Another so-so breakfast: ham and cheese, a bland pastry, and a hard boiled egg.
Continue to Auschwitz.
On the bus ride, I attempted to prepare the students for what we would be experiencing in Auschwitz. Of course, having never been there myself, I was flying blindly to some degree. I basically told them that they might experience a wide variety of emotions. I suggested they utilize their journals to express their thoughts after the visit and also offered the ears of all the delegation leaders for anyone wishing to talk things through. The other delegation leaders complimented whatever I said so it must have been okay.
Experience the darker side of European history and get an impression of the suffering of more than a hundred thousand people. Auschwitz is a symbol of inhumanity, intolerance and the terrible consequences of racism.
I cannot possibly encapsulate the experience in a few paragraphs so I will share whatever comes to mind. I am typing this on the bus as we leave Auschwitz in an attempt to get my most immediate thoughts down rather than waiting until the late evening as I usually do.
We began our visit at Auschwitz I, one of three camps in the large Auschwitz complex. This one contains a museum and restored or preserved buildings from the original camp with exhibits inside. This is not the part of the camp with the famous entry gate for the railroad cars depicted in Schindler’s List. This area does have the gate entry with the phrase “Arbeit macht frei,” which means “Work will make you free.” For 90% of the people who passed through that gate “freedom” was death. Based on the conditions in the camp death was probably welcome for many by the time it finally arrived.
Our delegation broke into two smaller groups with guides who utilized a microphone system so that we could listen to them via headphones without disturbing the people around us. Auschwitz was crowded with many tour groups moving through the grounds and exhibits, but the headphone system and the gravity of the environs kept everything moving smoothly and quietly.
I kept two books open while we walked through Auschwitz I – “Surviving Auschwitz” by Primo Levi and my journal. I have been reading the former throughout the program and found pages in the book where the author described the camp in vivid detail. He went so far as to explain what happened in Block 24 versus Block 12 for example. I later determined that he was in the Auschwitz-Birkenau section (or Auschwitz II) so all the pictures I took of these block numbers were probably for nothing, but the descriptions were still helpful as I moved through the grounds. I jotted a few of the most notable things I observed or heard from the guide so that I could share them when reflecting later.
The most shocking building we walked inside was set up for special tortures. Whenever an escape happened, the SS selected a group of the escapee’s bunkmates to make an example for the rest of the prisoners. This group was put into a starvation cell where they did not even receive the tiny rations that the rest of the prisoners received. It took about two weeks for the last of them to die. Although it wasn’t stated by our guide, I imagine that none of the bodies were removed until they were all dead. There was also a standing cell where four prisoners were kept in a 1 meter by 1 meter stone cell overnight. The small size did not allow enough room to sit or lie down so after working all day long, the prisoners subjected to this torture were left to stand overnight, night after night.
The exhibits attempted to capture the unfathomable extent of this camp. 1.3 million people entered – Jews, gypsies, political prisoners, etc. – and 1.1 million were killed. The camp opened in 1941 and was liberated in January 1945. The complex was a labor camp and death camp for people taken from all over Europe and was designed for efficiency. Much was destroyed by the Nazis as they fled the approaching Soviet army including the vast majority of records. Because the first selections of who would live to work and who would die were made as soon as prisoners stepped off the trains, the exact identities of all those who came in Auschwitz would not be known even if the records were intact.
On the topic of life or death. Children under 14, women with children, the physically disabled, the elderly and the sick were never spared. Men and women that seemed strong or had special skills like being musicians or good with metalworking had the best chance of being spared temporarily so that they could contribute to camp life or the war machine in some way. Some prisoners were selected to serve in semi-official positions as the blockmaster. This person was in charge of one barracks and dispersed the bread and soup. He was also the one responsible for discipline. If prisoners got out of line, were slow getting ready for roll call, talked when they weren’t supposed to, or whatever else, the blockmaster might beat the prisoner even though he was actually just one of them. Like the Judenrat in the ghettos, this was a method the SS used to turn the subjects of their attacks on themselves. Divide and conquer.
The exhibits ranged from hundreds of pounds of human hair that was used to make blankets to thousands of children’s shoes to luggage with family names and identifying information to pacifier rings to toothbrushes. Since prisoners were told they were being resettled or sent to a labor camp, they were told to bring their most valuable possessions with them. This was really because the Nazis wanted to plunder the belongings to burn gold down for reuse and to make money through sales.
The last building we entered in Auschwitz I was the crematorium. Although there were at least 5 in action during the Holocaust, this small one was the first and only one still standing. By small, I mean this death room could “only” kill 750 people at one time. We actually walked into the room where the Cyclon-B gas was dispensed, where prisoners were poisoned in a way that caused suffocation until death. This process took up to 15 minutes to work so it was a slow, painful death marked by screams and absolute suffering. We stood there and saw what they saw although we certainly did not feel what they felt. We walked into the adjoining room, the crematorium. We saw where other prisoners would drag the bodies and place them, a few at a time, into the giant ovens. To speed up the process the bodies were pulled out and the bones crushed into ash by hand.
Needless to say, a break was welcome before continuing our visit.
After a short bus ride, we arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. We entered through the brick gate along the railroad tracks that were extended from a local rail line to get prisoners closer to the large 1500+ capacity gas chambers that were built to accommodate the growing population of the camp. To minimize the chance of chaos, the tracks were built into the center of many barracks for workers. As most of the prisoners had been told they were going to a labor camp, this seemed legitimate when they got out of the boxcars. At first selection, prisoners were asked in German or rudimentary versions of their native languages how old they were and what their profession was. Within a few seconds, they were waved into one of two lines. One led to a registration area and the other to the gas chambers. Meanwhile, they were told to leave all of their belongings along the platform where other prisoners were picking it up to “deliver it to them later.” In reality, these belongings went into large warehouses where different types of items were separated for use by the Nazis in one way or another.
For those in the death line, they walked along a central corridor to the far reaches of the camp near a tree line. To limit the suspicions of the surrounding townspeople, the largest crematoriums had been built in the woods to hide the smokestacks a little better. The prisoners were told they had take showers and be deloused for the health of all in the camp before entering the general population. Therefore the gas chambers were designed to appear as bathhouses. All were forced to strip in an entry room and then walk into the shower room. The shower heads rained down Cyclon-B instead of water, but by the time the prisoners realized the reality of the situation, it was far too late to do anything about it.
In Birkenau, most of the barracks have been dismantled. They were built out of wood and the Nazis took much of the wood with them when they fled for other uses. In addition, they destroyed as many buildings as possible to limit the evidence before the Soviets arrived including the gas chambers and crematoriums.
We did enter one barracks and saw the scene that I expected from movies, documentaries, and books. There were two small rooms in the front of the building for the blockmaster and the bread stores and then bunks lined end to end along the sides with a small corridor in the middle. The bunks were stacked three high and in most cases two people shared each. As prisoners were not allowed out of the building at night, buckets were present for bathroom visits overnight. There was a furnace area that could heat the entire building, but fuel was rarely provided so it didn’t really matter.
Nearby, we visited a latrine building. Stone commodes with holes cut in them acted as toilets. There was no privacy and no drainage so the conditions were unbelievably disgusting. Showers did not exist at all and the water was not drinkable. Because the conditions were so despicable in this room, the SS rarely entered. Therefore, the latrines became the only place for prisoners to go without being watched. Here the black market thrived and prisoners could confer, exchange gossip and news, and pray. Despite the inhuman conditions, it was the only place for sanity in the camp.
We concluded by stopping exactly where the train platform stood and walking the walk to where the gas chambers were. We saw the same trees and sky and barracks as the hundreds of thousands of people who died on the same grounds between 1941 and 1945. The students had some time at the memorial that now stands where the gas chambers were to reflect in the way they saw fit. As I observed them, a poem formed in my mind. I started jotting it down and then our group was leaving. I was able to finish it while we walked out of the camp, a simple act that 90% of those who entered it were never able to do.
I built up courage along the walk to do something out of character for me. I decided that I would share my poem with the delegation.
First I made some remarks about how everyone reflected in their own way as I suggested earlier in the morning. Then I challenged each student to share their emotional reaction with their classmates in the future. In New Jersey, we teach the Holocaust every year from grade six through grade eleven in social studies classes and my students often complain that they already know it all. Hearing about what we experienced today would certainly go a long way to overcome that complaint. I told the students that I would be the first to share; if I want them to talk about it with their classmates in the future, I have to be able to do it now. I told them that I composed a poem while they were reflecting and that I wanted to share it. I had to pause for a minute to catch my breath and steady my voice and then I read…
Most sat silently
Taking a moment to reflect in quiet solitude
Some with tears wetting their cheeks.
Others placed candles
Remembering the victims
With a symbol and a prayer.
Many sought solace
Sitting with recently made friends
To share the emotions as one.
All will remember
Internalizing the austere surroundings
A memory of the furthest reaches of man’s inhumanity to man.
The students applauded and one of the other delegation leaders later commented that Ali is the luckiest fiancé in the world. I don’t know about all that; the poem wrote itself and it wound up on the paper in my journal without me really thinking about it much. I think it accurately and concisely captures the range of experiences of our students today though.
Enjoy your lunch at the restaurant Art Deco.
We had a quiet lunch nearby of chicken stir fry with fries and a dessert of strawberry and mint chocolate chip ice cream. The students were (and still are on the bus) quieter to usual and many were writing in journals, some still crying a bit and others attempting to ease the tension by focusing on other topics for awhile.
Hop on your bus and travel to Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
The afternoon bus ride was over four hours long with two rest stops, which gave everyone a chance to decompress. During the latter half of the ride some students watched The Pianist about the Warsaw uprisings, but the sound quality was poor and there weren’t any English subtitles so I did not watch.
The restaurant Sarmacja will serve you today’s dinner.
Dinner was late but in a quaint little restaurant in Warsaw. We had beef, French fries, and cabbage salad. This was my least favorite cabbage salad although I did clean the plate. For dessert there was a great warm apple tart with crème sauce.
Check in at the hotel.
Tony, one of the other delegation leaders, is spending tonight’s free time accompanying two girls back to the dinner restaurant and the last rest stop for lost wallets. We have actually done better than usual with lost items; nothing had been reported to us until tonight.
Ellie and I spent the evening filling out Incident Report Forms to fax to the program office back in the United States on the religious joke incident. We also had the alleged jokers write apology letters to the subject of their jokes. We are hoping this ends the situation although the victim approached me this morning suggesting they should be sent home for the transgression. This is definitely not going to happen and would be completely out of line with the incident. When reading journals today, I learned that the victim had been voluntarily hanging out with the jokers as late as yesterday afternoon well after the incident was said to occur. I wouldn’t have even found out about it if I hadn’t overheard the argument in the hotel.
Stay overnight at the Novotel Airport Warszawa.
