Day 4

On the fourth day, we set off at eight o’clock. First, Kreppel were handed out, which in Poland are traditionally eaten before Lent. After that came the harsh break with the present. We traveled by bus for about one and a half hours to Oświęcim, where, as on the previous day, we visited a concentration and extermination camp. Upon arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau, we immediately saw the well known entrance with its striking tower through whose gate railway tracks run. The atmosphere was tense: we were standing in the place from which, for so many people, the road into a cruel and uncertain future began.

We were divided into two groups, and then the guided tours started at ten o’clock. We were told the history of the camp: its creation in 1940, its development into one of the largest extermination camps during the Nazi era, and the living conditions of the prisoners.

We began with the barracks. Many were empty and still preserved in their original state, others had been restored. In the former sleeping quarters, where dozens of people were housed in the smallest of spaces, often up to eight people per bunk, one got a sense of how harsh life here must have been. In one barrack, an old washroom could be seen. In the middle of the room stood simple pit toilets, which were by no means sufficient for the enormous number of people within the short amount of time granted.

Afterwards, we went to the place where the prisoners, especially Jews, arrived by train. The people were often tired and exhausted upon arrival, because they had endured long journeys under inhuman conditions. Our guide told us that people were often packed together so tightly that they crushed one another. They traveled for several days without sleeping and without food. Often it was only when they arrived and got off that it became clear that many bodies were lifeless and had only been held upright by the others.

Once they had arrived, all prisoners had to line up and were selected. The elderly, the sick, and children were immediately separated out for the gas chambers, unaware of the fate awaiting them. Mothers with small children were also taken away immediately in order to avoid conflict and unrest. We were told that the prisoners who helped during reception told children to lie and give an older age in order to protect them. Furthermore, twins were also taken away separately, because experiments were carried out on them.

From the platform, we walked along a very muddy path lined with barbed wire and watchtowers, directly past countless barracks. Altogether, the camp was divided into four sections and was even supposed to be expanded further. We walked between two of these sections.

The memory of this mud covered path, into which our shoes sank deeply, will also remain an indelible experience for one of our guides. She mentioned it later during the reflection on the tour and shared her thoughts with us. In doing so, she reflected on how insignificant our “mud problem” was in comparison to the actual suffering of the prisoners, who even lost their shoes here and could not retrieve them because of the pushing crowd behind them. For us, however, it was the only moment at this place in which we could briefly switch off, because we increasingly had to focus on our own footing and on one another. The rest of the time, we were tense and full of horror at what was being described to us. The relationship between the Israelis and the Germans was noticeably respectful. Nevertheless, some Israelis later reported that they had felt uncomfortable being at this place together with the Germans, because they did not know how we Germans viewed what had happened.

Our next destination was the “Central Sauna.” The building with this name served in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to strip the prisoners after arrival, disinfect and wash them, cut their hair, and register them for camp life by means of a number tattooed on them there. The sparse rooms and the sober layout suggested the systematic organization and the constriction of daily life. It is important to make clear once again that people were subjected in this process to total humiliation and depersonalization. All of these steps were carried out in the most cruel way. For example, they had to stand naked for long periods while drying and were beaten again and again.

On the way to the “Central Sauna,” we also came to the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria. We were able to see the remains, which bore the marks of destruction and decay. Our guides explained the function of the buildings and described the procedures. Their account made it clear once again how methodically, systematically, and mercilessly things were done here. We were also told about the armed resistance of Jewish prisoners on 7 October 1944. They had been forced to work as a Sonderkommando in the crematoria and gas chambers and resisted their impending liquidation. In the process, the prisoners managed, before they were murdered, to destroy Crematorium IV to a large extent by setting it on fire.

After the tour, we all gathered at a memorial. There, our Israeli classmates held a commemorative ceremony. There was singing, and different important stories were shared. Especially moving was the story of one student, who read aloud the written memories of his great grandmother, who had been deported to Auschwitz. Many were deeply affected, and this emotionality remained for a long time.

Back in Kraków, we had the rest of the day at our disposal. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the deeply moving impressions, some used the time for sightseeing, while others went shopping or visited a typical Polish restaurant. In the evening, some of the students met once more in Kraków’s city center before everyone ended the evening at the hostel.

Looking back, it can be said that we should remind ourselves again and again how protected we live and what privileges we experience every day. Too often, we forget that our problems today are often trivial in comparison to what people had to go through in the past. We, as participants in this exchange, learned a great deal, but even though we saw this camp with our own eyes and heard the stories with our own ears, this human cruelty remains unimaginable, and the events that took place there cannot truly be comprehended. We once again recognized how important it is that this part of our history must never be forgotten and that we all bear responsibility to fight against such things.