even though our trip was only a short period of time, everyday I find myself being reminded of Poland and/or the Soah.  For example, a few weeks ago I was conversing with a friend about my experience on this trip.  After sharing my pictures and telling him about some of the horrifying events that occurred, he said “I don’t understand how people could let something like this happen.  Millions of people were being killed, and no one even tried to stop it.”  My heart dropped, but I knew what I had to tell him.  I told him all about righteous gentiles and how it is so important not to judge other people’s actions, especially when one doesn’t fully understand another’s circumstances.  I also told him that some people wanted to help the victims, but there were high risks involved, such as death, if they were caught.  I also reminded him that terrible events occur today around world, but not everyone is sympathy or proactive. 

I think it is important to relate my interaction to a reading we were assigned to read.  It said “More or less eight to 10 million people go to such exhibitions around the world today, they cry, they ask why people didn’t react more at the time, why there were so few righteous, then they go home, see genocide on television and don’t move a finger” (Kimmelman).  This was a gentile reminder that it is so easy to look back at our not so far away past and judge the actions of others.

It is difficult to grasp how a select group of humans decided they had the right to create this camp and others like it, in order to carryout a systemic genocide. Its tough to comprehend the horrific events and my experience can be hard to talk about at times.  Regardless, I believe it is vital for everyone to study this time period and remember all of those affected by the Soah, because most are gone, but all should be remembered.

WORK CITED

Kimmelman, Michael. "Auschwitz Shifts From Memorializing to Teaching." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Feb. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

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A Time to Remember

            Auschwitz II - Birkenau was the largest camp on Auschwitz’s compound, which we visited the day after our first visit to Auschwitz I.  The sun was shinning and we started the day by climbing to the top of the main watchtower at the entrance of the camp.  The entire complex, which could occupy up to 900,000 people at any given time, wasn’t visible from this jaw dropping view.  Since almost all of the original bunkers had been dissembled before, during or after liberation, it is almost impossible to imagine what Auschwitz II - Birkenau looked like during the peak of occupation. 

View from the watchtower

Soon after Bart, our tour guide brought the group to a place that had an old transportation train cart.  It was uncanny standing in front of one of the many train cars that transported over 500,000 people to this camp.  In each car, 70-80 people were crammed for days with no fresh air, food or water and lacked a place to relieve themselves of their bodily fluids.  Yet, I couldn’t wait to get off of our 6-hour flight that had meals, refreshments, restrooms, legroom and space for me to walk around.

Transportation car 

As we walked through the colossal camp, Bart shared some insight about a typical day in a prisoner’s life.  Each day around 4AM, the prisoners were woken up from their overcrowded barracks and were forced to participated in roll call.  Although each building was home to about 400-600 people, each structure was originally designed to hold only 50 horses.  Despite their 12-hour working day, prisoners consumed approximately 103 calories and were only allowed to use the camp restrooms twice a day.  From the perspective of someone who slept in their own bed the night before, was given bathroom breaks during our four hour tour, had a full stomach and was wearing layers of cozy clothing, the prisoner’s living conditions are inconceivable.  Each new nugget of information about life in the camp deepened my respect and admiration for those who inhabited there, whether they survived or not.

A rose on the train tracks with main watchtower in the distance

After a very lengthy walk through the camp, we were brought to the remains of one of the four gas chambers at Auschwitz II – Birkenau.  Since the SS guards and prisoners destroyed all of the gas chambers at this camp, only the dissembled materials from the building and the outline of the original chamber were intact.  Standing in front of the remains of a building that had the sole purpose of simultaneously killing 2,000 people, is a feeling that cannot properly be transcribed onto paper.  Before me, was where so many people had their last thoughts, feelings and breaths.

            After visiting the gas chamber, we spent a few minutes at the memorial site with the boulders to symbolize caskets.  I spent my time remembering everything I learned from the past few days and began to pray for all of those who were victims or somehow effected negatively by this unfortunate time in history.  Gilbert Martin says he prefers “the silence and wide open spaces of Auschwitz- Birkenau, which is such a vast place that it is possible to mediate and wander for hours…It is an important point: at a memorial site, remembrance (usually in an outdoor setting) and education (in the sense of museum exhibits and information panels usually in an indoor setting) are in practice hard to combine at the same place.” (Ambrosewicz-Jacobs).  Auschwitz II – Birkenau is unlike any other place I’ve ever visited, because it stands for a place that was unpleasant and dismal, yet when I visited, the sun was shining and birds were chirping.

It is impossible to fully put oneself into the shoes of the guards and the victims. Being at this camp made me feel closer to this historical event and reaffirmed how real this was for the many people involved.  It is hard not to feel so small in a place with such significance in human history.

Remains of gas chamber

Where victims waited to be gassed

WORK CITED

Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Jolanta. The Holocaust: Voices of Scholars. Cracow: Centre for Holocaust Studies, Jagiellonian U, 2009. Print.

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