OUR DAY AT AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU CONCENTRATION CAMP

Our last post tackled the perspective change that comes with a visit to one of the most moving and harrowing places one could ever visit. In school we learn about World War II and snippets about the holocaust, although nothing can prepare you for the first hand experience that comes with visiting one of the many concentration camps spread throughout Europe.

What you experience and learn, with physical evidence right there in front of you, is overwhelmingly powerful. And how there are people in the world that can deny the holocaust even happened is beyond me!

A visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp is compulsory for all Polish students, it should be compulsory for everyone, and the reason this terrible place has been preserved and continues to stay open is so people NEVER FORGET, so that this part of history is never repeated. This aim is met, as our visit is something that will stay with us forever.

Tours are run in a few different languages throughout the day, taking in the main camp Auschwitz and the larger secondary camp Birkenau. Your tour, depending on the time of day you visit, will start or finish with a short documentary.

Walking under the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” archway, indescribable, through the double barbed wire fences, between the barracks and into the first exhibit our tour guide tells the facts. Calm, respectful and informative, she only spoke fact and our respect for her is enormous. How hard it would be to relive this horrendous account everyday.

We were surprised at the behavior of some tourists on our tour, treating Auschwitz like any other site to see. There are two places in the whole tour where there are no photos allowed but they would be clicking away. When they got outside they didn’t hesitate in lighting their cigarettes and they asked some very insensitive, pointless questions. The way they could disrespect this place, our guide and the rest of the people in the group was appalling. When you visit please don’t be one of these people!

We moved over to Birkenau or Auschwitz II and, though our time here was cut short by a lightning storm that rolled in during the short bus ride over, the view from the tower here is one of the most powerful where you get a full appreciation of the sheer size of the camp. As far as the eye can see, barracks, the train tracks running underneath the tower to the center of the camp.

After the remote listening devices were disconnected, the reason we know what those inappropriate questions were from insensitive visitors, we approached our guide. We thanked her for such an excellent account of life, or death, at Auschwitz, but even more importantly we congratulated her for her ability to stand tall and calm under the obvious stress caused by some of our group. She explained that she had given these tours for 12 years and that in the years following the camps first opening the ex inmates had been the guides. Such a job can not be easy as to relive this part of history is a strain just once let alone every day. To our guide we will be forever thankful. If you have the chance to visit go there with respect, silence and decorum, you will come away changed, humbled and forever greatful that you did not have to endure.

To finish we caught the documentary in English, the same one that has been playing since the camp was opened as a memorial in 1955 and mostly real video footage showing how prisoners that had survived were found. Footage of men and women, deathly thin from starvation walking amongst the corpses of those who had been starving too long. As well as footage of those who had been experimented on, women and children, and that of conditions in the camp during liberation.

After spending at least 5 hours here we realized that we might have had to spend the night here as we had left Vincent’s headlights on all day, big mistake. Resigned we turned them off and hoped for the best before walking to a nearby restaurant for a very late lunch come early dinner, delicious and much needed!

Luckily Vincent started with no problems, miracle, and we were able to set off towards Prague and the Czech Republic.

We took two photos at Auschwitz that can be seen in the album POLAND on our Facebook page along with the rest of our time in Poland. This is a place to experience with ones own eyes and not through the lens. We are changed by all our adventures but this place has an instant affect and a lasting one.

 

PUTTING IT IN PERSPECTIVE AT AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the small stuff. The common annoyances like an argument, forgetfulness, or bad traffic that we tend to dwell on. Getting upset and exasperated are normal human emotions, as is overthinking, but I’ve gained some new perspective on life that I would really like to share.

Have you been to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland? If so, you’ll know where I’m coming from. A visit to this horrific, moving, draining place should be mandatory for every human being on the planet.

It’s a memorial to inform the world about the gruesome history of Nazi occupied Europe in the lead up to and during World War II and the fate of millions of Jewish, Soviet and European war prisoners, and Gypsies in the countless concentration camps across the continent. Preserved so that we never forget this history that should never be repeated, although similar is still happening in our world today.

Living in Europe between 1941 and 1945 depending on my religion, ethnicity, nationality, education, family, friends or simply the way I look, I could have been deported from my home to a concentration camp where it was most likely I would not survive for long. As a young Australian woman I realize I am extremely fortunate to be free. I can go for a walk pretty much anywhere I want without the risk of being captured, punished or killed.

If I have an opinion I am able to express it freely without fear. If I don’t understand something I am able to ask questions without being beaten to within inches of my life. I am a person with a name, feelings, thoughts and an identity, I am not a number tattooed on my arm.

I am only separated from my family, and can return to them, when I choose. I can contact them, even when I’m on the other side of the world. I know where they are, have an idea about what they are doing and that they are safe and well. I do not have to fear for their lives and for that matter I don’t fear for my own.

I am able to learn. I have a university degree and I am free to use it. I am not condemned or wished eradicated because I am educated.

I can use a hygienic (ahem, most of the time) toilet for as long as I want, in total privacy. I do not have a 30 second limited toilet allowance only twice a day. I also don’t have starvation diarrhea that can set in at any time.

I can wash everyday at my leisure and experience the heaven that is being clean. My uniform is whatever I choose to wear today. I’m certainly not living in dirty, lice infested clothes that are no where near warm enough for the sub zero temperature I may experience for half the year.

Not mention the fact that I have plenty of food, sometimes even too much. I have tasty, wholesome, nutrient rich food available to me every single day of the year. I don’t suffer from starvation and it probably won’t be my cause of death.

If I become ill or injured I have access to safe and brilliant medical care. I don’t have doctors using my body for experimental surgeries. I’m not a human guinea pig, doctors don’t test drugs on me and they don’t inject poison into my veins. They don’t practice how fast they can perform female sterilization on me.

Ultimately the only “work” I do is to benefit my loved ones or myself and I’m lucky enough to choose what work that is. I’m not forced into manual labor, eleven hours a day, in appalling conditions with no food, water or shelter from the extreme weather conditions. I enjoy what I do.

I have made comparisons between a twenty two year old woman doing her best to survive in one of the hundreds of Nazi concentration camps during World War II and myself. More devastating still is the fact that there are still people living through gender inequality, genocide, and war today.

I know that next time I complain that it’s way too hot or too rainy for sight seeing in Budapest or Prague or Zurich, I’m going to get over myself very quickly by remembering how very lucky I am to be me.

We can never understand what these people went through but we can learn the history and pass it on so it is never forgotten and work towards a future where war and genocide are truly history.