A day for reflection

Today I was to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau, this was part of a trip bought at the campsite, the trip actually left from Krakow but the minibus stops at the campsite for a pick. When the mini bus arrived there was a mother and 2 daughters on board and a couple from Anchorage, Alaska who were making a 1 month tour of Europe by train. We were joined shortly after by a couple from New Zealand who were making a 6 month trip. They had actually bought a caravanette in Holland and intended to sell it bfeore leaving in November. Turned out he owned cattle ranches in New Zealand and they were under management so no propblems.
Once on the mini bus and off on the 60km ride to Auschwitz, the driver played a film recording shot by the Russians when they liberated the camp, this obviously gave us a historical point of view before our arrival.
When we arrived at the camp we joined another small group and started the tour, led by Christina. The tours are done very well in that the tour guide is miked up and you all wear a receiver and headphones, this way they can do many tours all at the same time utilising differant channels on the receiver.
It turned out that Christina had been doing the tours for 36 years and that her father in law was a prisoner in Auschwitz for 2 years. He was a very young Polish baker in the town and he used to give bread to some of the outworkers from the camp. He was caught doing this and his punishment was 2 yrs in Auschwitz. He was eventually released after 2 yrs, aged 21yrs but the experience made him a broken man and he died aged only 41yrs.
We toured Auschwitz for about 1hr 10 mins then after a short break were taken to Birkenau, this camp being some 20 times larger than Auschwitz and it is where the main killings took place.
I am afraid that although I took plenty of photos they cannot give the true scale of what went on in the camps. I am also sorry that I have loaded the few photos that I have posted in the wrong order, but I will try to explain the photos.
This is the main enteranceand to Birkenau showing the rail tracks and arch through which the trains, crammed with prisoners, arrived at the camp. The train made its way in and the prisoners were disgorged onto the ramp. Here they were met by the SS doctor who made a decision whether the prisoner lived or died. If he he pointed left, you lived and entered the camp in order to work. If he pointed right, you entered another par of the camp and your destiny was the gas chamber. 85% of the arrivals were pointed to the right, including all aged persons, children, babies, cripples and the deformed and pregnant women.
This entrance and track were used in the film Schindlers List as some of this was filmed at Birkenau.

I am afraid that we now jump back to Auchswitz, this is a punishment cell found underground in the cellars of the prison block where prisoners were held before execution by firing squad, this was for crimes usually committed in the camp, such as helping a fellow prisoner! This small chamber was originally bricked up to the ceiling but the bricks have been removed to show people. This "cell" measures 90cm by 90cm and at the bottom was a small doorway through which the prisoners had to crawl, the door then being shut. The prisoners were then in total darkness for the night. I say prisoners because it was used by 4 people at the time. It was called a standing cell as once in there was not enough room to sit or squat.

If the prisoners were still alive in the morning, they were sent off to work only to return the next night.

The Nazis destroyed the gas chambers/ovens at Birkenau just prior to the Russians arrival in an effort to destroy all the evidence, this is all that remains of a gas chamber used to exterminate 2,000 prisoners at a time by use of the gas zyklon B. The bodies then being cremated in the attached ovens. There were 5 chambers like this one at the camp.

This is inside the smaller gas chamber at Auschwitz, it was deemed ineffecient by the Nazis as it could only handle 800 prisoners at a time. The zyklon B was dropped through small openings in the ceiling and would kill everyone in the chambers within 20 minutes.

This chamber was not destroyed as, once it was deemed inefficient it was used for storage of ammunition.

This case shows just a small pile of shoes that were taken from the prisoners on arrival at the camp. Other cabinets held glasses, pots and pans, clothing and most shocking, a huge room containing human hair. The hair would be used to make material and things like socks for submariners, It appears that the Nazis were quite able to bear wearing clothes and hair from the jews!!

The main enterance into Auschwitz.

In retrospect, I am glad that I did an organised tour as I feel I gained more of an insight, but overall I did not feel that we were given long enough in the Auschwitz camp to read all the material in the few display cabinets, I know I would have liked longer. I do not now that if you turned up at the camp as an individual whether or not you would be put on an organised tour, or whether you could wander around by yourself.