“Work Makes You Free”
We visited Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland on August 12, 2014. The proportion of this camp and evidence of what took place here enhanced everything we have been learning and reading in previous museums regarding the Second World War and the Holocaust. Visiting this testimony of human horror should be a must for all of us, you can only give dimension to the crimes and perversion committed when you see with your own eyes the huge size of the place in which thousands lost their right to live. Seeing the means, you could finally understand that the term “massive extermination” is literal and not an exaggeration. The methods and infrastructure of this killing camp confirm the detached antisocial minds that pre-calculated and executed the genocide.
In September 1, 1939, Poland was invaded by Germany, which marked the beginning of the Second World War. In June 14, 1941, Auschwitz was built to keep Polish men, who the Nazis considered dangerous to their regime, including teachers, musicians, artist, etc.
Many other Poles were deported to concentration camps just because they were living in areas in which Germans wanted to take control. They called them “Political Prisoners.” In January 20, 1942, Berlin made a decision to begin massive extermination and organize the death camps. Six extermination camps made by Nazis were built in Poland.
When the prisoners arrived to Auschiwtz they were welcomed by a sign that read: “Work makes you free.” Jews transported to Auschwitz were brought under the belief that they were going to be relocated and therefore many carried suitcases with their valuables. They were enclosed in small train carriages for a long time without the possibility to get out.
It has been estimated that 25% of them died on their way to Auschiwtz. About 75% of all Jews transported to Auschwitz were sent directly to gas chambers and crematorium upon their arrival. Children, woman, elder, disabled, and anyone unsuitable to work were extinguished. Crematoriums were designed for burning corps and facilitate massive extermination. Auschwitz prisoners were forced to work for the Nazis, collecting valuables from the Jews, such as removing gold teeth from the corps, before placing them into the crematorium. Prisoners forced to hard labor without sufficient food did not live long. The Nazis conducted medical experiments with prisoners and many of them died as a result of this horrific treatment.
The estimate of Auschwitz victims is as follow: 1,100,000 Jews, between 140,000 and 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma “Gypsies,” 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and 25,000 prisoners from other ethnic groups. Only 144 people escaped successfully from Auschwitz and another 600 died in attempting. In total, it is estimated that between 5.6 and 6 million Jews perished in Europe under the Nazi occupation. All these numbers are an approximation because the Germans destroyed many of their records. Only 10% of Nazi officers working in Auschwitz were capture, judged, and given the death penalty for their crimes.
It was not only the high number of victims that tore us inside, but also the cold buildings of the camp, the train line built specifically to bring the prisoners directly to the death camps, the humiliating conditions in which thousands lived to die, the mountains of hair, shoes, and glasses left behind by the silenced victims, and the pictures of so many skinny prisoners hanging on the walls with the dates they entered and perished the camp written below their profiles, which showed they lasted very little time in the camp. Seven tons of human hair was found in Auschwitz when Poland was liberated. Nazis used the hair of their victims to manufacture ropes, carpets, and other materials, and human ashes were used as soil fertilizer. In the end what is clear and devastating is the fact that humans have the potential to treat, destroy, and kill others without remorse and regard; that the same minds that create solutions and wonders are also capable to commit torture and injustice.
We couldn’t close our eyes without thinking about all the places in the world where horror is occurring. It is not hard to imagine that in other places right now, humans are still dying to please the selfish plans of others. These thoughts chase us still, we cannot stop to wonder. It does not have to appear in the news to be real, we do not need to witness it to be certain that these horrors are actually happening, and by the time it will come out in the open, it will be once again too late…
