Family A Journey to Forever!: Krakow Poland Day 4 Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

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We had to actually set an alarm today. We had to be to Auschwitz at 9:00 am for our 6 hour study tour.
We were a little late because traffic and construction. We were an hour away from Auschwitz and left 90 min early and arrived a couple minutes after the tour started. It was so crazy getting through security and finding out we had missed the first 20 minutes. No problem our tour guide was super nice and got us all caught up. It was a dark, cold and gloomy day.
What can I say about Auschwitz? I know I can not do this place justice. It really was HELL as the prisoners called it. It was heart breaking and I shed many tears for these sweet Jews and other people who lost their life here. Auschwitz -Birkenau is the largest extermination camp it's total camp area is 40 square Kilometers with a surrounding radius of 5 Kilometers. It was Massive! Auschwitz was made up of three different camps. Auschwits I, Auswitz II- Birkenau, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz. Auschwitz I was much smaller than Auschwits II Birkenau. I couldn't believe how much of the camps were in their original state. Several times we had to watch where we stepped and what we touched because it was the original floor, walls etc.
We spent 5 hours learning all about the CRIMES and the PROF of the crimes.
Auschwitz -Birkenau was in operation June 1940-January 1945.
During its peak operation August 1944
Auschwitz was made up of three different parts
Auschwitz I number of inmates approx 16,000
Auschwitz II-Birkenau approx 90,000 and is 3k away from Auschwitz I.
Auschwitz III-Monowitz (this was the nicest concentration camp and also had the highest death rate.) It was a chemical plant work camp sometimes the prisoners had to work 16 hours a day not the 12 at other camps. There were approx. 10,000 prisoners at this camp and it was 6k away.
Not to mention Auschwitz has several sub camps holding over 21,000 prisoners forcing them to work on farms, factories etc.

When the prisoners arrived to Auschwitz the went through a selection process. Doctors and SS Men would separate those they felt were fit for labor and those they felt were unfit to work. Those unfit for work were immediately sent to the gas chamber..Those prisoners included: The elderly, sick, disabled, pregnant and most children under the age of 14. This group of people would undress hang their clothes on numbered hangers asked to remember their number so “After bathing” they could collect their clothes and go to the residential barracks. They were lead into the gas chamber which was designed to look like a shower. The SS mean would pour cans of Zyklon B the hydrogen-cyanide-saturated graduals released the gas and within 20-30 min everyone had died of asphyxiation. Their was a group of prisoners who had to go through and cut all these dead people hair, take off all their jewelry look for gold teeth or anything else of value.

Some children were kept for medical experiments. Especially twins, triplets etc.

And something I found really sad is Hitler believed the “pure race” to be blond and blue eyes so any child with blond hair and blue eyes were deported to Germany to be raised up by Germans.

The prisoners they felt were fit for labor were taken to another building for processing into the camp and a “second selection” Incase they missed a disabled individual or pregnant woman. They were forced to take off their clothes, had their head shaved and hair removed from all over their body. They also were also given a number that was tattooed to their left arm.

They were given their uniform and assigned a job.

I had the hardest time going through Block 5 or the evidence block. I cried and struggled through this area. It had lots of personal effects suitcases, tallitot (Jewish prayer shawls) prostheses, glasses, children’s shoes, and an entire room of adult shoes, 2 tons of human hair. The hair that was cut off was sold to German companies who used the hair in textiles. They also used the hair as fertilizer for the fields.
It was really hard to see this evidence.

They also had a storage area to hold all the stuff they had confiscated from the personal items the prisoners brought. The holding/storage area was called “Canada”.

Auschwitz -Birkenau was liberated mid January 1945.
In the last week of the camp’s existence, the SS soldiers blew up the gas chambers and burned down the storehouse full of property left behind by the Jewish victims of mass extermination.

We heard a lot of stories from some of the survivors and how one guy who, at 80 something years old, still went to bed every night with a slice of bread afraid that he would wake up and not have anything to eat. So very sad.

Even though Auschwitz -Birkenau was a difficult place to visit. I wanted to see it and keep the memory alive and to continue to educate our children so that this inhumane event never happens again.

Arbeit Mach Frei (Work sets you Free)
This phrase was posted at the entrance of Auschwitz. It gave the Prisoners false hope that if they work hard they would be set free. But we know the "Hard Labor" at these camps actually killed many people. Our tour guide pointed out many times that the people prisoned here were not only killed by the GAS chambers but also malnutrition, disease, and literally they were worked to death.

On our Guided tour

The people as they arrived to Auschwitz.

Look at all their belongings. They only had minutes to gather their items before
being put in the Freight railway cars.

Block #10 was a special Gynecologist block where Dr. Carl Clauberg was trying to figure out how to sterilize women with out surgery. He hand picked women at the selection to do his medical experiments on. He had specific requirements for his block. They had to either be pregnant or have at least one child. His block always had several hundred women. So very sad!

These were the cans of Zyklon B the hydrogen-cyanide-saturated graduals that were
put in the Gas Chambers.

Block 5 The Evidence of the Crimes.

Block 5 The Evidence of the Crimes.
Our tour guide shared a story of how one of the little suitcases belonged to a little boy
probably his very first suitcase and how special it was to have your name and address on your suitcase.

Block 5 The Evidence of the Crimes.

When the first prisoners entered the camp they had their pictures taken.
However, only a few have their picture displayed because after a while Hitler decited
it was too expensive to take pictures of everyone.
I was taken back as we looked at these pictures of how many prisoners died within a couple months of coming to Auschwitz. It just shows you how awful Auschwitz was.

The Death Wall or Shooting Wall was located in the yard at the side of Block 11.
Our tour guide told us the accused were taken to block 11 to plead their case and were always sentenced to death, ALWAYS.
Thousands of political prisoners were killed here.

This was the Guard Tower.
The prisoners stood outside for roll call twice a day. It didn't matter if it was burning hot, or super cold, or if it was raining or snowing. They were required to stand in all the elements for however long the guard said. It was especially difficult because often when it was raining or snowing the guards would stay in this little tower staying dry because they didn't want to get wet running roll call. So they just made the prisoners stand out in the elements until it stopped raining and they would go out and do roll call. There were many prisoners who died during roll call. Pure exhaustion, as they stand for hours and hours. There were several that were beat because they just couldn't stand anymore. I just can't imagine.

We took a bus to Auschwitz II-Birkenau
Birkenau was worse than Auschwitz, they didn't have any running water.

This is a Freight Railway car. At the beginning Birkenau would get 1-2 of these Railway cars per week.
towards the end they were getting 1-2 cars a day. Our tour guide told us that some of the Railway cars they opened were sent directly to the crematorium because all the people were already dead. The Jews were transported from all over Europe and had been in the train for days up to a full week and with no food , or water they people just perished.

The prisoners got to visit the bathroom twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night.
They were monitored and only got 10 sec to do their business. 10 seconds.

Our tour guide told us how you wanted to be the one on the top bunk because nothing would fall on you.
The bottom bunk shared with the rats and had the brunt of fluids falling.

Rows and rows of the bunks.

Each of the Barracks had a stove. However, they never burned.
The didn't have any means to start a fire and attempt to stay warm.

When the camps became so crowded people were sleeping on the floor.
Some even slept outside the barracks. Not many survived the night outside.

When the War was over the polish people came and took the wood from these barracks
to help build up their own homes. So all that is left now is the chimneys. You can see from this pictures how many barracks they had in this one area.

The International Monument
erected in 1967. The monument is located between the two largest Crematoriums. Krema II and Krema III
The railroad tracks en in front of the memorial. The stones at the monument honor those victims who lost their life here.
on the last step leading up to the monument are a row of 13 different granite slabs each with a metal plate on top which has an inscription in 13 different languages. We started on the left and walked all the way down looking at all 13 plaques. The english plaque is the last one on the far right.

The English plaque it reads
"FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE A CRY OF DESPAIR AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY, WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED ABOUT ONE AND A HALF MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN MAINLY JEWS FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. AUSHWITZ-BIRKENAU 1940-1945"

The Nazis blew up the crematoria towards the end

Chandler in front of one of the ponds at Memorial Pond

There are a couple ponds here that hold the ashes of thousands of victims.
The Nazis were burning 30,000-34.000 bodies a month. The Crematoriums were being ran 24/7
Birkenau is literally filled with the ashes from these victims.

Along with blowing up Crematorium II and Crematorium III
The Nazis also blew up "Canada" trying to hide the evidence of their crimes.

This is the road leading to "Canada" you can see the bricks in the road from where
the Nazis blew up the storage units.

Original floor of the second selection space where the prisoner were forced to strip and
were examined one more time to see if they were fit to work.

They found a suitcase full of pictures. They do not know who kept the suitcase or how they kept it.
But after the war people went in search for their families and on the reverse side of the pictures wall is some of their stories and their family. It was so awesome to read and hear about these sweet victims.

Book of Names
Here is a list of names of persons who were murdered here.

As we looked through the Book of Names we tried to find the closes Bastian.
This brought tears to my eyes to see how big the book is an look how small the writing is.
All of these people were murdered here at Auschwitz.