Oświęcim

I really didn’t know what to expect from Poland. This was the first country on the trip I hadn’t been to before, and I felt out of my element. Upon arrival, Morgan did a very good job describing just how ruthless the Nazis were in destroying civilian populations of both Jews and ethnic Poles throughout the bloodlands of Eastern Europe. I felt we witnessed an accurate representation of the circumstances the Poles suffered while walking through the Oskar Schindler Museum. While the museum was nominally about factory owner Schindler working to save the Jews who worked for him, it also painted scenes of daily life under occupation, with forced labor, extreme rations, and black market trade.

The most moving part of Poland, and what I believe is the main reason we came here, was the tour of Auschwitz. We learned about the atrocities undertaken at this camp through personal accounts through Spring Semester, but on visiting the idea of the extermination camp changed from an almost myth-like quality to something very real that murdered more than a million people. We started in Auschwitz I, moving through the main gate through rows of huts. I was struck by the disparity between the natural setting, with bright sunshine, beautiful flora, and the sounds of birds chirping, and the nature of what happened in these dim brick huts.

We continued into the exhibit, moving through the buildings and seeing various displays about the camp. In one rosy-tinted room we walked into, one wall was entirely glass, with mounds and mounds of human hair resting behind it. The number of people represented here is estimated around 32,000, but is unknown. I continue to be bothered by this, that innumerable women could be represented in these remains. Our guide explained that the Nazis shaved women’s hair for use as textiles sold back in Germany. After killing them in the gas chambers, they would also remove metal tooth fillings and loot the clothes of valuables. After cremation, they spread the ashes in fields for use as fertilizer. The idea of human remains being used as fertilizer sickens me. As our guide said, “everything was valuable to the Nazis except for human life.”

After Auschwitz I, we moved on to Auschwitz-Birkenau II. This was the largest section of the camp, where prisoners got off the train and were selected for forced labor or immediate gassing. Just outside Birkenau, a man in a car passing by gave me a Nazi salute. I feel acid in my chest when I think about just how disgusting and inappropriate his actions were. Inside Birkenau, we saw a replica car of those used to transport hundreds of thousands of prisoners to their deaths. We also walked along the “march of death” and saw one of the now-destroyed crematoria.

I don’t have words, really, to describe what I’m feeling. I continue to feel that it was important to witness what systematic destruction man has wrought upon each other. It reminds of how important it is to consider other points of view, and how the acts of dehumanization that lead to genocide are not grand, sweeping gestures, but small efforts to undermine the perceptions of the “other.” Be conscious of your actions and whether you work to improve the lives of others.

See you all in Germany, where all of this started.

Signing off,

Patrick