Auschwitz - Birkenau visit - January 2020 - Part 1

The thoughts and opinions in this blog are mine and mine alone. The details of the visit are recalled to the best of my ability.

In January 2020 I turned 60 years old. As part of my birthday celebrations my Son and Daughter arranged a trip to Krakow in Poland. As part of this trip we were going to fulfil two things on my lifetime bucket list. 

• A guided tour around Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp.

• A Visit to the Salt Mine at Wieliczka (this will be the subject of a separate blog post).

We arrived in Krakow on Friday 17th of January after being diverted to Katowice because Krakow was fogged in. Finally arriving at our Air B&B in the Jewish Quarter of Krakow at about 20:00. It was cold and foggy but we decided to take a walk to the Main Square and grab something to eat. The walk was very atmospheric especially as the city still had it's Christmas illuminations on which looked fabulous in through the mist.

Krakow Main Square

After eating we headed back to the B&B to get a good nights rest as the following morning we were heading for Auschwitz.

Waking up on Saturday 18th (My Birthday) I looked out of the balcony window to see that the fog had lifted. It was still a little overcast but it was very cold. About 2 degs C. 

View across Krakow from the balcony of our Air B&B

After breakfast we walked to the meeting point to meet the minibus that had been booked through the company Escape2Poland . We boarded the minibus and began our 60 minute journey to the camps. During the journey the driver ran a DVD detailing the liberation of the camp. It was quite a hard-hitting DVD but it served to set the mood for the visit very well.

For me this visit was primarily a photography visit and consequently I had a list of shots that I definitely wanted to take. However as the visit progressed it became less about the photography and much more about the plight and fate of the prisoners held at the camp. Although I managed to get the shots I wanted each shot was taken with much more purpose and concern as I learned more and more of the history of the events that took place here.

Just before 10 o'clock we arrived in the car park on Auschwitz I and our driver explained that we could not take anything through the gates that was bigger than an A4 piece of paper. All bags, etc had to be left on the minibus. Initially I panicked as I had my camera bag with me. Thankfully cameras are allowed into the camps but they have to be carried out of their bags.

Auschwitz Main Entrance

We joined the queue and eventually passed through the admission area where we were searched and, of course, those people that didn't listen to the driver were relieved of the bags that didn't fit the entry criteria. These could be collected later.

Once through the admission area we met out guide for the tour. A very softly spoken Polish lady. We were issued with a radio receiver and ear-piece so that we could hear her as we progressed through the camp. Our guide spoke with such passion and emotion as she recounted the history of the camp that I couldn't help wondering if she had lost family to the Nazi regime.

First view of the camp

Like all photographers visiting the museum I wanted the classic shot of the entry gate "Albeit Macht Frei" (Work Will Set You Free). I readied the camera and became very excited as we approached the gate. I lifted the camera to my eye when the reality of where we were and what had happened here suddenly hit me. This was one of many such feelings that occured throughout the camp.

The main entrance and gate

It was impossible to get a completely clear shot of the gate due to the other visitors but I did manage to get a reasonable shot.

The infamous sign

After taking this shot I passed through the gate and under the sign. A shudder passed through me as I though of all those people that had passed through it before me.

It is not the intention of this blog post to detail each and every exhibition within the camp as there are many other websites, including the official Auschwitz website, that will do this far more adequately that I could hope to.

As I continued through the gates our guide explained how Auschwitcz I was originally a Polish Army barracks that was re-purposed by the Nazi's to become the infamous prison camp. Once in possession of this knowledge it becomes quite obvious.

Barrack Blocks

Barrack Blocks

As we began our walk around the camp we were told that there were 27 barrack blocks in the complex and several of them were used as exhibition halls. Nearly all of the exhibition halls were available to visit however Block 10 was not. This block was where 'The Angel of Death' Josef Mengele performed his hideous medical experiments on the prisoners including children. This restriction was understandable and, to be honest, I don't think I would have wanted to see inside that one anyway. Our guide also explained that there were certain areas where photography was forbidden and that she would inform us as and when we entered any such area.

We progressed and our guide explained the purpose of each block and gave examples of the activities that took place in the block recalled from evidence provided by survivors of the camp. Entering the first block the story began to unfold. The walls of the block featured images and photographs of the plight of the prisoners. Their stories from leaving their homes, through the transportation to the camp, to their eventual imprisonment, their torture and eventual deaths.

Fences

The day we visited, the outside temperature was around 3 degs C. Quite a mild January by Polish standards. At the time when the camp was in operation temperatures would drop to minus 20 C and below. The prisoners were rarely provided with fuel to heat the prison blocks despite the blocks having the original heaters used by the Polish soldiers stationed there. I was pretty cold in my modern fleece and jeans. Goodness knows what it must have been like to have been there in the depths of winter clothed only in light, striped, pajamas. We were also told how the prisoners were made to stand outside for long periods of time and then made to march to forced labour in the local factories to aid the Nazi war machine.

Between the blocks

Each exhibition hall told a different part of the story either in words and images or with physical materials. Whilst the words and images are harrowing in their own rights it is the physical exhibits that, for me, really brought the reality of the horrors home. It was these displays that brought the most reaction from the visitors and caused the most emotion in me.

Continuing through the museum each hall was more emotional than the previous. We saw the Zyklon B canisters used to gas the prisoners

Disgarded used Zyklon B canisters

We saw the Hall of Hair with two tons of human hair belonging to the female inmates, we saw the mountain of spectacles, the collection of Tallitots (Jewish prayer shawls). We saw the huge collection of prosthetic limbs, the hall of suitcases still with their owners names on them. We saw the piles of deportees shoes, hair brushes, shaving brushes and combs. We saw the enormous collection of kitchen utensils and pots and pans. Photography was forbidden in these areas due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Unfortunately this didn't deter some individuals using camera phones.

No explanation needed

As I said earlier, the visit became less about photography and more about the prisoners. In each of the exhibitions halls our guide explained what took place in that particular area and then followed it by an actual account given by a survivor. This brought more reality to being there in that moment. I won't attempt to recall their accounts here as I simply could not do them justice. 

We passed through the prison area where inmates were forced into cells in which they could neither stand nor sit then forced to march to work the following day. In one area we were told how inmates were starved to death by the Nazis so that they could study the effects of starvation or were given lethal injections. Inmates who had comitted offences or broken prison rules would quite often be put to death by shooting. So many were shot that a purpose built wall had to be constructed just outside the jail room. 

Reconstruction of the shooting wall

Roll Call Square

As our visit came to a conclusion we passed the collective gallows where prisoners were executed twelve at a time. Normally these would be those that were caught trying to escape or aiding others in trying to escape. We then saw the gallows that were built to execute the Camp Commandant, Rudolf HÖss, after the camp was liberated.

The gallows constructed to execute the Camp Commandant Rudolf HÖss

Finally we arrived at the site of the Gas Chamber and Crematorium I. We were asked not to take photographs inside the actual chamber, again totally understandable. It's quite a simple building from the outside. Basically on concrete block with chimney and an entrance door. 

The chimney at Crematorium I

However, the reality of what actually took place here beggars belief. As we entered the chamber I snapped the image below which is the last glimpse of the outside world the victims would have had before being put to death. (You have to imagine it without the visitors).

Last View

Walking up the corridor and entering the chamber a chill passed through me as I considered all that had gone on before. We spent a few minutes in the chamber which was lit by a simple dim bulb. When ready we moved out of the gas chamber and into the crematorium. The final destination for the victims. My thoughts turned to them; The old, the young, the disabled, the infirmed, THE REAL PEOPLE that had met their fate in this terrible place. Most visitors walked out in complete silence as they contemplated the dreadful things that occured on this exact spot seventy five years before.

We spent some time outside Gas Chamber I. Time to look across at the Nazi staff accommodation blocks 

Part of the accomodation block

And the beautiful house assigned to Camp Commandant Rudolf Hoss. To witness the stark differences between their lives and the lives of the inmates.

I have read many books and seen many documentaries about the Holocaust and the atrocities that took place under the Nazi regime but nothing can compare to visiting the Memorial Museum at Auschwitz and standing where some of these atrocities actually took place.

Part of an Electric Fence

We decided to visit the museum book shop and as we walked towards it I attempted to reconcile all that I had heard and seen during my visit. 

How can one group of human beings decide to exterminate another group of human beings simply because of their race?   

What gives any group of human being the right to exterminate another group of human beings?

The Nazi's didn't miss a trick! If it could be sold, melted down, re-purposed or reused then it was. The human hair, the suitcases, the pots and pans, the hair brushes, the shaving brushes, the jewellery, even the gold teeth were all used the help the Nazi war machine.

Of all of the exhibitions and exhibits in Auschwitz I museum the one I found most moving and most thought provoking was the Hall of Pots and Pans. For me this demonstrates Nazi cruelty in action. The Nazi's fooled the deportees by telling them they were simply being relocated and to pack their the things they would need for theiir new life. 

This they did in good faith when their fate had already been decided by the regime. To fill people with false hope in full knowledge that this hope was never real is mental and physical cruelty at its worst. To me the piles of pots and pans represented the deportees hopes and dreams for the future, for their new lives. This is my opinion and upset me the most.     

Auschwitz I was just the start of the Nazi killing machine. The beginning of The Final Solution. We left the bookshop and headed for the minibus so that we could travel to the biggest killing machine of all. The purpose built camp of Auschwitz II - Birkenau. We visit this in the next post.