The Holocaust

The main gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a symbol of the holocaust.

On a recent visit to the city of Krakow in Poland I visited the sites of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz I is the smaller of the two and was a former Polish army barracks that was turned into a concentration camp. Auschwitz I is still largely intact and is now a holocaust museum with a much more personal touch, as it shows photos of inmates and their belongings. Auschwitz-Birkenau however is little more than a site and has a much less emotive atmosphere, maybe they are trying to let the place speak for itself.

Auschwitz II was an extermination camp that ran from 1941-1945.

"Work makes [you] free" the infamous slogan above the
gate of Auschwitz I.

During the tour of Auschwitz I, the thing that most affect me was the mountains of hair that was shaved off the inmates upon arrival, the museum had collected the hair from some 40,000 prisoners. 

In Auschwitz I, I was given the opportunity to walk through one of the only remaining gas chamber and crematoriums, it was a surreal experience to stand in a room where so many people's lives were stolen from them, I felt like I had been alienated from humanity. 

One thing I think is important from the experience came from the attitudes of some of my fellow visitors; they seemed to think that the holocaust was a blip, an isolated incident in humanities otherwise untainted history. They seemed unaware of the crimes committed in the Stalinist era, such as the great purge and gulags, the great Chinese famine caused by Mao Zedong, the death camps created by European settlers prior to the 20^th century or the concentration camps active today in North Korea; the genocides of Cambodia or Rwanda. The holocaust was not the result of a few evil or mad men; it came about as a result of a small group of ordinary people having too much power. This is what happens when men try to become gods.

Something that has changed since my return is that I am seeing the world in colour for the first time; life seems more real, little things in everyday existence have genuine significance. I am unsure whether this effect came as a result of the visit to Auschwitz, meeting a holocaust survivor, or the trip as a whole. In any case it has gone some way to showing me that ordinary life has genuine value and that people should show love to those closest to them as one day it might just turn to ashes.

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed… Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” – Elie Wiesel Night