Auschwitz

Warning.  This will be difficult to read.  

We knew we had to see this place.  It felt like if we saw it with our own eyes, we could say our own apologies for the horrors that happened there.  The most impactful thing I learned throughout this trip was how efficient Germany was at murdering a large number of human beings, all while being monetarily-conscious. They found very clever ways to save money, all with the purpose of eradicating a race of humanity.

The beds prisoners slept in.  The walls were not closed between ceiling or floor.  Many froze to death in their sleep.

This point was driven home when we saw the train ticket from Greece.  Jews here were forced to pay for their own train ticket into Auschwitz.  They literally bought their own pass to death.

Nazis made money off of the killing.  They sold Jewish possessions brought to the camp.  There were people in charge of checking dead bodies’ mouths for gold teeth that could be ripped out, melted down, and sold for weight.  They also shaved Jewish people’s heads, braided the hair, and sold it as rope or mattress stuffing.  Any part of a body or life that could turn a profit was used.

Shoes of the murdered were not valuable.  Many were destroyed.  These had not yet been moved or burned when the war ended.

There are a lot of questions about how this horror could happen.  Wouldn’t the people of Poland hear the screams and report it?  Surely they wouldn’t sit idly by while people were murdered.  Auschwitz was placed in a cheap open area of land.  There were few houses near by and those who lived in those houses were convicted as political prisoners so Nazi officers could live in their homes and no citizens could see or hear the camp.  The nearest home where citizens lived was actually 10 miles away from the camp.  So the general public did not see or know what was happening.

Wouldn’t the prisoners uprise?  Nazis had a lot of strategies in place to prevent this.  For example, those who were not murdered immediately (which was only 10% by the way) were carefully placed in blocks where no two people spoke the same language.  They didn’t want to give workers the opportunity to communicate and plan an escape.

What about the 90% that were killed as soon as they arrived?  How would they just peacefully walk to their death?  They did not know they were dying.  There were two major gas chambers at the entrance of the camp where the trains arrived.  They were made to look like showers.  Men, women, and children would walk into an area staged to look like a locker room.  They would disrobe, sit on benches for a moment, and prepare for a group shower as they were told.  They walked down steps (to actually be underground) and from the locker room entered the “shower”.  This was the gas chamber.  The Nazis had installed fake shower heads that were not hooked up to anything.  Once everyone was naked and jammed into the room they dropped the pellets of gas.  After everyone was dead, workers would check the bodies for gold teeth or jewelry and shave their scalps.  Then put the bodies on the elevator to take them to be burned.

Wouldn’t the people coming off the train smell burning flesh?  Remember these trains were not luxury cars.  They were cattle cars where people were packed into for days, sometimes weeks, at a time with no food, water, or bathrooms.  Often people died from thirst or the cold on the trip.  Can you imagine the smell?  The cars were filled with bathroom odors, dead body odors, and just general sweat smells.  When they stepped off the train everything smelled like fresh air by comparison.

The bombed gas chambers.  Germany destroyed them when they lost the war to try to hide to extent of what they had done.

Why didn’t people just try to escape one at a time?  If a prisoner escaped, the law was that 10 prisoners would be killed as punishment in front of the remaining prisoners.  Would you try to escape knowing that anyone you knew would make the top of the list?  Almost 800 did try to escape though.  144 were successful over time.  Which means 1,440 were shot as punishment.  Those that were caught were hung in the center of camp as a warning.  Escaping was not a pretty option.

About the 10% that didn’t die immediately, how did they choose who worked and who went straight to the chambers?  Prisoners who came of the train walked past the camp doctor.  If he pointed left they were healthy enough to work.  If he pointed right, they went straight to their death.  The Elderly, the diseased, children who were too young, and pregnant women went straight to their murder.  They could not work.  Mothers who probably could have worked, if they had children they were sent to be slaughtered with their children.  This way it would avoid the panic of mother and child being separated.  There was another round of selection once they were naked to see if any early-term pregnant women or a less obviously diseased person had made it through.

The entrance to the camp where prisoners were sorted.  Death or a slower death.

One question remains in my heart.  How could a group of people come to demonize another group of people enough to let this happen?