A Reflection On Auschwitz

A Reflection on Auschwitz

Having heard stories of the eeriness of Auschwitz and the grand scale of upset it causes when visited, I was expecting a roller-coaster of emotions. However even having discovered that Auschwitz was in fact three rather large death/concentration camps as oppose to one, the silent empty bunkers, demolished concentration camps, views of railways, photographs or the background horrific stories didn't physically upset me. I was more upset at the fact that I wasn't crying my eyes out at the mere thought of the horrific events that took place.



There were three instances however where I genuinely felt something that I could not control feeling...


The first instance was after walking through the well-known gate to camp which read 'Arbeit Macht Frei' (Work will set you free). We were taken into a fitted out block (converted for purposes of hosting museum type items) where we were told about how when people where told to leave the Ghetto's that they would be placed in a new home where they could make a fresh start. How these people would then pack the items that matter most
and carry them on the long painful journey, to then be separated from their wifes and children, to then be sorted into fit for work or summoned to death, to having those items stripped of them thrown into a pile to be sorted and sold for German profit. In this building there where extremely large glass cabinets full of these sorted belongings. We where told that this was only a fraction of what was collected! There where cabinets full of shoes, baby shoes, clothes, glasses... packet to the brink up against the glass in these designated areas. Still none of this physically upset me, until they took us to a side before going into this one room and read out a poem to us. It read...

                                                         Pigtail                                                                           

When all the women in the transport

Had their heads shaved

Four workmen with brooms made of birch twigs

Swept up

And gathered up the hair

Behind clean glass

The stiff hair lies

Of those suffocated in gas chambers

There are pins and slide combs

In this hair

The hair is not shot through with light

Is not parted by the breeze

Is not touched by any hand

Or rain or lips

In huge chests

Clouds of dry hair

Of those suffocated

And a faded plait

A pigtail with a ribbon

Pulled at schools

By naughty boys

Tadeusz Różewicz, The Museum, Auschwitz, 1948

We had a discussion on how much we can identify with something we all have, we all noted how our basic possessions where much the same, how something as profound as human hair resonates in us all. We were then told to remain quiet and respectful as we entered this room. I took one step and one glace before feeling like I was thrown to the brick wall on the other side of the building. A Glass cabinet much the length of four cars was filled with human hair that had been cruelly taken from prisoners. The slumping feeling like i was being pulled beneath the ground continued as we walked slowly around the room. when we left the room the feeling varnished but the shock and astound remained.

(Image Taken from Google, the exhibit does not allow photography)

Shortly after we entered another building much like the last, where items of possession where piled behind glass cabinets stood lifeless. I continued in my thoughts of happy families pre-holocaust and the thoughts of those expecting to move on to better things following life in the ghettos. We entered a room and my eyes filled with tears, I was speechless. On first glance I thought I had saw an array of sporting equipment, lacrosse bats, cricket bats... I took a second glance and shamefully took a sigh of relief upon realizing that in fact the items that lay before us where prosthetic limbs, walking aids, supports. My tears stopped as I began to process what I had actually seen. Although I was deeply sorrowful for the reality of what I'd seen, it didn't hold a personal connection with me, I could not put myself in those individuals shoes.

Having experienced this guilty moment, we were shown around the rest of the camp. We were shown and told stories of the experiments done on children namely twins, how prisoners had to crawl into standing cells and remain standing for four days, how people where tortured in every means possible, shown the poor living conditions they had to endure, the torture of severe thirst, the strict rulings on going to the bathroom, having to share a bed with over 16 people whereby if one person turned the other turned with them, shown the viewpoints of the German guards, the view points of prisoners and soon to be prisoners, shown the carting trams that

moved people from one location to the next, shown demolished gas chambers, shown photographs, testimonials and war memorabilia, shown the electric charged barbed wire that extended around the camps, shown where the head of camp resided with his family, drawings that children had made on walls with pencils... shown everything.

Prior to visiting the gas chamber that still stands having been renovated for a bomb shelter, we where shown a model of how a chamber would have looked had they still been standing. It showed them being ushered in, the area where clothes would have been removed, the chamber itself, the human body burners, the prisoners - 'the gold removers', the officers quarters, I had a clear picture of what this murder house would have been like in the days of the holocaust. Again we where told to respect the deceased and to remain silent as we entered this area. I walked inside and instantly felt a feeling of eerie coldness. Not the cold as in weather cold, this was different, ghost like. Little nozzles lined the walls much like a garden sprinkler where the gas would have been leaked in, the room a shell. We walked through the bolted door into another area where the corpses will have been burned and gold teeth will have been removed. Again the eerie cold was apparent. We left the building and the ghost like coldness disappeared. There was no sign of it when we walked past the hanging stakes, no sign of it anywhere apart from that chamber.

In summation, my experience in Auschwitz surprised me. I was surprised at how I was physically upset by material items and how the broad scale of the camps did not. 

Concluding Thoughts

This experience made me think of our world today. Have we really learnt anything from the holocaust? Are we all bystanders in a world where pockets of antisemitism and profound ideology still exists? After all World War II and the Holocaust did not happen over night, it was the final goal for the elimination of the Jewish population that was built up in stages. Is this not happening today with events we see in France, with dictators who shoot anyone who defy them, with groups like ISIS. Or are we witnesses to all of this, but choose not to get involved, chose to turn away. It's human nature to look after one's self and one's loved ones. To stay silent is to remain alive. Are we trying to avoid complete extermination that is inevitable with Nuclear warfare by not interfering? In Einsteins famous words... '' I don't know with what weapon World War Three will be fought with, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones''.