“Arbeit Mact Frei!” (Auschwitz)

Member Name: hugnluvable

Product:	Auschwitz
Date:	09/08/01 (489 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A unique experience that will stay in your mind forever!!

Disadvantages: very harrowing, shows you how inhumane human beings can actually be!

The only time I’ll ever hear the above phrase is when someone refers to the main gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau – a Nazi Extermination camp set up in occupied Poland during World War 2. I’ve seen these gates and it’s extremely hard to say in words how I feel about this place. The word Auschwitz has always made me shudder whenever I heard the word. It’s the place where MILLIONS of men, women, and children were deliberately murdered during World War two. And they did no crime. All these people were murdered by the Nazis, purely because of their race, religion, abilities, beliefs and ways of life. But we must remember that Auschwitz was not the only Nazi extermination camp… it was one amongst many.

I visited Aucshwitz-Birkinau in October 1999 with my friend and history teacher. It was on a course with the “Holocaust Educational Trust” called “Lessons from Auschwitz” and I feel I have learnt more than a lesson from it. We were to visit the camp and then speak to members of our community (mainly at our school) about our experiences and what everyone can learn from Auschwitz. Our school has always suffered from bad press being called “Racist” and “Violent” and when the Milton Keynes “Citizen” heard of our antics it turned the tables – especially as we won a national award for the presentation that we gave to the community.

Before we even visited the camp we went to a hotel in London to meet everyone who we were going with (there were around 150 other students involved). We had to express what we expected when we actually got to Poland, how we expected to feel.

But when we returned we were amazed at how wrong all our expectations were.

At the hotel before we went to Poland we were introduced to a rather sprightly old Polish lady. Her name was Kitty Hart – an Auschwitz survivor, and the only reason she survived was because she hid und
er a mound of dead corpses pretending to be dead! When she described her experiences to us it suddenly hit me that she was our age when she was imprisoned at Auschwitz. It gave me a completely different perspective on the experience that the other 200 people and I were going to have to handle – it became more 3 dimensional and real. It made the camp more than a landmark and the people who suffered and died there more than a statistic. And the thing that amazed me was the strength that Kitty Hart had to carry on with life and teach the whole world of her imprisonment – reliving the monstrosities that she had seen.

When we first reached Auschwitz we were taken to “Auschwitz One” the base camp. I was astonished at how ordinary it was. If I never knew anything about it’s history it could have been an old 17th century textile factory…. Only the barbed wire showed me it was once a prison. On the outside were red brick buildings – on the inside were artefacts and possessions that were once owned by the prisoners. We were taken into the rooms and saw horrific image upon image. In one room we saw hundreds of pictures and names below them – photographs of the prisoners on their arrival at the camp. These photos reinforced the fact that was forever in my head that everyone who suffered there were human beings just like you and me.

But what reinforced this fact even more to me were objects and possessions such as Suitcases – each with individual’s names on them; shoes and glasses. The objects that affected me the most though were the baby’s clothes, artificial; legs and crutches – belongings of the children, old, sick and disabled – those who were the most vulnerable and had no option but to be sent straight to the gas chambers on their arrival. We also saw mounds of human hair and this hit my friend and I quite hard. Hair – to us is a very personal thing and it was cut off o
n their arrival at Auschwitz, taking away all their dignity and pride even before they had to deal with the harsh realities of camp life. But one image that I’ll always remember is seeing a girl, fro one of the Jewish youth groups there, running out of one of the buildings crying her eyes out – it just displayed to me just how many people this awful event has effected – past, present and future.

We saw the even harsher realities of camp life next – the punishment blocks and gas chambers. As we reached “Block 11” the punishment blocks we walked past the hospital where Eichmann performed his experiments, even before seeing the courtyard where thousands were shot against a mesh wall and the awful cells where people were crammed into my heart sunk. There were candles around the shooting wall – in respect of those who had died to the bullet. All the way through seeing all these awful images I grabbed hold tight to my friends arm – it was the only comfort I could get hold of with such harrowing things around me.

But the most harrowing experience I have EVER had was standing in the middle of one of the gas chambers. It could hold around 800 people at one time – and it kept running though my head that that was every person at my school DEAD! I imagined people standing there, thinking they were about to have a shower – oblivious to their fate. I couldn’t stop thinking that every person who walked into this room 60 years ago would not have come out alive. On the way out we saw ovens – the ovens where the dead bodies were burned. And as we walked outside I looked back and saw the chimney on top of the building knowing that that was the only way out for those prisoners.

We also saw a wall, which divided the Nazi official in charge of Auschwitz’s house. It was hard to believe that it was behind this wall where he played with his young daughter whilst so much terror was happ
ening around it! It reinforced the question to me – “How could someone let this happen?” and “How could people find this monstrosity as the norm?”

And this was only the first part of our “tour”.

We were then taking to Aucshwitz-Birkinau – the work camps. Here were wooden sheds that weren’t even fit for horses or cattle. And around these was vast open space where the work and drills took place. It was so bleak and open and its hard to imagine prisoners in thin material uniforms. The dormitories were basically rows of “beds” – mattresses were made of straw and hundreds of people were crammed into these huts every night, some waking up in the morning to find their shoes/bowl stolen or even more horrific - the person sleeping next to them dead. The lavatories were in a hut filled with planks with holes in them – and these holes were the only form of toilet.

Before we had a memorial service with the Rabbi who came with us we saw a field full of pits. It was here where ashes of the dead were thrown. It was hard not to stand here forever and think of those who had died.

We then saw the ruins of the crematorium and gas chamber at Birkenau, the British forces bombed it when the camp was liberated. This gas chamber could hold around 2000 people – TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE! It was around here where we placed candles in memory of the millions who had suffered and died here. And standing there, listening to the Jewish Kaddish, I felt so privileged to be listening to such a beautiful culture – how could someone want to destroy it? The memorial service made the visit much more significant and made me realise that all this has affected so many people – past and present in so many ways and its up to us to prevent it from ever happening again.

After the memorial service we walked back down the remains of the railway track, which led to the gas chamb
ers (ever seen Schindlers List near the end? That’s the image that prisoners would have seen!). I felt so lucky to be walking down that track and go home – 60 years ago prisoners were not so fortunate.

And that was it – the last vision that I’ll ever see of Auschwitz Birkenau is the main entrance where the trains would have arrived. It was here where I reflected on what I saw – it hadn’t sunk in then – and only now (over 2 years later) have I been able to really reflect on what I saw there.

The scary thing was that there is a village RIGHT NEXT TO THE CAMP! Villagers were carrying on with their day to day lives as people were; suffering, dying, murdering just down the road. Nobody said anything about it… nobody cared? Did anyone know what was going on behind those walls? The barbed wire? Did anybody know where the trains by the bulk load were going? Did anyone know the reason for all that ash? The stench of burning flesh? These questions will never be answered and will stay in my mind forever.

I feel Auschwitz may have taught me a few things but no way has it given me any answers. In fact it has created even more questions for me to figure out. Auschwitz shows us how inhumane human beings can actually be to each other; it shows us that such horrors can happen at any time. These are the lessons we need to learn, as we look back on the 20th century – Kosovo, Bosnia and violence against civilians in current wars.

It should never EVER be denied. And this is why Kitty Hart and other survivors are so determined to teach others of what they’ve seen, experienced and survived.

Auschwitz is a place of remembrance that affects everyone in the world today. It shows us that we MUST LEARN that everyone is an individual, a human being… So by our knowledge the horrors of Auschwitz will never happen again.

I urge everyone to go to Auschwitz, no – it isnR
17;t a very nice experience but it puts the world into perspective. As we look around the world, and indeed our country we can see so much racism going on. Auschwitz - Birkenau shows us the worse that can happen but most importantly it shows us that IT HAPPENED and it should NEVER be forgotten.

I hope this opinion is of some use to you. It has taken me along time whether to share this experience with you. Its been quite hard but if you ever have the opportunity to go there its best to express your feelings about the place to others. I was lucky enough to have the support and the chance to present my experiences to others – if you can – do the same!


If you want to see the website that our school has made in respect to the holocaust then the address is www.leon.milton-keynes.sch.uk

Thank You
Erica
xxx

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