Auschwitz-Birkenau•Oswiecim

Prior to my trip to Krakow Poland, travelling books and several people tell me that I must visit Auschwitz-Birkenau (UNESCO World Heritage Site), largest Nazi concentration camp during 2nd World War where thousands of thousands of Jews and others “undesirables” were imprisoned and killed.

A two-hour minibus ride from Krakow city centre brought me to the gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Admission is free and I started my visit at the main administration of the two camps, Auschwitz I with a 15 minutes documentary film about the liberation of the camp. It was shocking and unbelievable.

The visit to the camp started when I went through an iron gate with a metal overhead sign which read “ Arbeit Macht Frei ”, mean Work Makes Free. The camp was left in its original form. The entire compound is circled by electric wire with an empty zone between the fences, which has been preserved until today. The guard towers around have also been well preserved, giving an idea of how tight security the area was. Many of the original brick buildings still exist and now exhibit the lives and deaths of the prisoners.

The exhibitions rooms display history, facts and photos about the concentration camp prisoners, a huge/pile collection of the personal belongings of the prisoners such as tons of female hair filled up the display room, thousands pair of shoes, thousands of suitcases with their name on, thousands of clothes, toothbrushes, combs, prosthetic limbs, spectacles etc. There is a “ Wall Of Death ” which was used for executions. I was able to enter a gas chamber and saw the ovens, which was not worse than expected. It was terrifying and horrible.

Auschwitz II, known as Birkenau which mostly were burned down/blown up (perhaps hoping to destroy the evidence of their crimes) was the major expansion of the camp to house many more prisoners. There is not much to see compare with Auschwitz I, only the train tracks and rail platform which take the prisoners to the gas chambers, barracks of wooden bed bunks for prisoners (1 barracks housed 400 prisoners instead of 52 horses which they were designed for), a monument for the victims, ruins gas chamber and guard house. Although mostly were destroyed but we still can imagined how it was as we walked through the open field.

It’s hard to describe my feeling/emotions as I walked around the camp. The most difficult parts for me were the rooms filled up with human hair, shoes and the gas chamber. I took some photographs although it’s disrespectful but I want my friends and others to know what had happen there. Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau is a shocking and unforgettable educational experience for me. It is horrifying and awful, I will never forget what has happen inside these camps.

21/08/2006•Krakow•Poland