July 3, 2008: Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Old City of Krakow

Today the group toured Auschwitz-Birkenau. Here are comments from Justin Kirschner and Briana Pecsok.

Justin Kirschner:
“Today we went to Birkenau and Auschwitz. The words I can tell you to explain my experience there was just WOW! To see it in the movies is one thing but to see it in real life is definitely another; and be here it totally different. I got a first hand experience of what Jews went through. Auschwitz was different than what I expected it to be. I am really glad I came on this trip just for that. Thank you! Bye!”

Briana Pecsok:
"Today we experienced a lot of things on a very wide spectrum. We went from Birkenau to Auschwitz and it evoked a lot of questions and was really emotional. It was a good day. It is hard to put into words the things we saw and what went on there. What we did see was horrible. We went to the Old Town of Krakow which was really cool because we went from something so dark to something so lively."

Below is a description of Auschwitz which they visited today and also nearby Krakow which they will visit this weekend.

Auschwitz

Auschwitz was divided into three camps. Each camp housed thousands of prisoners and each camp had a different function.

Auschwitz I remained a concentration camp, housing political prisoners and “criminals” as defined by the Germans.

Auschwitz II or Birkenau was built between the end of 1941 and the middle of 1942 and became the death camp.

Auschwitz III—Monowitz, where slave laborers were constructing what was to be the largest synthetic rubber factory in the world, was the I. G. Farben Buna plant. (I.G Farben was the largest chemical-industrial conglomerate in the world. Buna was the name given to the synthetic rubber that was produced to make Germany self-sufficient in the war.) For those of you who know Werner Coppel, local holocaust survivor, he spent most of his time in Buna.

Auschwitz also included some small labor camps within a 50-mile radius.

Trains arrived regularly at Auschwitz-Birkenau carrying box cars crammed with Jews from all over Europe. The Jews were driven off the trains onto a long railroad platform and forced to line up and move toward the end of the platform where several SS men, directed by doctors (most notorious was Dr. Mengele) would determine who would work and who would die. At the selection process with a flick of the thumb, people were sentenced to death. The “Non-Productive” category automatically included children under the age of 16 and adults over age 40, also the handicapped, mentally deficient, those already sick from starvation, mothers with small children, etc.

Those who survived selection were forced to do slave labor at Auschwitz III—Monowitz, or at one of the smaller labor camps. Some were selected for the Sonderkommando jobs and were forced to clear gas chambers of dead bodies and carry them to the crematoria to be burned. Most of these men were killed after 3 months and were replaced by new prisoners. Other prisoners were given jobs in the camps such as carpenters, latrine duty, and kitchen duty. Even physicians were utilized for a certain amount of time within the hospital of Auschwitz. All prisoners were underfed and lived under miserable conditions. Food was so scarce that often this led to savage behavior—survival by any means. Only the prisoners of Auschwitz were tattooed with numbers on their arms. Upon arrival their bodies were shaved and they could only keep their shoes and their belt.

At Auschwitz-Birkenau there were 4 enormous gas chambers used to murder 15,000 people daily. By the end of 1944 more than 2.5 million Jews had died of disease or starvation, or had been worked to death, gassed, shot, hung, injected with lethal drugs or experimented upon. More than 250,000 Gypsies also were killed there. Jews and Gypsies were to be exterminated simply because they existed.

Today Auschwitz-Birkenau has been sanitized. Auschwitz I is a museum. Today the group will visit various buildings containing suitcases, children’s toys, hairbrushes, shoes, prosthetics, etc. They will see the Execution Block and the hospital. They will stand beneath the infamous sign, Arbeit Macht Frei. When you look at the sign, the B is actually inverted. The prisoners did this on purpose as a statement of resistance. One who visits Auschwitz cannot help but be struck by the fact that this “museum” actually has a gift shop and even a place to eat a picnic lunch. It is an uncomfortable feeling to say the least and no longer looks as it actually did during the war.

Birkenau, which the group toured yesterday, also has been sanitized. However, one still can recognize that this was a horrific place, an enormous camp, a factory designed to kill people. The well known gateway above the train tracks has become the symbol of one of the most evil places on earth.

Krakow

Krakow located in southern Poland was at one time the capital of Poland. There is record of a Jewish community of Krakow dating back to the 10th Century. The city fell to the Nazis on September 4, 1939 and became headquarters of the “General Government” which encompassed most of Poland. It was liberated by the Soviets on January 9, 1945.

The Jewish community in Krakow was one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. The Jewish population in 1939 was 56, 515. Krakow was a religious and cultural center for Jews. The first Jewish publishing house in Poland was in Krakow. Towards the end of the 19th Century Krakow became a center for Zionism. After World War I there was a daily Zionist newspaper. Many of the international Zionist Conferences took place in Krakow and all the Zionist youth movements were strong in Krakow and sent many olim to Israel.

With the Nazis, the Jews were moved to a ghetto on the other side of the Wisla River in Krakow. In Plashow, a special work camp was set up
(Schindler’s List). Most of the Jews of the Krakow Ghetto were sent to death camps including Auschwitz which is 45 kilometers from Krakow.

Today there are a few synagogues remaining in Krakow: The Mizrachi, the Kupa, The High Shul, the Isaac Shul, the Alte Shul, and the Rama Shul. Located next to the Rama Shul is the Rama cemetery. According to Catholic-related laws, no synagogue built in Poland could be built higher than any church. Consequently often many of the synagogues’ main floors were below ground level so that the height of the synagogue would not offend the Poles.

The pharmacy, which students will tour today, was in business from 1941 to 1943 within the walls of the Krakow Ghetto. Despite the fact that its owner was not Jewish, he maintained the business in the Ghetto. The pharmacy served as a “diplomatic agency” representing the free world in the walled ghetto. The pharmacy and the pharmacist had a cameo part in Schindler’s list. Today it is a museum to the Krakow Ghetto.

The Plashow camp was originally a forced labor camp and later became a concentration camp. It was established in 1942 in a Krakow suburb. The construction of the camp began in the summer of 1942 within the Krakow city limits. It was actually built on a site containing two Jewish cemeteries, other Jewish community property and the private property of Polish residents who had been evicted. Its maximum size was 200 acres. It was surrounded by an electric barbed wire fence 2.5 miles in length. The camp was divided into several sections: The German quarters, the factories, and the camp itself, which was separated into the men’s and women’s sections, with subsections for Poles and Jews.

Amon Goeth, the camp commandant from February 1943 to September 1944 (one of five men to hold this post), was the person responsible for most of the horrific crimes committed in the camp—mass murder, selection, death from over work, and personal participation in murder. (Schindler’s List). While still functioning as a forced labor camp, Plashow was the scene of mass killings of Jews. Some eight thousand persons are estimated to have been murdered in Plashow.

In September 1944 efforts were made to obliterate any traces of the crimes that had been perpetrated in the camp by opening the mass graves and burning the remains in heaps.

A huge monument was dedicated in September of 1964 to all the people who died there and reads, “In commemoration of those murdered by the Nazi perpetrators of genocide in the years 1943-1945.

On a smaller nearby monument built by the Jews of Krakow is the following:

“Here, in this area, have been tortured, murdered, and turned into ashes several tens of thousands of Jews in the years 1943-1945, driven here from all over Poland and Hungary. We do not know the names of the murdered. Let us replace them with one word only—Jews. Here at this site has been committed one of the most horrible crimes. Human language has no words to define the atrocity of this crime--its nightmarish bestiality, ruthlessness and cruelty. Let us replace it with one word—Nazism. In commemoration of those murdered here, whose last cry of despair is the silence of this Plashow cemetery, we Jews saved from the fascist pogrom pay homage.”

One cannot help but notice how many Poles today use this vast area as a park. It is hard to understand how people can stroll through this area, pushing babies, eating picnic lunches, riding on bicycles, and enjoying the grounds.

I probably will not be sending you emails until Monday, July 7th as we are closed for the holiday weekend.


I wish all of you a very Happy Fourth of July!

Barb