On Solemness in Auswitch and Birkenau

No one should leave Krakow without visiting the Nazi concentration camp. Located about an hour by bus, the Auswitch and Birkenau concentration camp saw the death of thousands of innocent Jewish people during the WWII. I bought a tour from one of the many local tour companies that ferry tourists to these camps. While one may actually travel to these camps by themselves, I thought it would be more convenient with the aid of a tour guide, not forgetting it was snowing when I visited...

It was mid March, and the air was freezing cold at perhaps 1 degrees C. The Auswitch concentration camp had been transformed into a huge museum, with some of the old barracks now converted into exhibition rooms, housing the remains of the poor souls who had no idea of their fate on their arrival at the camps - shoes, toiletries, pots and pans...

 

 

The ashes of the victims found at the camp

 

 

Thousands of shoes belonged to the victims.

 

 

Prisoners were tagged; you live longer if you have skills...

 

 

 The shooting wall in Auswitch

It was heart wrenching, to even try to imagine being in their shoes. One day you were pushed into the train, and after a horrible journey, when the door opened, and everyone came out of the train, you were pushed and all your belongings confiscated...

 

The rail that head straight into Birkenau concentration camp

 

Not knowing what your fate will be like, you go into the open shower area where you underwent sterilization and shaving, and for all you know, you might be headed to the death gas chamber...

 Or if you're chosen, you slave you days away for the next few months on ends... No one know how long life in the concentration camps will be like. It was crowded. It was unhygienic. It was smelly. It was cold.

Birkenau camp was opened when Auswitch could not hold the increasing number of Jews. Prisoners were segregated like cows. And lives in the barracks were just as bad if not worse. So many people share just one block of toilet where the latrine system was so bad that even the guards stay away from it - and hence it's the only place where conversation can be made safely.

I left the concentration camp with just one feeling that day. How priceless freedom is.