Tags: Third Generation

It was finally time to visit Auschwitz, and already by then I was just about done with my time in Poland. I saw the country as a lifeless, sad place. It wasn’t bustling with business or teeming with beauty as some other European countries/cities were. I could not wait to get out of this country, and I was only there for four days. Some people in my group experienced antisemitism first hand, and many of us felt uneasy there.

We toured the city of Krakow and the old Jewish quarter the day before we went to Auschwitz. It was nice enough, I just had no interest of touring the city as a normal “tourist” would. We sampled some local food, we browsed the shops lining the main square in the town, and I people-watched with my camera. I was distracted by the fact that we would be at Auschwitz the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the groups participants (there were 40 of us total) spent the evening hours out at bars being social, but I preferred to have quiet nights with my friends reflecting on what we have done and what was to come. I couldn’t understand going out and partying the night before you visit Auschwitz, but who am I to judge – everyone handles the gravity and meaning of our experience on the trip differently. Some prefer the company of friends, celebrating life, others prefer to reflect in a more solemn way.

In the morning, we boarded our bus to head to Auschwitz. I believe we stopped first at the Auschwitz Jewish Center, a small establishment that is affiliated with the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.  Here I remember seeing the old maps of Poland, and I was looking closely for the town that my grandparents were from. I saw the town on the map that my grandfather was from, something I’d never seen before on paper.

When we arrived at Auschwitz, we actually went to Birkenau first. Birkenau was the part of the compound that served as the extermination camp. We approached the entrance, and saw for ourselves the iconic train track that passed through the gates of the building. This is where the Jews arrived, were forced to give up their belongings, were separated from their loved ones, and where the selection began.

There was an empty cattle car outside the gates. It was closed, the door was locked. We could walk up to it, and peer through spaces between each wooden plank. People were packed into these cattle cars for days on their way to Auschwitz, many not knowing where they were heading or what type of future awaited them.

We spent some time by the tracks, taking it in, perhaps imagining what it would have been like for someone arriving there during the war. I noticed homes near the entrance to the camp, a village alongside it. I can’t imagine that these homes were there during the war, onlookers to the endless thousands upon thousands of people that arrived there each day. It seemed absurd to me actually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of things that struck me first about Auschwitz when we started touring the camp was the vast enormity of the place – it seemed huge and never-ending. There were countless groups there, people shuffling from one building or section of the camp to another, many schoolchildren and groups from other countries, wandering around. The place was essentially a tourist attraction, I believed, to some at least, a place where kids were forced to go on school trips.  I remember seeing anti-semitic sayings scratched into the wood of the barracks – which made the experience even more unsettling. Seeing the hatred people still had, years later, enough to deface a place that was already filled with death and horrors was beyond me. People were supposed to go there to learn about the terrors of the past, not to further spread hatred-filled sayings for future visitors to see. It was a sobering reminder that apparently nothing is sacred.

Another thing that struck me is the never-ending row of plaques in the ground, in what seemed like 50 languages. Each plaque contained the same words. I saw people from different countries walking by each one, and stopping at the plaque containing their native language. This really underscored that Auschwitz was a global destination. People from all over the world came to see a remnant of a dark chapter in history, to peer into an incomprehensible world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much of the Birkenau part of Auschwitz was destroyed by the Germans in an attempt to dismantle the evidence when they knew the Allied forces were approaching. We saw so many outlines of foundations of buildings, some complete, some incomplete. The place was so vast, the size of it was really incomprehensible to me. We also saw the remnants of some of the gas chambers, crumbled to the ground, still in uneven piles of bricks and wood. I couldn’t believe the piles of rubble were still “intact,” and that nature didn’t interfere over all these years. There was an enormous exhibit towards the back of Birkenau, towards the forest, which we spent some time in as well. Our group was slightly dispersed, with some people sitting down on the grass or benches to process what they saw, some huddled in groups with friends. Auschwitz was different from Majdanek many ways, it was infinitely larger with many, many more visitors. Majdanek seemed so real because we saw all the working parts, and all the elements of the camp as it fit together. Auschwitz was so big that it was hard to make sense of.  And we had only toured one section of the compound so far that day.