Auschwitz

On May 1st on our way to Krakow to meet friends. We queued alongside the railway in traffic for what seemed ages. When we eventually reached the roundabout before the Museum we were turned away by police. We hung around miserably for a bit then put off our visit till after Krakow. In fact it was the annual ‘Day of the Living’ march from Auschwitz to Birkenau – we should have known. It was strange how I deflected my fear of the Auschwitz visit into anger at the traffic and the police and the town of Osweicim.

We returned to Oswiecim on the 7th May with dread having learnt something of the story of Jews in Krakow – formerly about 30% of the population. It was sunny, we parked easily, close to the Museum. As we drove up I had seen what seemed like fairly ordinary though old-fashioned prison buildings. I was shocked to realise that this was Auschwitz – superficially like school boarding hostels from my youth!

It was a strange experience. I would recommend to any one who has a connection with Jewish history that they visit in winter in the school holidays. The place was packed with young people in trendy gear with mobile phones that were on and rang cheerfully. Young students need to know this history but perhaps don’t yet all have the experience to really grasp its horror and respect other visitors. One attractive and extremely silly young woman pressed her camera into her boyfriend’s hand and skipped in front of the execution wall where many, so many people were shot in order that he could ‘shoot’ her among the votive offerings and flowers.

The place is supposed to be silent but there are so many guides talking to so many groups that it isn’t. Even with the watchtowers and the fences there was a weird disjunction between the human scale and proportion of the buildings and the use to which they were put that made it hard to believe it was the place of which I had read. The ‘Arbeit macht frei’ archway seems too small for the horror it bears. It is only when one gets into the exhibitions inside the buildings and sees how they were used that the monstrosity of it all begins to weigh on you and it does heavily. We were there for hours and came out exhausted and starving. Strange to sit and eat hot dogs in the sun outside Auschwitz with such relish – glad its now and we’re alive. It feels important to make the pilgrimage to Auschwitz. It’s a necessary act of hope that such organised genocide may not happen again in quite this way. Genocide has happened again – and again since - but this methodical planning chills especially.

We drove the 3 kilometres to Birkenau. It is impossible to take in the scale of the atrocity of this place. It is a relief that it doesn’t remain as physically intact as Auschwitz does. The vastness of it meant we weren’t intruded on by other visitors and we could privately and quietly think our own thoughts. I was able to light my memorial light and leave it burning on the track together with a stone I brought from the pathway in the Jewish cemetery at Prague.

The time spent in Krakow, the Auschwitz Museum itself, gave me more understanding of and sympathy for Poland and the Polish. I had not realised how many Poles were systematically experimented on and murdered at Auschwitz before it was used for Jews, Roma, and others. Even the young thoughtless students made me realise how life went on around Auschwitz among a conquered people. It is just not possible to understand how the extermination camps could have happened.
I am glad we visited.