Road Trip to Southern Poland - PART III

Auschwitz - Birkenau (Part I)
Alright - I'm going to explain what I saw.  Some of it was really difficult to see and listen to but it is an important part of history.  The camps were liberated in 1944 and in 1947 it became a museum in order to remind the world what could happen if no one stands up to the bully.

Auschwitz

Auschwitz was the original camp and was used to house Polish prisoners just after Germany invaded southern Poland in 1939.  Most of the prisoners were well educated people like priests, teachers, engineers, architects, etc.  I think it was by 1942 when the Nazis started to move the Jews to Auschwitz.  They told them they had work there.  And they did have work - 12 hours of it.  And they were not allowed to walk any where.  They had to hustle.  If someone died at work because exhaustion or starvation, the prisoners had to carry them back, because for every 1 person missing 10 people were killed during roll call.  The same went for people who tried to escape.  If someone escaped, 10 innocent people died from the village.

Auschwitz - HALT!

There were three death/labor camps.  There was Auschwitz, Birkenau, and another smaller one where the prisoners worked to build a chemical plant.  As the Jews from all over Europe started to be shipped to Auschwitz, they ran out of room at Auschwitz and decided to build Birkenau.  It was about 1 km away.  Birkenau was built by the prisoners at Auschwitz, and most of the blocks were made of wood.  At Auschwitz they were brick.  Birkenau had over 300 buildings that housed prisoners, and most held 800-1000 people each.  In addition to prisoner blocks, they also added three bigger gas chambers and crematoriums.  The crematoriums at Auschwitz could only handle 350 bodies a day.  The crematoriums at Birkenau could burn 5000 bodies a day. 

Blocks at Birkenau

Blocks at Auschwitz

Most Jewish women and children were sent directly to the gas chamber from the unloading platform.  The elderly were also sent because they could not work.  In addition to the Jews, there were also Russian soldiers, gypsies, prostitutes, and anyone who did not fit the perfect Nazi mold.  There were prisoners that were forced to cremate the bodies in the gas chambers, and every few months those workers were executed because they knew too much about what the Nazis were doing.  The prisoners working in the crematoriums shaved the hair off of the women and children, extracted any gold teeth, and burned the bodies.  The hair was shipped to Germany to be used in textiles for Nazi uniforms.  At the museum - they have 2 tons of hair from the prisoners.  The suitcases of many, the shoes, the toothbrushes, etc.  It is overwhelming to see.


Block 11 is known as the Death Block in Auschwitz.  It was were prisoners were held in cells to await execution, or where they were starved to death.  To punish some prisoners, they put them in standing cells, about 1 square meter, with 4 or 5 others. The prisoners had to stand all night and then work the next day.  No one survived more than 20 nights with that punishment.

I'll write more later.  This has already turned into one long blog...  I learned so much about what the prisoners had to deal with and am very thankful I have not had to deal with such hardships.