What can I tell you about Auschwitz that you don't already know? What can I say that you haven't already heard? What pictures could I take that you haven't already seen? Yes, now I can say I've been here, that I've seen this horrible place first hand. But there was no epiphany, nothing to help me put in perspective the enormity of the horrors perpetrated here by the Nazis. This is something I now realize will be forever beyond my ability to comprehend.
The tour bus made stops at several local hotels in Krakow before heading to Auschwitz, but only a few people got on. It was an unusually small group, about nine people in all; one Japanese couple, two English couples, and a few others whose nationality I did not learn. None of the other people in my tour group were Jewish, which in itself is encouraging. There is a keen interest in the Holocaust outside of the Jewish community. About one million people visit Auschwitz each year, and those numbers are growing.
During the hour long bus ride, we were shown a video about the history of Auschwitz, how it was originally a Polish army camp near the town of Oswieciem, taken over by the Nazis, and turned into a prison for Polish political dissidents. Later it was expanded to house Russian POWs, Gypsies, and others deemed to be undesirable. The film was primarily about the Nazi victimization of Poland. I kept waiting to hear something about the Jews. It took them a while to mention us, but they managed to get it in. Our guide did a much better job of emphasizing what the purpose for the camp eventually became and how it grew into three separate camps. While the original Auschwitz was primarily a slave labor camp, Auschwitz-Berkenau was the death factory, specifically built to exterminate Jews as quickly and efficiently as possible. We toured both of these. The site of the third camp is now a factory.
The overall number of visitors to Auschwitz was small today, which was fine by me. Our guide told me that there are days when the place is so crowded with tour groups that they compete with each other for access to various exhibits. I can’t help but think this would make the place seem more like a fair or a theme park rather than the solemn memorial that it is. I hope I am wrong.
Auschwitz is huge, and we only had time to explore a fraction of it. I think I would want to come back here again some day, but next time I would come with a group of fellow Jews. I believe it is safe to say that we have a unique perspective regarding the Holocaust. For us, it is a lot more personal. Today there was no one there with whom I could share my emotions, no one who would understand this place from a uniquely Jewish perspective, so I kept my feelings to myself. On several occasions during the tour, I felt like I was going to burst into tears, but I managed to hold it in.
If I do come back to this place, I think I would like to do so during “The March of the Living.” This is an annual event that takes place over a two week period in the spring, coinciding with three Israeli holidays; Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day), and Yom Haatzmaut (Israel Independence Day). Jews from all around the world gather here during this time to mourn the victims of the Holocaust, approximately 8,000 came here in 2006. That’s a crowd in which I could definitely find comfort. (http://www.marchoftheliving.org/mol2006/inthenews06.html)
I did take one photo today, just prior to entering the gate to Auschwitz 1, the main work camp. Inscribed above this gate are those infamous words, “ARBEIT MACHT FREI.” But I didn’t see the point in taking any more pictures. How could my photographs add to that which has been so meticulously documented over the past 60+ years? My photos couldn’t possibly do it justice. I put the camera away.
-Wayne
Notice the "B" in ARBEIT. Some say it was deliberately placed upside down by the camp worker who made the sign in order to irritate the Nazis.
