Auschwitz and Birkenau

While in Poland, I added a couple of days sight-seeing in Krakow, which was only a 3 hour train trip from Warsaw.  The Auschwitz camps are just outside Krakow.  A couple of people have asked me how the trip was and I while can't really answer "great" or even "good," I can say it was memorable and meaningful.  I'm not going to recap all the information I heard or stories from the tour guides because most of it was a tragedy and difficult to hear.  But I will share a few pictures. 

The first part of the visit was Auschwitz camp I.  This was primarily a camp where prisoners slept while they were working in the nearby German factories.  Most of the prisoners here died, but from the extreme conditions of hard work, too little food and too much sickness.  There was one gas chamber and crematorium here, but the larger death camp was Auschwitz II (also called Birkenau).  The entire camp of Auschwitz I was much smaller than I had imagined, covering only about the size of a couple of city blocks. 

We had a short break and then drove to Birkenau which was only about 5 minutes away.  This was a MUCH larger camp - I couldn't even see all the way to the end of the fencing in one direction.  There were thousands of prisoners kept here for work.  But this was primarily a death camp with multiple gas chambers and crematoria.  The rail tracks led through the main gate of the camp and onto a platform area where "selection" would have taken place of those healthy enough to work.  It is estimated that a total of about 1.3 million people died here from 1940-1945.

 

Now that I have visited these camps, I don't think I would ever feel the desire to visit another one.  But I do think it is important to visit once - to remember and make sure that we pass on what happened to future generations so a tragedy like this will never happen again.