The last two days have been exhausting, emotional,
depressing, heart-breaking, unbelievable, and like nothing I’ve ever
experienced. Yesterday, I walked the grounds and building of Auschwitz I. At
this site you will find the iconic iron sign that read “Arbiet Macht Frei” (Work
Sets You Free). That sign, just one
among many lies told to over one million Jew, Polish political prisoners,
gypsies (Roma), intellectuals, and clergy. As I prepared myself to walk beneath that sign
I thought about the people who never crossed that mark, not because they were
saved, but because they were killed immediately upon arriving at the camp. At
the main gate, guards employed by the Shutzstaffel (commonly known as The “SS”)
would pick out individuals who would live no longer than 20 minutes. These “selections” were made upon the arrival
of the cattle cars transporting these prisoners who were to be interned and
used as forced labor. SS guards would select those who would be unfit to work
in the camps. Among those selected were the elderly, children under the age of
14, individuals with disabilities, pregnant women, and anyone who may have
annoyed the SS guards throughout the process. After their selection they were
told they were going to shower. Upon arriving at an underground hut, they were
instructed to strip and to remember where they placed their belongings. They
were walked into a large cement room fitted with showerheads. After 700 or so
people had gathered the doors were sealed. From about it would rain. Not water,
but small white pebbles of hydrocyanide. This chemical, Zyklon B, entered the
chamber activated not by water, but from the collective body heat of the people
trapped inside. The lucky ones were those who were close the hole from which
the Zklyon B fell as they would die in 2-3 minutes. Those farther away and closer
to the walls could suffer, suffocating for more that 20 minutes. According to
recovered Nazi records, the chamber was ventilated and doors would be opened
after 30 minutes. Then, a special group called the Sonnderkommando. This detail
was responsible for emptying the chambers, shaving the bodies, searching them
for valuables, pulling any gold teeth and then burning the bodies in the
crematorium located in the next room.
This group was comprised of only Jews. The reason for this was because
the only intention the Nazis had for Jewish prisoners was to kill them. As the
work would involve witnessing the crimes, they would need to be killed. They
were used because they were going to die anyway. The detail would be killed and
replaced every 5-6 weeks. Experienced members may have made it 5-6 months…until
others gained the experience. This was amongst the worse of the jobs at the
camp, watching others die then having to dispose of the bodies…then killed a
few weeks later.
It can be
argued that those who weren’t “selected” were the unlucky ones, unlucky because
they didn’t face a fast and certain death. Instead, they were on their way to
starvation, brutality, unsanitary living conditions, and forced labor. The
Jewish prisoner were told that they shouldn’t expect to live longer than 2
weeks. For many it only took two weeks to meet their death for others it took
as long as 5 years.
As dramatic
as it sounds, I have to stop there. Though I’ve assembled the above paragraphs,
I remain unable to fully describe my experience there.
Elie Wiesel, a survivor and author of Night took a 10-year vow not to speak or
write about his experience in the camp. After seeing only the remnants, I can
understand why.
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