The Effect of Auscwitz on the Prisoner

Camp gate of Auschwitz I

Entrance to Auschwitz II-Birkenau

          The concentration camps were a test of morality, not just for the Nazis, but also for the Jews. The camps were designed to slowly chip away at a person’s humanity until they could no longer make a simple choice. John K. Roth mentions these “choiceless choices” that the Jews had while they tried to survive in the camps (Course Pack I, p. 138). Roth elaborates on this term by saying that the Nazis “often put Jews and other victims in circumstances where they had to make decisions among hideous options that could not even be described as involving the so-called lesser of evils” (Course Pack I, p. 139). This is the mindset I did not carry when we toured the camps. I did not understand how limited Jewish people were in these camps not only in the sense of physical capacity, but also in the sense of mental capacity. In Auschwitz II-Birkenau, our tour guide took us into the barracks to see where the prisoners were forced to sleep. These ‘bunks’ were just pieces of wood. There was no way a human being could have gotten a good night’s sleep in one of those bunks. But, the bunks were not the thing that struck me the most. It was that, when we walked in, there was a separate room. This room was for the ‘functionary prisoner’ who was also a prisoner of the camp. They were given some the Nazis dirty work in exchange for extra food and privileges.

Bunks in Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Room give to the Functionary-Prisoner in a bunker in Auschwitz II-Birkenau

            Primo Levi, a survivor of the Shoah, described, in detail, the function of these functionary prisoners in his book, The Drowned and the Saved. He argued that when a someone arrived at the camp, “...a new and strange enemy, the functionary-prisoner, who instead of taking you by the hand, reassuring you, teaching you the way, throws himself at you, screaming in a language you do not understand, and strikes you in the face. He wants to tame you, extinguish any spark of dignity that he has lost and you perhaps still preserve” (Levi 41). This aspect of the concentration camps was one of the most ingenious, but evil ploys of the Nazis because the Nazis were not the only ones stripping away the humanity of the Jews. The Jews also did that to each other. Reflecting on our time in Poland makes this fact a little more impactful. We walked where each prisoner walked. But when they walked the grounds, the enemy was all around them. Obviously, the Nazis were the greatest threat, but any prisoner could have been what stood between one and their next meal. With each advantage one person received, inversely, there was a disadvantage that another person received. For example, our tour guard detailed what would happen when one prisoner escaped: others were sent to death, like Maximillian Kolbe. In addition, if a Polish prisoner escaped, their family was sent to Auschwitz and made to stand under a sign until the prisoner was found. They were not released until that prisoner was found.
           On top of alienation in the camps, each prisoner also dealt with a force greater than anything the Nazis could thrust upon them: hunger. This hunger affected their entire existence. Hunger snuck its way into every choice a prisoner made. It was always in the back of their mind. Hunger combined with fatigue, lack of water, ineffective shelter, and thin clothing created prisoners that resembled animals more than human beings. Their mind was constantly on survival rather than normal conscience thought. Making any judgement on these Jews for their actions during this time is impossible because, as outsiders, we will never truly understand what it is like to live as they did and have everything stripped from their lives. One of the quotes on the wall of a museum in Auschwitz I read, “Remember only that I was innocent and, just like you, mortal on that day, I, too, had had a face marked by rage, by pity and joy, quite simply, a human face!” Benjamin Fondane, the author of that quote, was murdered at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944. But, his words and their meaning will last forever.

Quote by Benjamin Fondane written on the wall of the Shoah Museum in Auschwitz I

          Benjamin Fondane’s quote represents the divide that exists between survivors and everyone else. They understand how humans can be turned to something less than human because they went through it. As an outsider, I know that is something I will never understand. But I think that the important point here is that, even though they became prisoners, even though they were less than human in the camps, they were once whole-beings with whole lives. They had lives filled with love and joy and family and friends. They rode bicycles and swam in oceans. They were just like us and that is something that I never realized before going to Poland. Watching a video on Jewish life before the Holocaust, after we saw the camps and where they died, put everything into perspective. The Jewish Europeans were regular, imperfect people that the Nazis turned into sub-humans. Instead of judging their actions, it is more important to prevent this from happening again. Therefore, as people who went to the concentration camps, studied the Holocaust in depth and understand the complexity of this event, we need to be witnesses for those that did not make it through. We need to stand up for injustices not only in our country, but in the world to make sure something like this does not happen again.

Family picture of a Jewish family before the Holocaust

Jewish life before the Holocaust

Works Cited

1. Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. Print.

Pictures

1. Taken at Auschwitz I, Mar. 13. 2017.
2. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
3. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
4. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
5. Taken at Auschwitz I, Mar. 13. 2017.
6. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
7. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.

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Meaning in Mourning

Monument at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, placed between the ruins of two gas chambers.

Though our time in Auschwitz II-Birkenau was brief, it was impactful. Walking the grounds, it was hard to image the horror that happened there. Every place on the grounds could have been the place where a victim took their last breath. Every part of the grounds was holy. Every part was a place for a victim to be mourned. But, how could these victims be properly mourned? How can the world memorialize every victim of the Holocaust? As more and more survivors die off, so do the stories of these victims. The mind of a survivor might have held a victim’s last words, their favorite color, the names of their children, how they wished they could have spent their life. As memories fade, these victim’s stories disappear like a trail of smoke into the open sky. So what do we do? We get as many stories as we can printed into books and hung up in museums. We desperately try to grasp at the lives lost to try and to demonstrate that they will not be forgotten.

Picture of a rose placed on the train tracks in Auschwitz II-Birkenau

The camps remind the world of the lives lost. They are a symbol that says “please, do not let this happen again.” So the camps are open to the public. Schools send their students there. Parents plan trips to take their kids there. Churches send their congregations there. Synagogues send the Jewish youth there. People from all walks of life tour the grounds. Roses can be found all over Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Their beauty juxtaposes the bleakness of the camps. Roses were placed in the bunks, on the pond, on the train tracks, and on the ruins of the gas chambers. The roses are a little piece people leave behind to say that we will remember forever.

A rose placed on the ruins of a gas chamber

Rocks are part of a Jewish tradition. They are placed on the graves of family lost. In Auschwitz II-Birkenau, they were placed on the monument between two gas chambers, the ruins of the gas chambers, graves put up post-Holocaust, and even on the railroad cars where so many succumbed to exhaustion and starvation. The rocks are important because it means that people do not have to be rich enough to afford flowers to mourn their dead. Any person can take part in this tradition and, many times, our class felt the pull to partake and put rocks on these places of memorial to demonstrate that we, too, will remember.

Rocks placed on the headstones dedicated to the victims of the Shoah

But, even then, even after all the museums we went to, after going to the camps, after watching so many holocaust movies, after reading so many Holocaust books, I still find great difficulty in reconciling the fact that each victim was never properly mourned. I know, I will never find what I am looking for. The past cannot be changed. The stories of the Holocaust can never be full unearthed. I finally found solace in the following poem:

"Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die" (Frye).

The victims do not want to be mourned because they are a part of something different now. They are a part of the collective movement to rid the world of genocide and oppression. Each story can never be remembered, but each story is a part of the larger story. This is a story that demonstrates what happens when hate fuels action, a story that depicts the most nefarious acts humankind has committed, story that begs: never again.

A rose placed in a bunk at Auschwitz II-Birkenau

References:

1. Frye, Mary Elizabeth. "Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep." Family Friend Poems. Family Friend Poems, n.d. Web. 03 May 2017.

Pictures

1. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on March 14, 2017.

2. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on March 14, 2017.

3. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on March 14, 2017.

4. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on March 14, 2017.

5. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau on March 14, 2017.

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The Power of Hate

On the second night of our visit to Poland, we were privileged to hear the first of three lectures by Father Manfred. He, a German Holocaust scholar, spoke of Rudolf Hoess, the Commander of Auschwitz. Hoess was the subject of Father Manfred’s dissertation, which developed into the book, “And Your Conscience Never Haunted You?” I spent a few days mulling over this title. The question itself is so important in trying to dissect the mind of one of the most savage people that orchestrated the Holocaust, but the question itself does not seem complete. The “And” indicates that it was part of a much larger question, but this piece seemed like the latter part which was odd to me because it seems like such an important piece.

Father Manfred's book on Hoess

My utter fascination with this question stems from my lack of understanding in how a man can demand the slaughter of millions of people. I find it hard to even comprehend how a man like this can even have a conscience much less one that bothered him. The article “How Grandson of Auschwitz Boss Is Trying to Remake Family Name” by Naftali Bendavid and Harriet Torry, follows the life of Rainer Hoess, the grandson of Rudolf Hoess. Rainer, disgusted with the actions of his grandfather, spends his life desperately trying to reconcile with his lineage. He even has tattoos of the Star of David and the Auschwitz numbers of survivors he has met. Included in this article is a quote from the autobiography of the Commander of Auschwitz himself. In regards to the horrors he committed, Rudolf Hoess said, “‘The reasons behind the extermination program seemed to me right,’ he wrote. ‘I did not reflect on it at the time: I had been given an order, and I had to carry it out’” (Course Pack II, p. 38). This quote indicates, to me, that he did not feel regret for his actions. His duty to the Third Reich overtook any sort of conscience he might have possessed. But, how did this ‘duty’ arise? How can his ‘cause’ make him forget that the Jews were people? Did he not know that the Jewish have not only the right to live their lives as much as anyone else, but that they deserved life more than him, a ruthless murderer?

Rainer Hoess, grandson of Rudolf Hoess

Father Manfred spoke much about the Nazi power to overcome their consciences. The Nazis used hate to power them. This pure, irrational hatred fueled their actions and not only allowed them to forget how to treat people, but also annihilated their consciences. In one of the bunkers at Auschwitz, a video played and in the video, a young Jewish girl’s diary was being read aloud. In it, she described an event in which a Nazi soldier took a Jewish baby out of a stroller and killed it by bashing it against a lamppost. I cannot even imagine witnessing that. I cannot even imagine how that Nazi soldier justified taking the life of an innocent baby who had done absolutely nothing to warrant a death as horrific as that. Did this man have no morals? No heart? No feeling? If we assume that this man possessed or once possessed a conscience and a moral code, then this horrific incident demonstrates how incredibly deep the Nazi hatred ran.

Nazi soldier stepping on the body of a child

It is important to prevent the future people of this earth from feeling this hatred ever again. It is important for all people to realize that an action fueled by hatred is irrational and will continue to let evil prevail over the earth. In “Immunizing pupils against extremism’ with Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,” Josef Kraus argues that “excerpts (of Mein Kampf) should be read in sixth forms in hopes that young people can become immunized and resistant to extreme notions” (Course Pack II, p. 14). Kraus proposes that the ideology and intense hatred taught and practiced by the Nazis can and should be expelled from this earth through education. It is important that young people be exposed to ‘extremist’ ideologies in a setting that can not only be moderated by an educator, but one in which young people can examine the effects of these ideologies such as ‘12 years of mass murder’ (“Immunizing Pupils…”, Course Pack II, p. 14). Without such education, the potential for future generations to relapse into this mindset remains possible thus allowing for another catastrophe rooted in hate to occur once again.

Photo 1: http://www.books.e-oswiecim.pl/manfred-deselaers-and-your-conscience-never-haunted-you-the-life-of-rudolf-hoss-commander-of-auschwitz-and-the-question-of-his-responsibility-before-god-and-human-beings.html, Accessed Mar. 23

Photo 2: http://www.tlz.de/web/zgt/politik/detail/-/specific/Enkel-des-Auschwitz-Kommandanten-Wir-muessen-den-braunen-Mob-stoppen-1464232450, Accessed Mar. 23

Photo 3: Taken at Auschwitz, Mar. 16

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