Holocaust Study Visit: Day 2!

Welcome back to my blog covering Bann Maine West's Holocaust Study Visit to Krakow Poland. Kindly funded by Triangle Housing. In today's blog I will be covering our second day in Poland, which was probably the most challenging, the tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

6.30AM:

Again, it was an early start on the Saturday morning as we were heading off to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The hotel breakfast was lovely, it was a full continual buffet. A lot of ones within the the group had about 3 courses and fry's. I however just had a small croissant and a pain au chocolat and a glass of apple juice which was enough to set me up for the day.

7.15AM:

At 7.15 we were ready and raring to go. Their was an atmosphere on the bus that is hard to describe. On the journey you pass through the Polish country side and through small polish villages, being from Cullybackey and the countryside I find it fascinating, seeing all the different farm land and getting to see the areas that haven't been influenced by tourists and still has the post WW2 Soviet style architecture. Then we arrived in the town of Oswiecim where the camp is located.

9:00AM:

When we pulled put into the carpark outside the camp I was actually surprised at how built up the area around it. I had always assumed that the Nazi extermination camps where located in remote places far from any built up area. But this was my first learning point. Standing waiting to go in was an odd experience, first they make you go through a security check and then you get all your headsets ectara. Before we went in I did start to feel very nervous as everything was very sombre and you could already feel the weight of what you where about to walk into. We then walked through these doors that took us through this concrete tunnel, as we were walking along names of those that had perished during the Holocaust played through speakers. It was at that moment that it really hit me the weight of what we were about to feel. We came up through the concrete tunnel into Auschwitz 1, we then stopped quickly at the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" gates which translates too "Work will set you free". This was a very powerful moment as so many people walked under these gates with the hope that one day they will be free, however for many, that was not the case and many never walked back out those gates.

We then made are way through the camp passing the iconic brick buildings. It was interesting to hear how they were originally built for the Polish army as barracks and was built by polish builders and now it is connected to something so horrific. Then we went into some of the buildings and got to see the exhibits. One of the first ones we saw was the women's hair. No words can describe the feeling in that room. This was one of the rooms where you aren't allowed to take photos. The hair was pilled up in large mounds behind a glass screen and it was a very emotional moment as you realized every strand of hair belonged to a person who had to suffer through the extreme conditions of a Nazi camp. Another one of the exhibits that I found very moving was the shoes. I think the reason why was because in my head as I was looking at these shoes of all types and sizes was thinking, "Walk a day in their shoes". Each pair of shoes had a different story and before we left someone had told me a story about their experience of seeing a pair of children's shoes that had the heel pushed in due to them wearing them almost like slip on's and it was very true, as I saw a pair like that it reminded me of shoes that I had destroyed the heel due to not wearing them properly. As we where going around these exhibits I kept taking off my headset and their was a deafing silence no matter which room you went into and during the toilet break I said to people take off your headset when you walk into the rooms and truly it was a feeling I don't think I will ever experience again in my life. During the break I told Alister about taking off the headset and he actually pointed out to me something that came up many times after the fact. Their was no birds or wildlife, there was loads of greenery in the camp with trees and grass however, their was no birds. That was something that I did keep thinking about every time we walked outside.

Then we made are way around to Block 11. This was the hardest part of the entire tour for me personally. Block 11 is where the Nazis first ever tried gassing people as a means of mass murdered. They used the poisonous gas know as Zyklon B to kill 600 soviet prisoners of war and 250 sick polish prisoners on the 3rd of September 1941. Additionally at Block 11 many inmates where tortured and executed. The torture methods varied from forcing prisoners into a dark chamber for several hours or forcing prisoners into one of 4 standing cells where prisoners would be force to standing in a 1 square meter cell for up to 20 nights and still expected to work the next day. Then we went out to the yard between block 10 and block 11 which stood a recreation of the famous 'Death Wall' where many of Auschwitz's prisoners where shot by firing squad. This was a very silent and sombre moment as we processed all the loss that occurred in this horrific man made death machine.

12:00PM:

At around 12 we left Auschwitz 1 and headed over to Centre for Dialogue and Prayer. This was an absolutely gorgeous building that was set up after the second world war as a place for people to come and meet and share their experiences of the war and to teach the younger generations. This was a great opportunity for us to discuss what we had just witnessed. A common theme through out this trip was the amazing food and that only continued at the CFDAP. We then got back onto the bus and headed over to the second part of our trip Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

1:30PM:

At roughly 1:30 we arrived outside the second part and probably the most iconic, the train station of Auschwitz. Seeing it in person is something that is hard to described. The bus left us off just outside and we had to walk toward the camp. As we where walking I kept looking to my left where their was trees and as we got closer it just revelled more and more lookout towers. It was in that moment that a realised the immense scale of the camp. That was then further heightened when we passed under the station and saw how far back the camp stretched. Standing there at the railway looking down towards the end of the platform and gas chambers was an eerie sight, and was the last thing many people ever saw before they where murdered. The first stop was the old barracks of the camps inmates. We got to see what they used for bathrooms and also how they slept in 3 level bunk beds that would sleep 7 per bunk that had chimney run along the middle with 2 fire places either end to provide some form of heating to the barrack. The barracks structure was very simple wooden walls with concrete floor. We then found out that they where actually old German stables. This further reinforced how the Nazis viewed the Jews having them stay in the same building under worse conditions than how they treated their horse's.

We then took a very long walk down the railway platform towards the gas chambers. Along the way we stopped at one of the carriages that would of carried people into the camp. The carriage was very small however it held 70-80 people. Unfortunately, it was rare for all 70 - 80 people get off the carriage as many often perished on the long journey due to dehydration, hunger and diseases.

Once you make the way to the back their is a massive monument called, "International Monument to the Victims of Fascism". Along the base their is 23 plaques all with the same inscription in different languages that says, "Forever let his be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity. Where the Nazis Murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940-1945". We discussed how for many this clearly hasn't been a stark enough warning as across the world their is still the mass murder of people due to a certain unchangeable aspect of their life.

To the immediate right of us was the remains of chamber III and to the left the remains of chamber II. The fact that the remains have been so carefully persevered is amazing, not a single stone of rubble has been touched. This was obviously done intentionally as their sites are the graves of so many people and it is vital that we remember and respect the lives lost.

Lastly we went to the stone barracks. These where the first few barracks built at Auschwitz II and the brick used to building them was from the houses the the Nazis demolished from polish family's. These buildings where wear the women would of prepared the meals as well as their sleeping barracks.

3:00PM:

At around 3 we left the camp and headed back to our hotel. The bus home was very different to the bus going. First of all we where very exhausted as we had just done a lot of walking. But we where all trying to personally digest what we had all collectively got to experience. Thankfully when we got back to the hotel we had a few hours of free time. I went up to my room and watched a film I remember watching in school about another one of the extermination camps titled 'Escape from Sobibor'. It was really interesting watching this after having visited the camp and thinking back to how I felt watching it the first time. It was very eye-opening the new perspective I had on the situation and it is an experience I will think about and call back to for the rest of my life.

7:00PM:

At 7pm we went out for dinner to a traditionally Polish restaurant and it was really cool. I said it was like a Polish Granny Annie's. and again the food was amazing and after such a busy day we were all starving! So we weren't long of clearing our plates and then we headed back to the hotel and that was us for our second day. Personally this was the day I was most excited for but also the day I was most nervous about as this is such a difficult topic to cover but a very important one and one that shouldn't be avoided and should be brought up to remind people of the past so we aren't doomed to repeat it.

Thank you very much as always for reading my blog, I hope I managed to capture some of the emotions and feelings that I had personally but also as a group as we tour Auschwitz on our second day in Poland! As always I would like to thank Triangle Housing for the funding, Bann Maine West for facilitating, Prime tours for looking after us and most importantly to the people I got to share this amazing experience with. Thank You.

Lenny.