Auschwitz II- Birkenau

Auschwitz II -Birkenau, upon arrival I could tell that this place was much bigger then Auschwitz I but I really had no idea how enormous this place truly is. I can’t seem to wrap my mind around the fact that someone had sat down and planned out each detail of this death camp. These were highly educated men with doctorate degrees, planning the quickest way to murder thousands at one time. You would think with all of their education they would know right from wrong. They treated people like animals but didn’t realize the real animals were themselves.  Unlike Auschwitz one which was previously an army base, this was built to be a place for human beings to die. One of our first stops on the tour was the watchtower; I was taken back by the size and the emptiness from this view.  This is truly put the number of people in perspective. Our guide said that we would have been privileged to be up here because only the SS would have been able to watch from this tower, but I didn’t feel privileged at all. I was looking down at hell on earth. This was made more and more clear as we walked through, first to the women’s bunker, the “beds” or lack there of where pieces of wood, three levels, where any where from four- eight people would sleep. They would stay close together to keep warm. It also broke my heart hearing that the weakest would lay at the bottom, and if someone had to relieve him or herself it would be where they slept. I cant even rap my mind around eight hundred people living in these bunkers. They couldn’t even use the bathroom freely once for a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes at night to wash and use the bathroom.

Then there was the train platform that was built to make the selection process easier. We stood right where life or death was decided. Some Peoples lives ended right when they got off that train, but some didn’t even last the torturous train ride. A hundred people packed in cattle cars no food, no water, no fresh air, and no bathrooms. The people selected walked straight to the gas chambers, they were promised a shower. All they wanted was to clean themselves. What bothers me the most is the false hope that the SS gave these people. The men, women and children were told to remember their number of the hook where they had placed their belongings. They had structured the room to fool these people, to have them staying calm, to make it easier for themselves. They put the changing room and the gas chambers underground so no one could see, think about the thought out into this.

The only place I could feel something in this camp was at the pond. This pond was man made for the purpose of dumping the ashes. This pond was placed right next to the forth crematorium, all for convince. This Crematorium like the rest here at Birkenau had been destroyed, but the ruins remained. As we stood by the pond I looked down at the roses floating in the pond, and you could here the birds singing. I watched my fellow classmates sit by the river and pay our respects. I felt the wind, I saw my classmate Shristi’s book with Hebrew writing on the front and all her notes from the trip open up and all the pages flip open, in this moment I felt life. I took a picture, as this would be a moment I would want to keep forever.

Taylor Dougherty