Auschwitz-Birkenau

Some of the reason why I've been behind on my blog posts is that I've been putting this one off as long as possible.

Its not that its emotionally draining or anything like that (studying it every year in elementary school has desensitized me in some ways, I think) No matter what I write, it's not going to satisfy me or anyone else that reads it.

You just have to see it yourself.

In the three hour tour, you roll your own snow ball of thoughts. Only a portion of which can be put into words, or maybe only a portion of which you would ever want to put into words.

Just had to lower your expectations a bit before continuing.

The tour started with an hour and a half drive to the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz is the German version of the name, now used to denote the concentration camp only, not the inhabited area nearby) It had not occurred to me that people lived, or still lived even, in the vicinity of the camp.

I wish I had the chance to talk to someone living in Oświęcim. It would be interesting to hear their take on everything.

Oświęcim wasn't particularly known for anything pre-WWII. The Nazis picked it purely based on geography. It is almost directly in the center of Europe. It also had good connections to many major cities in several countries via train.

Purely logistics.

Once we finally arrived at Auschwitz, we were checked in, divided into three separate groups, assigned a tour guide, and then we were told to never loose sight of our tour guide. Over one million people per year visit Auschwitz-Birkenau.  And i'm pretty sure every one of them must be accompanied by a tour guide, because I didn't see anyone walking by themselves.

You first walk through the famous gate at the entrance that reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" or, "Work will set you free."

Prisoners were made to believe that labor could possibly lead to freedom.  As their time there continued, I'm sure they believed it less and less.  The Nazis had controlling prisoners down to a science.

Despite the amount of weapons and force they could employ, the nazis went out of their way to avoid mass panic. I was familiar with the "going to take a shower" scheme, but that's just half of it.

They would have the prisoners hang up their clothes on hooks and trek then to remember their hook number so the prisoners could retrieve their belongings after their shower. Some prisoners were given bars of soap as well as towels, to further the shower illusion.

Afterwards, the belongings were sorted through by criminals sent to the camp. The criminals were given the best jobs, and slightly better conditions than the Jewish prisoners.  Some were employed as guards as well to control the incoming Jewish prisoners.

The warehouse where all the belongings were kept and sorted was nicknamed "Canada", as Canada was considered a land of plenty at that time.  After the "shower", all gold tooth fillings were pulled to be melted down later.  Any other jewelry valuables were removed, and the bodies were taken to one of the crematoriums.  One crematorium with three ovens had the ability to dispose of over one thousands bodies in a twenty four hour period.

That was still not enough to keep up with the rate at which bodies were being produced.

A single gassing could kill up to 800 men, women, and children.

Children and mothers were especially likely to be gassed upon their arrival to Auschwitz, as they had little value as laborers. Able men were kept around for longer usually.

Who was luckier, it is hard to say.

The actual chemical used in the gas chambers was hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), sold under the trade name Zyklon B (can also be spelled Cyclon or Cyclone).  It was meant to be used as a pesticide, but I suppose from the point of view of a Nazi, it was. The pesticide had a warning odorant added, ethyl bromoacetate. The Zyklon used on humans did not.

You can skip the next paragraph if you have no interest in biology or chemistry.

Mechanism wise, the cyanide (CN) in Zyklon kills by stopping cell respiration. The CN binds to a iron group (heme a3) in a ligand of the protein cytochrome c oxidase that lies in the electron transport chain (ETC) Usually cytochrome c oxidase would pass electrons down the ETC to produce ATP, which is really the cell's prime function. However, the CN metal group forms a more stable pi bond with the ligand iron group The new stability halts the waterfall mechanism of the ECT, and no ATP is produced.

Breathing Zyklon B kills the person at a cellular level. Victims were found foaming at the mouth, bleeding out the ears, and covered in green splotches (prussian blue? Just a guess).
To be fair to the facts, 95% of Zyklon B was used to kill lice in the living quarters and prevent typhus. Only 5% was used on humans.

In Auschwitz, there were mountains of Zyklon cans in display cases.

The thing about Auschwitz today, is that the buildings have for the most part been converted to hold exhibitions.

The first few buildings we went into had display cases, photographs, maps, etc Each piece added another horrific statistic to the puzzle.

Most mind blowing of all, were the collections of prisoner personal effects.

Thousands of eye glasses, thousands of baby shoes, thousands of adult shoes, thousands of pots and pans.  Half a room full of suitcases. Each with the prisoner's surname written on the side, so they could identify their luggage after the "shower".

The most disturbing by far, was the room in which pictures were not allowed.

Half of the room was just a single display case of human hair.

Seven tons of human hair. All in neat individual braids.
The Nazis shaved prisoners partly to prevent lice from spreading, but also to collect the hair for further usage. Hair was shipped off to factories to be made into cloth. They had a small example of the cloth there as well.

Some parts of the camp had not been redone in any way.

Rooms where the criminals slept were on display. Rooms that the Nazis used were preserved basically as they were.  Block 11 (each bulding was named Block #) even had a judiciary court room where lucky political prisoners at least got some sort of trial.  The basement of Block 11 was much much different.

The basement contained punishment cells for prisoners that had committed either the worst offenses, or possibly no offense at all. All depending on the guards and their moods. Offenses could include trying to escape, collaborating to revolt, not working hard enough, etc. One of the more well known punishments were the starvation cells.  Prisoners were locked in and left there until time did its damage. The most famous prisoner to have died in one of these cells, was Father Kolbe.

A certain Jew sympathizer had been picked out during the morning counting to be locked in the starvation cell as his final punishment for helping Jews escape. Father Kolbe, a fellow prisoner, volunteered to take the man's place. Apparently Father Kolbe lasted much longer in the starvation cell than most prisoners had before him.

He was later canonized by the Catholic Church in the 1980's.

I'm unsure at whether the man whose life he saved ended up surviving the war.

Surrounding all the buildings was an extensive network of barbed wire fence, all of which used to be connected to electricity.  The only buildings outside the fence were watch towers, as well as the house where Rudolph Höss (who over saw the camp) and his family lived.

A few years ago I saw the movie "Boy in the Striped Pajamas". In the movie (adapted from the book by Irish author John Boyne), the story followed the son of a Nazi officer that moved his family into a house next to a concentration camp. It was his promotion and privilege to run the camp. I recommend seeing the movie at least, if not reading the book as well. My real point is that, in the movie, the mother is uncomfortable with the house being that close to the concentration camp. If I recall correctly, it was mostly because of the smell from the crematoriums. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to live so near a place like that, no matter how easy it makes the commute to work.

Apparenty Rudolph Höss really liked his location.

Literally, the second floor windows could see pretty much the whole camp.

As I have almost reached the maximum number of characters for a single post, I will continue on the next post.