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We got on the bus for the 1 ½ drive to Auschwitz-Birkenhau.  We are lucky to have tickets. Someone at Rick Steves headquarters has to wake up in the middle of the night to secure a limited number of tickets when they become available.   It takes tremendous organization and planning to accomplish this.  Thank you to the Rick Steves team for making this day happen.

 

Auschwitz is an educational center, first and foremost.  Commercial tours are secondary to school groups.   We had a 3 pm slot.  Our names are on the ticket and we must show our passports.  This is to prevent ticket re sellers commercializing  Auschwitz.   Our guide, an Auschwitz docent, greeted us.  We began our tour by passing under the original gate with the “work is freedom” arch.    We walked on original, broken up, choppy, pavement.  We saw the original brick barracks.  Auschwitz was a Polish military base that the Nazi’s took over.  Our 1st stop was an exhibition hall where enlarged photos taken by the SS documenting Jewish arrivals, selection, march of death, imprisonment. 

 

We walked past these blown up pictures of priests, scholars, gays, gypsies, seniors and children on their way to the gas chamber.   It was powerfully sad.  To think we are seeing their final moments.  These were the last pictures of their existence on earth.   According to our docent, the  photos were found by a liberated Jewish girl who was looking for food in the camp.   Apparently an SS compiled pictures and had them organized in a book.  The Nazi's documented everything, but tried to destroy evidence of their crimes when the Soviets were approaching Auschwitz.  

 

We were guided through the barracks turned exhibition halls.  It was absolutely horrifying to see what was taken from the Jews and other prisoners.   The Jews were stripped of their possessions upon arrival.  The Jews deemed unable to work (mainly seniors, children and handicapped) were sent to gas chambers during what was called the "selection." They were murdered within a short time after arriving to the camp.

 

We walked through the barracks where terrible expirements and punishments were carried out.  There was a hall of photos-like mug shots- documenting the prisoner, date of arrival, date of death, occupation.  The time between arriving to the camp and death was not long.  Prisoners at Auschwitz Birkenau were subjected to physical and psychological horrors on a daily basis.  

   

We experienced walking into the only remaining gas chamber at Auschwitz.   Chilling.  Unimaginable horror.  

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We then went to Birkenhau, about a 10 minute drive from Auschwitz.  We walked the long gravel “train platform.”  At the end of this platform is the rubble of a gas chamber where those who were "selected" were sent upon arrival.   Walking on the same path as these poor souls, I thought about them and what they must have been going through as they had walked along very same gravel we were now walking on.   The  Nazi’s blew up the gas chambers to hide evidence once they knew the Soviets were bearing down on them.    We experienced walking into the barracks and latrine where prisoners had no privacy, dignity or comforts.  The resilience of those who survived this awful place is truly amazing.    

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We got back to the hotel at 8:30.  A long day.   It was hard to sleep this evening after experiencing Auschwitz Birkenau.  Out of respect for the Jews who perished, it didn't feel right to take pictures of much of what we saw.  There are bookstores at Auschwitz and Birkenau where respectful educational guides and material are sold in many different languages.