Paintings from a Survivor

Some of the paintings of Marian Kolodziej

During one of our final days in Poland, we were able to look at the astonishing paintings of Marian Kolodziej, one of the first prisoners at Auschwitz I. After his liberation, Kolodziej became a set designer for theater productions and didn't want to share his experiences about the Shoah. However, after he suffered a stroke, he began to draw out his memories of the Shoah. These paintings are located under the Franciscan Center of St. Maksymillian. Although it was described as a preservation nightmare, the drawings themselves are absolutely terrifying. These paintings are primarily in black and white, drawing scenes from his time at the extermination camp of Auschwitz and throughout the Shoah. A lot of imagery is present in these paintings as well, utilizing symbolism in some of them to demonstrate how Kolodziej was feeling during this troubling time. I consistently found crosses and skulls littered throughout the drawings, symbolizing Christianity and death respectively. However, the most impactful thing for me that I saw while viewing these paintings were the humans themselves. The way the humans are drawn themselves initially threw me off, and I found myself very disturbed by some of the images that I saw. This disturbance was due to the way the humans were portrayed in these paintings. They seemed lifeless, skinny beyond all belief; their faces had a mix of fear and an acceptance of death. There was also a painting that showed the deterioration of a human during their time in the camps. This particularly disturbed me, as you can watch how a person deteriorates and eventually succumbs to the harsh conditions of these camps, and looking at their faces also shows you a thousand different emotions that they are feeling. Seeing these pictures reminded me of a movie that my class saw entitled The Last Days. The Last Days is a documentary film that covered the lives of five individuals that survived the Holocaust. We were able to listen and bear witness to their stories: one of the ladies had to eat diamonds continually in order to hide them from any guards once she got placed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Another lady talked about how she celebrated the Shabbat in the latrines. Being able to hear these stories, I was ready to start pairing them with the pictures that I saw at the Franciscan Center of St. Maksymillian. This connection didn't come to me right away. However, in the back of my mind, I kept imagining the people in Kolodziej's paintings reenacting out the stories that I heard in The Last Days. I couldn't stop thinking about these images for a while, even after I returned to New York. Those images are alluring, mesmerizing, and terrifying all at the same time, and they leave an impression on your mind, forcing you to think about the events that happened in the Shoah. There are people out in the world who will try to deny that the Holocaust ever existed. After my time in Poland, I find it hard to believe that any of those claims are true.

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Wall of Death

A reconstruction of the Wall of Death

During our first time visiting the location of Auschwitz I, we learned about the Wall of Death, locating right next to Block of 11, a place of pure horror. This building was responsible for the torture and murder of thousands of people, including Father Maximilian Kolbe, who eventually became a saint after his martyrdom. Not only that, but the first tests of Zyklon B were used down in the basements of Block 11. Being relegated to Block 11 was practically a death sentence if you were being held at Auschwitz I. With the use of standing cells, which forced individuals to stand for days on end forcibly, and starvation cells, where you were sure to perish, no one made it out alive of this building of death. However, this Wall of Death was where many individuals met their untimely end. It was a location of execution, meant for inmates who were sentenced to death in Block 11. These individuals were stripped naked, dragged out to the wall, and made to stand facing it. Then, a single shot to the back of the head marked the end of their lives. Their bodies were then placed in a pile near the Wall of Death, piling up before they were eventually carted away to the crematorium. Like pigs, they were lead to the slaughter and then discarded, piled up without any decency whatsoever. This type of inhumane behavior towards Jewish individuals reminded me about some of the scenes in The Holocaust Kingdom that outright disturbed me. There were descriptions in the memoir elaborating on the slaughter of people on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto, individuals being beaten up, mocked, and shot dead for no reason other than their religious faith. Not only that, but the occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto were treated like pigs as well, being locked in the ghetto, not allowed to leave, left to starve to death. This imagery is striking on its own, outlying the atrocities that many individuals in the Shoah had to experience. However, combined with the treatment of executed inmates at the Wall of Death, a clearer picture is painted on how the Nazi's truly felt about Jewish individuals. The Jews throughout the Shoah were treated like pigs; cattle lead to the slaughterhouse. They started to lose any semblance of human dignity that they possessed, robbed of their humanity by the Nazis. To them, the Jews were nothing more than dirty animals, and they were treated as such throughout the extent of the Holocaust: verbally and physically. Learning and seeing where these atrocities were committed stirred something within me, a desire to prevent these crimes from ever happening again. Individuals should realize that no one deserves to be discriminated against for their beliefs; robbed of their humanity due to faith. Auschwitz itself was a place of death and torture, where many individuals lost their lives due to misguided contempt. As a society, we need to learn from our mistakes surrounding the Shoah and come together to respect one another. If we fail to do that, then history will end up repeating itself all over again.

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In Wadowice

The central church at Wadowice, Poland

While visiting Wadowice during our first full day in Poland, we learned about the childhood of Pope John Paul II. Learning about his living situation, how he was brought up, and what the community was like back when John Paul II was growing up gave us more insight into the relations between Christians and Jews before the start of World War II. We also attended a Sunday Mass at the central church located in Wadowice. These masses ran a couple of times per day, extending well into the afternoon. This is something that I had never experienced before, as my parish only runs Sunday morning mass, not running into the afternoon like this parish did. It was honestly really interesting as well, some of the little nuances of this mass were different from what I experienced in my own hometown. During my time there, I was also told of a story back when John Paul II was a child before the outbreak of WWII, during our tour of the Pope John Paul II museum, located in the building where his house used to be. At the time, he was friends with a Jewish boy named Jerzy Kluger, whom he later reconnected with years after they lost touch. Not only were their relationships strong, but they commonly visited one another, immersing themselves in each other's culture. There was a time when Jerzy Kluger did eventually walk into the church in search of his friend, who was in the church at the time. One of the parishioners looked at Kluger funny and questioned why he was even present in the church in the first place. John Paul II allegedly responded: "Aren't we all God's children?" This story reminded me about something called the teachings of contempt and respect. The teaching of contempt itself in relation to anti-semitism has been around for thousands of years before this story, laced into the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and it’s offspring for centuries. People like St. Augustine, Martin Luther, and even some popes all expressed these feelings, which shaped church doctrine and ultimately resulted in the negative preconceptions aimed at Jews that surfaced during the 1930’s-1940’s. Then there is the teaching of respect, which is meant to combat anti-semitism. Fighting against the catalysts to anti-semitism was something that became prevalent after the events of the Shoah, and John Paul II’s words show how this respect was present back before the Shoah, although not as prevalent. However, this teaching of respect can also apply to almost every aspect of our lives today. Being able to move past discrimination and learning how to love other individuals, no matter who they are, is something that society needs to work on to this day. This teaching of respect shouldn’t only be utilized to fight against anti-semitism. There are so many other fields of interest where this respect is needed. If we, as a society, can come together and learn to love another, then we can truly progress forward.

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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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Father Kolbe and his perspective on unselfishness

While in Auschwitz we walked passed the cell in which father Kolbe was held prisoner and starved for two weeks. This part really had an impact on me. Seeing the cell in which Father Kolbe was held captive for death made me think about what we learned in class, about the righteous and how some people risks their lives for others. Father Kolbe choice to be in the position that he was sent to because he wanted to save a man who was screaming for his wife and children when he was picked for death. In class we learned about the victims, preparatory and the righteous. Father Kolbe was one that was the righteous. He took this man's position knowing what the conscious were going to be. In the bible it is says to take care of others and treat others the exact way that you would want to be treated. this is a theory that i personally live by. Father Kolbe did exact this. He did not think of himself, instead he thought about a man who he was going to be saving. Father Kolbe also did not expect anything in return for his actions, and this is also what the bible emphasizes. Father Kolbe's act was unselfish, and he did this act out of kindness. This action taught me many things. IT taught me not to be selfish and to think of others. After visiting the cell where father Kolbe was held it changed my perspective on the way that many live. It showed me to think of others, and to sometimes put others before yourself. It also remined me about when Stan came into our class to talk to use. It remined me about how a family took Stan in and hid him out from the Nazis. The family that took Stan did this as an unselfish thing. The family did not have to take Stan and his mother in, but they did out of the kindness of their heart. They did this not thinking of the consequences of getting caught, but they did not care because they wanted to save their lives. Just like father Kolbe, the family that took Stan in as a child wanted to help and do something out of good with nothing in return. If the family was caught then they most likely would have been sent to the camp with Stan and his mother, however, they did not care about that all they cared about was saving Stan.

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Memorization

After coming back from Poland, I have been finding it hard to give myself space and time to process all that we witnessed. Feeling bombarded by family, friends, and professors with well-meaning questions about the trip and our experiences has been overwhelming. I keep coming back to the phrase “the more I learn, the less I understand”, which was a title of a book I saw in the book store at Birkenau. The more we learned and saw, the less I understand how all of this destruction could have happened. I found it difficult to come make sense of what the destruction of an entire group of people looks like, until we stood next to a pond filled with ashes. That is what destruction looks like.

Memorial next to pond at Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Throughout our time at various sites, there are memorials at very deliberate places. Whether in Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II- Birkenau or the ghetto and concentration camp, Plaszow, memorials were intentional, and I found them to be extremely impactful. While all of the camps serve as a memorial to the destruction, there were certain places that had special plaques. Places where human ashes were spread had memorials, as seen above. The plaque states, “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.” There were several sets of these memorials in the area of the pond and by crematorium 4 and 5. They are in four different languages; English, Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish.

In class before traveling to Poland, we spoke about conceptualizing 6 million people. We spoke about different movements started by teachers to help educate others about the Holocaust and to help understand how devasting the scope of the Holocaust was. One of these projects was the paper clip project, where a school tried to collect 6 million paper clips to represent all the people murdered in the Holocaust. This was an attempt to not only conceptualize what 6 million people looks like, but to also understand that each of those paper clips represented an individual. Dr. Procario-Foley stressed in class to not only remember the individual, but to understand that each individual had a network of people that were affected. Each individual was a mother, a father, a daughter, a son.

A photo found in a suitcase hidden in Auschwitz II-Birkenau

If was difficult for me to come to terms with the scope of the murder until visiting Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Oswiecim. In Oswiecim, there is no longer a Jewish community. There is currently only one Synagogue, which is functional for groups that would like to use it but is also a museum. Seeing the site of destruction of the majority of a population and having that destruction mirrored in Oswiecim brought everything we learned together.

I found the ways in which different communities and places memorialized the ones they lost impactful. Some were more emotionally impactful, which others strived to draw attention to the individual; by remembered that reach person was a man, women or child, not a nameless prisoner.

Memorial at Plaszow Concentration Camp 

The memorial at the Plaszow Concentration Camp site to be beautiful. The crack in the statue is meant to be the broken heart of the Jewish people. It remembers those that were lost by visualizing the hurt and loss that this devastating event caused. Heart that was felt by every member of each community effected. A hurt and loss that brings me back to the question of how could groups effected by the Holocaust trust society again? These memorials not only remember those who were lost, but also serve as symbols of strength. The strength of a people who can come back from destruction to remember those that were lost while educating others on power of hate.

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