Auschwitz-Birkenau

Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Makes you Free

Not for over a million Jews, political prisoners and others that were sent to death at the largest Nazi death camp that was used during the Second World War. This is where we visited today, it was a tough day. Not something that we can say that we enjoyed but something that we are finding hard to describe it is an experience that we will come away from never regretting and one that we think everyone should try and do, that way you can have a tiny glimpse of what millions of people had to endure. Even if fate did not take them to Auschwitz-Birkenau but to another camp. Even after spending a day there we still cannot comprehend what life would have been like for those poor souls who had to suffer through it.

We were going to put this blog with our Krakow one but thought that it deserved to be on its own.

We arrived at the infamous gate and walked through it all the time realising how lucky we are to be able to walk back out. You could not help but feel an overwhelming sense of sorrow, that only got worse as we saw material evidence of the atrocities that occurred not so long ago right where we were standing.

Glasses, combs, hairbrushes,artificial limbs, suitcases, shoes (around 10,000 pairs) and even pots and pans were piled high only showing a small percentage of what was really taken from the lives of people. Every thing that could be recycled was taken and that included human hair, which was reused for items such as blankets, clothing and rugs. A huge pile of human hair was on display, about two tons once again a small percentage of what would have been stored in warehouses. This isn't even taking into account the hair that had already been used for items including womens stockings. Unless you have seen it there is no way to describe the quantities that were there.

Something that struck us both was the shoe polish that was left behind, it made us really appreciate the fact that the people that were taken really believed that they were going to the East to start a new life. Would you take shoe polish to your death?

We got to see the gas chamber where people were sent to their death, some didn't even last a day, they were taken straight of the trains and marched to the gas chamber, these people were told that they were going to go for a shower and were even given soap to stop them from being suspicious. For the people in the camps that were no longer useful they knew what was about to happen to them, they were to frail to fight. We saw where the bodies of the dead were cremated, sometimes the crematoriums were running 24 hours a day just to try and keep up with the load.

It was a life changing experience and we know that we have missed so many things in this blog, but even writing about what we saw would never give justice to what you experience and get to take away with you while visiting.

written by  craigandcorrine on January 16, 2010 from Oswiecim, Poland
from the travel blog: World Tour
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