Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau

On the second full day of the Auschwitz Center’s program for students abroad, we woke up early and left Krakow bound for Auschwitz. As we rode though the Polish countyside, I talked with other students about our homes, host countries, and universities. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the barbed wire fences and concrete walls for the first time. I hoped that coming to Auschwitz would help me understand how something as bad as the Holocaust could have happened, and there it was. We met a guide and began our tour of Auschwitz I. We entered through the main gate underneath the famous sign “Arbeit macht frei”, which means work gives freedom. It’s a lie, the first of many lies told to people arriving to Auschwitz I, because no amount of work could make them free.

The prisoners would be processed and selected. This visit helped me to see the extent to which the Nazis were able to dehumanize the Jews. They used business terms and ran the entrance process like a factory, trying to be as efficient as possible and gain the most profit possible. Hair was shaved. Carefully packed suitcases confiscated; even toothbrushes taken away. In the blocks that were once housing for prisoners, visitors can see the things the Nazis took away that had yet to be sent to Germany at the time of liberation. There were shoes piled to the ceiling; shoes that could have been worn by a young boy going to school. There were piles of pots and pans that could have been a woman’s favorite soup pot.
We walked through the execution yard and block 11, where punishments such as standing for hours or death by starvation were given out. We walked into gas chamber and crematorium number one. We could look up at the ceiling and see the squares where the Nazis would put the Zyklon B crystals into the room.
The following day, we visited Aushwitz II-Birkenau. It was exactly what I imagined it to look like. It was vast and empty. The housing at Auschwitz consisted of prefabricated wooden buildings that were originally designed as stables. Walking though the doorways and building where so many people had suffered and died had a chilling effect. It captured all my thoughts.

For me, the most shocking part of the trip was visiting the ruins of the crematorium and gas chamber number three at Auschwitz II. The building had been destroyed by the Nazis in an effort to hide the evidence of what had taken place there, but the ruins remained. We walked around the building and saw what was left of the room where people would undress, the gas chamber, and the crematorium. There were so many people killed in that very building that if one was to dig only a few centimeters underground from where we stood, one would find human ashes.

As part of the program, we were able to meet two individuals who had lived through these times. The first was a woman who won a “Righteous Among Nations” award named Mirosława Gruszczyńska. This award is given by the State of Israel to people who helped Jews during the war. Miroslaw, her sister, and her mother decided to take in a Jew fully aware of the risk involved. As a young teenager, she helped save the life of a young Jewish girl, Marysia, who escaped from the Krakow ghetto. Marysia got very sick shortly after she arrived and they were afraid that she would die because she couldn’t go to the hospital. However, she recovered. Soon, they were ordered to share their apartment with a family appointed by the Nazis. They had one room to themselves and had to share the bathroom and kitchen. This was very dangerous because if Marysia was seen by them, they would all be dead. If anyone came to the apartment, Marysia would have to hide in a space in the closet until the guests left because no one knew about her. Miroslaw’s mother managed to get false baptism papers for her and then she was able to move about pretending to be a distant relative. They remained safe through the entire war.

We also met a non-Jewish Polish political prisoner who had survived Auschwitz. I don’t remember her name. She was 15 at the time she was arrested. Her brother was a partisan in Poland and her family supported him. Her entire town was rounded up to be relocated to make room for German settlement. She and her family were singled out to be sent to a concentration camp as a result of their involvement with the partisans. When she arrived at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, she went through the usual process of showering, shaving, and receiving new clothes. She was given a number tattoo on her arm which she showed us. In Auschwitz, she was assigned to work on the Canada Commando. The clothing and materials that were brought into camp would be taken, stored, and sorted by the workers on the Canada commando before the goods were sent to Germany. As a result, she was able to receive better health care so that no diseases would make it to Germany. Her sister was assigned to move to another camp, so she went too. She was in several camps over the course of the war and the constant changing is what probably saved her life. Everyone in her family died in the camps except for her and her sister.

The weekend was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I know that I will never forget what I saw there. I feel that it was important to go and see it for myself. The facts and stories are the same whether you visit or not, but visiting left me with the faces and the emotions of the Holocaust. Visiting made me realize how many untold stories there are. Visiting made it personal in a way that studying did not. I know I won’t forget the way I felt when I saw that fence out of the car window the first time, in the middle of a big bustling world, still there for people to remember.