Tags
Auschwitz, Birkenau, concentration camps, extermination, Final Solution, history, Hitler, Holocaust, inhumanity, Shoah, torture, WWII, Zyclon B
What follows is the first of a three-part series, a result of my recent visit to Poland. In Part One, I grapple with visions of Auschwitz. Part Two will be mostly a photographic journey through the grounds of Birkenau. Part Three will be my attempt to make sense of what I’ve seen and thought about.
Surrounded by the ghosts of millions of murdered innocents, several truths bubble uncomfortably to the surface. Human beings are not necessarily humane. Humans can be as vicious and violent as the most vilified predators of the animal kingdom. But even among animals, mass murder within a species is rare, if it exists at all. Not so within the human species. Genocide has been documented through the ages and around the globe. Scholars have examined possible genocide as early as the Neanderthal period, and surely as far back as the Peloponnesian War in 500 BCE. One of the worst genocides in history occurred right here in America when 80-90% of the indigenous population perished from a multitude of physical, emotional, and disease related assaults after the European invasion.
But in terms of speed and calculated efficiency of dispatch, Adolph Hitler’s Holocaust wins the prize. I was born into the blissful calm after Hitler’s storm, however I was raised in complete awareness of the destruction. My mother’s cousins and aunts and uncles had survived Hitler’s reign, thanks to their German bloodlines. But they were marred by the havoc: homes, health, limbs and possessions lost in the mayhem. I’ve read voraciously about the subject. I’ve withstood silent screams at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. And now I have stood on the grounds of destruction.
Auschwitz was the largest of the over 1,200 Nazi German concentration and death camps scattered about Europe between 1933 and 1945. In five years of existence, 1,300,000 humans were deported to this camp.
- 1,100,000 Jews
- 140,000 – 150,000 Poles
- 23,000 Roma
- 15,000 Soviet POWs
- 25,000 Miscellaneous ethnic minorities and “deviates”
Ninety percent of the 1,100,000 individuals who died in Auschwitz were Jews and the majority of those were methodically gassed. One highly inclusive figure estimates that 21 million people lost their lives during the Holocaust. (This figure does not include the lives of soldiers who died on the battlefields or later from battle injuries.)
The Nazis made a game of death. Before their date with the gas chamber, prisoners provided entertainment as musicians, artists, actors, and sex slaves. Prisoners were used like lab rats for medical experiments. They provided labor, not just in the grinding maintenance and expansion of the camps themselves, but also making weapons, ammunition, field kits for the war, and marching off-site to work on farms, coal mines, and stone quarries. Workers were given one set of cotton clothes upon entry and provided with 1,300-1,700 calories per day. Non-workers existed briefly on 400 calories a day. Most of the laborers died on the job. When they became too weak to work, they were sent to holding pens for the gas chamber. Disobedience resulted in hangings, torture, death by starvation, and mass shootings.
The mechanics of the camps are widely known. There are few surprises left. How they came to exist should yield important clues on how to prevent such a travesty in the future. The cacophony of troubled souls whose spirits will never rest reminded me repeatedly that, indeed, something like this can happen again.
Part Two of this series will explore sister camp, Birkenau.
Doreen Pendgracs said:
Oh, Linda. I had no idea there were 1,200 death camps run by the Nazis. That is so horrific. I will pass your post to a dear friend of mine who is Jewish and has done some personal exploration of this topic on her own.
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rangewriter said:
That episode in history is mind-boggling. My head is still reeling from my visits to the camps and to Schindler’s Factory, which is also located in Krakow.
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gerard oosterman said:
I had trouble putting a ‘like’ here. The story has to be told no matter how often.
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rangewriter said:
I get that, Gerard. Your comment is greatly appreciated.
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Sybil Nunn said:
Sad. My heart hurts. I knew all this but am not sure if I could make it through the Holocaust Museum without breaking down.
You are telling a story that needs to be told, over and over.
I spend too much time trolling news stories about Donald Trump and seeing the hateful, shallow, racist comments there.
Not only do we not learn from the past but we are about to repeat it.
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rangewriter said:
I think you are channeling my approach to Part III, Sybil. I have never felt so helpless and depressed about the future. And, it is not only because of T and the USA. There is global unrest, globally imbalanced power and wealth. The planet is too small to absorb all the hatred.
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Playamart - Zeebra Designs said:
When the ‘potential ‘ buyers of my friends’ property wrote, one of their questions was, ‘are there any predators there?”
I was puzzled, but replied with candid seriousness, ‘I’m not sure what you mean, but the human species is our worst predator…’
I admire your courage to visit, and I wonder if an ultra-sensitive soul might feel the ghosts of those who suffered there.. So many deaths, so much sorrow and negative energy.. surely there were some souls that became lost and are still wandering between their hell on earth and their rightful place of peace.
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rangewriter said:
Oh I’m sure of it. I’m not even sensitive, but the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms were dancing a weird dance.
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Playamart - Zeebra Designs said:
si… it had to be strong… thanks for confirming…
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Jane's Heartsong said:
Thank you for sharing this story from history. I have heard about it, but not with the pictures of the camps.It is a story that we (humanity) must never forget. I think of the countries that are at war now and see it happening now perhaps to a lesser degree. But unfortunately I agree that this story from the past can be repeated again -we humans are capable of most barbaric behaviour. We must be vigilent and speak up.
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rangewriter said:
Thank you Jane. If words could open hearts . . .
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musingswithcamerainhand said:
Thanks for sharing your visit to Auschwitz in such a thoughtful and informative way, Linda. I have never visited the camps. It is hard to imagine the suffering that must have been contained within those walls, and even harder to think about the depravity and callousness to that suffering. Especially timely right now, when those hard lessons seem to be forgotten and some are judged to have lives less valued than others.
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rangewriter said:
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts, Belinda. If I had visited this place 30 years ago, I would have felt less uneasy because I would have stupidly felt safe that such depravity could never again be unleashed. But I would have been wrong. 😦
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Lynz Real Cooking said:
Thanks for sharing this! Horryfing!
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Lynz Real Cooking said:
Sorry horrifying is what I meant
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