As gruesome as it may seem, the first place I visited in Poland was Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. I arrived in Krakow, settled into my hostel for a much needed sleep, and then got up early on day one for a bus to this poignant remainder from WW2.
Auschwitz is the German name for the Polish town of 'Oswiecim' (pro: Osh-ven-chim), where the camp is situated. Actually, there are two camps – Auschwitz 1 and Auscwitz 2 ('Birkenau'), the polish word for 'Birch' – the camp has a birchwood forest at the end of the railway inside. The camps are 50km west of Krakow and easy to get to by bus from the central station. The day I went, the bus was full and I imagined it was probably often the case. Its about 4km distance between A1 and A2, but the camps have their own regular bus service going between the two throughout the day.
We were dropped off at Auschwitz 1 and inside the entry building are various photos and information, a small museum and a film running hourly showing 'liberation day' footage. There's also a cafe but I was keen to start looking around so headed off.
The words 'Arbeit Macht Frei' are written across the top of the gateway of Auschwitz1, and I saw those same words time and again at each camp I went to in Europe (about seven in total) if rhw evidence of proof of the camp hadn't been destroyed by the Germans that is. It means' Work Makes You Free', and each day, when prsioners at A1 marched under those words on their way to work, an orchestral piece of music was played through speakers for them to hear, setting them up for a good day?
There are a lot of buildings in A1 camp but not all of them are open to visitors. A1 was the original concentration camp where around 70,000 Poles and Soviet prisoners of war perished. It was also the administrative centre for the entire complex made up of three camps, Auschwitz1, Auschwitz2 and Auschwitz 3 (Monowitz) - a labour camp for the Buna-Werke factory. Remains are all intact – railway, fencing, buildings etc and the more blatant reminders - an execution wall, peppered with bullet marks, and wreathes and flowers laid to rest at its base, a set of gallows and proof of medical experiments, a gash chamber and crematorium, but it was the torture building that left the biggest impression. I cant recall every detail, but the 'standing cells' in it were gruesome. They were made of brick, and the top two thirds of bricks had been removed so that you could look into them. They had doorways similar to a dogs kennel, and were standing room only for up to four prisoners at a time. So, the prisoners were made to crawl into the cells via the small door and then left standing overnight, with no fresh air and no chance of movement. If they survived, they were sent out to work the next day, but survival was low. The basement of this building had a 'starvation cell', where prisoners were left, unfed and unwatered, until they died. There were also 'solitary cells' where a prisoner was left in a dark, sealed room to die. They'd die from breathing – once the oxygen in the room was used that was it. Sometimes, for a quicker death, a candle would be placed in the cell with them.
Another building had prisoner remnants kept in rooms with glass fronts, which was slightly disturbing. There was mountains of hair in one, all prisoners had their heads shaved upon arrival, suitcases, piled high, and still clearly labelled filled another room and there were still more rooms heaped high with items like spectacles, prosthetic limbs, shoes and pots and pans.
After a good look around A1 I jumped on the bus for A2 and the first thing that hit me was the entrance – a building/ watch tower with a train track running beneath it. Its shown numerous times in the movie 'Schindlers List', I recognized it straight away. (Schindler saved Jews frrom the 'Plasow' camp, situated very close to his factory in Krakow. Nothing remains there now, its barren except for a huge memorial of a cross with barbed wire wrapped around it. Hence Auschwitz was used for the movie) I went inside, upstairs and looked across the camp. I was blown away at the sheer size of the camp, absolutely massive. I could barely see the end of the railway line which was some 1.5 – 2km long, allow a few hours to get around the entire place!
Everything still stands, except for gas chambers were evidence bombed by the Germans before they left. But, there was plenty of other evidence still standing - I walked through sleeping barracks (small bunks would have up to four prisoners in them), shower blocks, latrine blocks, a 'de-lousing room', where heads were shaved on arrival, before showering (there were photos inside on the wall, taken from prisoners, all of children. Very heart wrenching..). Then there was the birch forest right at the end of the 'line' – so many birch trees and apparently with lots of russian soldiers buried amongst them. It was in here that I noticed the lack of birds singing, Id always heard that they dont sing at the camps, and wondered about it.. Definitely no bird-song the day I was there.
I went into one block of barracks for a look and the door eerily creaked shut behind me. Walking through shower blocks was unnerving and standing at the end of the railway and looking back, the entrance was dwarfed by the enormity of the camp. Its massive.
A2 was partly staffed by prisoners. Some were 'kapos' (orderlies) responsible for keeping order in the barracks and others were 'sonderkommandos' (workers at the crematorium) , they prepared new arrivals for gassing. They ordered them to take off their clothes and give up their personal possessions. After gassing the 'sonderkommandos' would take the bodies from the gas chambers to the furnaces, they'd take out any gold the victims may have in their teeth firstly though. 'Sonderkommandos' were killed periodically. 'Kapos' and 'Sondekommados' were supervised by members of the 6,000 strong SS staff employed at the camp.
Seeing what I saw, actually being 'in' such a museum, didn't really hit me until I afterwards, when I had my photos developed and actually looked closely at them. Id shot predominantly in black and white, which added to the impact. What an amazing piece of history, what a huge impact it had, globally. Its a lot to take in, a big day out – start early and allow yourself a full day as it is mind blowing once you get there.
Ive always had an interest in WW2 and what happened to the Jews. So, even though most people cant understand my interest, I visited quite a few camps. In Poland I went to Auschwitz, Majdanek, Plasow, Treblinka and Stutthof, Dachau in Germany and Terezin in the Czech Republic. Terezin is a small town. The Germans used it as a 'case point' to the Red Cross when they wanted to investigate how prisoners were being treated. On the outskirts of the town lies a different story – the usual, cells, rooms for medical experiments (with equipment still intact), execution wall and crematorium etc. One of the weirdest things is people actually live in Terezin now. The camps are all fairly accessible and the preservation work and maintenance on them is first class.
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