The History Behind The Picture

This picture was taken on March 19th in Auschwitz ll - Birkenau. In this picture many different things are going on. Not only at the time this picture was taken but also the history behind this sight pictured above. This picture was taken in Auschwitz ll - Birkenau was one of the largest concentration and death camps of the Holocaust or the Shoah. The site of this picture was in the far back of Auschwitz ll – Birkenau, away from all of the prisoner and surrounding homes and civilians. No one would know this was here from the outside. What you cannot see in this picture is that to the left, outside the view of the picture, is the gas chambers and crematoriums. The water in the background of this picture is a little pond. Prisoners were sent to their death in these gas chambers and crematoriums. The officers of the camps would dispose of the prisoner's ashes in to this little pond. This is a horrible disregard for human life. In front of the little pond there are four large black stones with an inscription on it. The inscription said “To the memory of the men, women and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide. Here lie their ashes. May their souls rest in peace”. Each one of the four stones had this same inscription on it in four different langue's, so that many different people can read the inscriptions and pay their respects. The four languages are English, Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew. At the site of this picture we did a memorial service with our class and guide, in front of the stones. We read a Holocaust remembrance prayer as our memorial service. We took turns reading lines from the prayer. This was a very important service to me because I have family and friends who have lost loved ones in the Holocaust. In class we have learned about the importance of remembrance. It is important to remember the horrific events that have taken place during the Shoah. We must remember and honor the men, woman, and children who have lost their lives during the Holocaust. We also must remember these horrific events of the Shoah so that we can ensure that genocides live this or genocides at all happen again. Memorial services of all kinds are important in order to pay respects and remember those who lost their lives and these horrific events. Whether these memorial services are small like the ones our class had throughout our trip, or like the memorial service our class will be having at Iona college, or they are nationwide services they are all extremely important to show our respects to those impacted by these events and to show remembrance.

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View From a Guard Tower

This picture was taken on March 19, 2019 in Auschwitz ll - Birkenau at 10 am. This is the view from on top of a guard tower at Auschwitz ll - Birkenau. The view from on top of the guard tower was really eye opening, the view from the top went on for miles and miles. It was at this point of the trip that I truly got a full understanding of how many people were in and could have been forced to live and work here and how many people have died here. Looking across the massive camp you could see what is left of the camp. The buildings in the picture above are all dorms where the prisoner where forced to live. Even through Auschwitz ll – Birkenau was already so big, there was plans to build more and expand this camp. This day of our trip was probably one of the hardest days for me. Learning about the amount of people that where in the Holocaust and victims of the Holocaust sounds crazy and unbelievable. It wasn’t until I went to the camps that I could truly understand how these horrifying numbers could be possible. At this camp they had different sections for the prisoners. They had the men, woman, and children split up in to different parts of the camps. For those who didn’t make the cut during the selection process where sent to the far back of the camp to one of the many gas chambers and crematoriums. It was heart breaking to see these living and working conditions that these people were forced to live and work in. These work places and dorms where over crowded, un sanitary, and un safe. During our tour of Auschwitz ll – Birkenau spent the day in the footsteps of the prisoner. Right through the main entrance of the camp where train tracks that brought in loads of prisoner each day. Once the prisoner where unloaded from the train, they were put into two lines. One line as sent straight to the gas chamber and crematoriums. And the other line was sent to work. From there our guide took us to the building that the prisoners went to when to after they were selected once they got off the train. This building was used to process the prisoners into the camp. From the second we walked through to door of the processing building I could picture the prisoners taking these scary first steps in the camp. In this building they numbered the inmates, shaved their head, and took all of their belongings. The living conditions in the dorms pictured here where awful. Inside the buildings the beds where made from the same building materials as horse stables. These bunks where made of wood with little to no bedding. They were over packed and fill with filth and disease. And their restrooms were in the middle of their dorms and bunks. They were only allowed to use them a few times a day.

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Blog 1

This picture was taken on March 20, 2019 in Kraków Poland at 4:53pm. I chose this picture because I liked how the community got together and decided they needed a way to show their respect for the people who suffered in the Holocaust and remembered those who lost their lives and suffered. In this picture it shows a memorial for holocaust victims. This picture symbolizes that we will never forget the events that happened during the Shoah and we use this as a reminder why we should never let this happen again. As we walked up to this memorial we had to pass through an old Jewish graveyard and the old places that used to be forced work places for people who were forced to live in the ghettos and work. The work that had to be done here was building housing and other work places. We placed rocks on the memorial to pay our respects. We learned from Stan who came to talk to our class that In the Jewish culture that places rocks at graves and memorials. The Jewish peoples do this because flowers have a short season in Jerusalem, and rocks are always around. Also, rocks are more permanent then flowers, since flowers will eventually die. As we were walking through this now national park many emotions passed through me. We walked through this park after looking around the old Krakow ghettos. I could imagine and picture these prisoners lives during World War 2. I could picture there long and painful walk every mooring across town around the train tracks to get to work. How they would have to work in any weather condition with limited clothing, no shoes, and barley anything to eat. Then those unfortunate people working from sunrise to sunset every day, just to walk the excruciating walk back to their ghetto. I must have been so horrible to work in these conditions under these circumstances, and I could imagine how it was made worse by the fact that they are working on a Jewish graveyard that was destroyed by the Germans to make this workplace. As our tour guide was taking us around the city of Krakow showing us the towns ghetto and these workplaces, she was telling us personal stories of the people really helped me and the rest on the class. Hearing the personal stories really helped me connect what I was seeing and helped me picture people having to live this way. I think this memorial that we visited is in a perfect spot. It is right were many events of World War 2 took place. This memorial was in three different languages. This allows many different people who speak different languages to be able to read the inscription. This monument is also done so greatly because even if you don’t speak or understand the languages on the monument people can still understand the importance of this and get the full message and effect that was indented from this monument. I am extremely grateful for this experience and for the fact that I got to show my respect for the victims of the Shoah.

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