Poland Day 1: Auschwitz (pictures to come)

June 15: So this morning, I overheard the plans of the roommates and decided since they had already figured out the logistics, I would go along to visit Auschwitz. I've been to the Holocaust Memorial in D.C., I've been to places like Omaha Beach, and I've heard all of the stories about the history. Nothing compares to walking through the gas chambers where millions of people were misled into believing they were going to get a shower. Nor does any of it compare to standing outside of the ovens used to dispose of over 2 million bodies.

Backing up, I hopped the bus in the morning, got to Auschwitz and was unhappily surprised to see food and souvenir kiosks outside. It seemed a bit disprespectful to me. However, I quickly went inside the compound and paid for my tour. It started with a video explaining the basics of what happened for anybody who wasn't familiar with it, then a walking tour through Auschwitz I, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the bigger of the two camps, about 3km down the road). A little factoid: they got their names from the city they're in: Oswiecim.

First step was through the gate: it read Work sets you Free. This was surrounded by electrified barbed-wire fences. We then went through many of the buildings where people were to stay, saw the beds, rooms, facilities, etc. Without too many details: the process tended to go something along the lines of people would arrive, be forced to strip down for a "shower", be gased by a chemical known as zyklon B, and be disposed of. This consisted of shaving their hair to sell as raw material for fabric, removing gold teeth, sorting all of their posessions, and then burning them. However, this took too long in the ovens, so they would make piles in the woods to get the job done more quickly. How, HOW was this kept quiet? The point about shaving their hair etc. was to explain part of what we saw. When the camp was liberated, they found tons of human hair, over a million sets of shoes and clothes, piles upon piles of eyeglasses, toothbrushes, prosthetics, etc. Basically anything that could be salvaged, was taken and stored. It was crazy to walk through the halls of these things and think that each shoe, each pair of pants, each comb belonged to someone exterminated there.

Well, it wasn't over. I then made my way over to Birkenau, which was the setting of Schindler's List, with the railroad track, etc. This was where many of the "scientific experiements" took place. They were testing poisons on children etc. Here, the process was a bit different. It was mostly the same as above, except that as soon as the people arrived on the trains (up to 8,000 per day), they were sorted into those fit for working, those worth experimenting on, and everyone else. Everyone else was killed like at the other camp. I'll stop with the gory details, but the experience was surreal to be walking in this place.

Well, then it was back on the bus to head back to Krakow and catch some sleep to get ready for the next day.