On Saturday Adrian, Iza, Samuel, Kayla and I went to
Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.
It was an experience that I will never forget. First we went to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and walked around
for 2.5 hours.
We went inside some of the barracks and saw the horrible
living conditions these people endured.
Some barracks were made of brick and others were former stables. Each one housed 300 people.
There were separate buildings with drop toilets. It was incredible to see how massive
the Birkenau camp really was. I
would have never imagined it so big.
In this camp there are also four huge gas chambers that could each house
up to 2000 people at one time.
Retreating SS to try and hide the evidence of their crimes and blew them
up. You can still however see the
large changing room where prisoners were told to undress, the gas chamber,
lifts and rails to push the bodies along and on the surface we can see the
large hollows left by the furnaces.
Then we went to Auschwitz and took a tour of the former
Polish Army Barracks. We were each
given a set of headphones so we would all be able to hear the tour guide with
out trouble. Then we started off
the tour through the gate saying Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Brings Freedom).
First we went into Block 4. We learned a lot about how the location of Auschwitz was
important, as it is very centrally located in Europe.
We saw a diagram of the large gas chambers and crematoriums
at Birkenau and learned about Cyclone B.
In another room we saw just a fraction of things found at
Auschwitz and Birkenau that had been taken from the prisoners. Because people didn’t have any idea
where they were going they often packed almost everything they had especially
valuables.
 |
| Shoes |
 |
| Glasses |
 |
| Brushes |
We also went into Block 11 (The Death Block). This was a prison with in the
prison. Prisners were completely
isolated from the rest of the camp.
The basement has several different cells; we saw a starvation cell,
standing cells and dark cells used as harsh forms of punishment.
Between Blocks 10 and 11 is The Execution Wall where people
were shot, the courtyard is enclosed by high walls and the windows of Block 10
and 11 and bricked off the prevent witnesses.
The last thing we did was tour the small gas chamber at
Auschwitz. It was very eerie to
walk through. In places you can
see scratches in the walls from the people who suffered and died there.
Touring this camp was defiantly and experience I will never
forget.
