Auschwitz 1:An Emotional Journey through the Lives of the Victims of Auschwitz 1

Today’s journey was to say the least an emotional, heart wrenching one. It was filled with tears, and uncomfortableness. I had always been taught about the Shoah but my teachings had not at all prepared me to experience what I felt and went through there. Just walking through the camp and blocks, I couldn't believe the truly disgusting and dehumanizing conditions and the way in which people like me, my family, and loved ones were treated as if they were animals. The things I saw on the tour were unspeakable. Even as I tried to recollect my memories and talk about it in reflection, I found myself at a loss for words. It was hard to imagine even before coming here that people could do such horrible things. I think we all agreed that the room with all of the hair of the victims was one of the most difficult. Even with the very very large amount of hair and shoes of victims that was breathtaking, it did not even cover all of the victim’s. Even something as simple as hair and shoes, which are part of a person and contribute to their identity and the way in which they look at themselves and consider themselves unique, were taken away from them. Even their littlest signs of identity and difference, the Nazis stamped out of them. However, as we were talking about in reflection, there still remained a light in the victims that could not be stamped out within this dark curtain of Nazi ideology. This can be signified in Maximillian Kolbe’s story and countless other stories of kindness and positivity. The victims were able to keep their unique light in this darkness through many ways. Through this, as Dr. Manfred was saying they were able to keep their faith in god and love. Even as I looked at all of the exhibits, I could imagine all of the bodies that it all belonged to. I think Dr. Manfred said it best when he described why we all thought that the hair room was the worst room in saying that those artifacts were a part of them and it was like seeing a body part. That is when it hit me how bestially these victims were treated. The standing room, another gut wrenching room, showed how cruelly and animally these people were treated in that they had to crawl out to get out of it and had to stand the entire term of their punishment. Everything was so very graphic and I had seen many pictures before but to be in the same place as these victims was such an out-of-body experience. It was definitely very strange and the camp was so very detailed with the registration of the cyclone B and of people. Because everything was documented so well, it was easy to visualize the steps that were taking to implement the Shoah and carry out the Final solution to the Jewish problem. The camp even signaled this in its organization (in the sense of structure). Another difficult room was the room showing the malnourished children and experimented-on children which was tragic. As a twin, when I saw the two Hungarian twins who were experimented on to increase population size, it made me think of the many reasons in which I could have been sent to Auschwitz. It made me think of my own family and how easily people of this time had their families ripped out beneath them. These ordinary people had their whole life transformed within a matter of hours. The entire experience of Auschwitz made me recall the painting by Edward Munch as it seemed to represent the constant anguish and torment these people must have been in.--Grace Watters