“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Hello everyone from the routine. September has arrived and another summer has slipped through our fingers. To be honest, I'm starting the routine with strength and above all, with motivation. During these past two months, I have achieved and fulfilled plans that I had on my mind for a long time; and you don't know how good it feels when things go as you propose 🙂 Apart from that, my summer has been quiet and very good to continue taking steps and focus now on my new stage. Krakow is slowly becoming a thing of the past, but with new plans to return ASAP (As soon as possible). Because as Beret would say, "To the place where you were so happy you will always return".
Today I am writing to you on a somewhat delicate subject. No matter how many years, months or days have passed since you visited Auschwitz, what you see there and what you feel there, you will never forget.
I know that for some of you a visit to this "place" is probably a strange choice, one that would never be part of your plans. Although I knew it would be uncomfortable and bitter to set foot there, it was also important for me to observe the place that had such a significant impact on our history.
1 million is a number that at first glance is big, has many zeros, is easy to pronounce... But when behind that number there is a life, a person, a family and a lot of suffering, that number ends up becoming more than just a number.
I do not want to, nor do I intend to, enter into political, religious or ideological issues. I want to talk about people, about women and men and about what human beings can do.
It is curious how what outside looks like the entrance to any housing estate, takes "shape" as the visit progresses and turns into a hell that stayed on earth.
Many may go there to boast of having been in the most famous concentration camp in history, others to upload a selfie on Facebook on those famous train tracks, or others to pass through the gas chamber like Peter in his house (sorry for the crudeness, but I assure you that in many cases this is the case), but many others have been able to imagine and feel there, a tiny part of the horror that more than a million people lived there just 72 years ago.
Wearing headphones to listen to the guide, seeing the other groups entering other barracks, cameras shooting like crazy and a down coat to keep you warm in the freezing cold of Poland, makes the visit just that: a visit.
However, the second time I went to Auschwitz, since I knew the guidebook almost by heart, I made an experiment. When I left the main gate with its hidden message behind me and found myself in the middle of two barracks, I took off my headphones. Nothing could be heard. An immense silence covered the entire concentration camp. Only the footsteps of tourists could be heard in the distance. It was terrifying. It was there, when, despite all those things that made it a "visit", I understood, a little more, what it meant to step on that ground. The same ground that had been trodden by women and children who are no longer there. On which thousands of men had crawled and on which they had died for the simple fact of being something that, at times, they did not even choose.
Earlier this year marked 72 years since the liberation of the camp, the liberation from that hell that lived to kill. 72 years of the nightmare from which many have not been able to wake up.
As the poet and philosopher Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana said: "He who does not remember history is condemned to live it again". May we not forget and may we not have to live through anything similar.
Already the sign at the entrance sends shivers down the spine. Arbeit macht frei, "Work will set you free".
This is the main gate of the camp, where each and every one of the victims passed through. Prisoners were tricked and forced into the camp thinking they were going to labour camps, but in reality this was a camp designed for mass extermination. Less than 10% who walked through these gates managed to survive.
The entire camp was surrounded by gates and double barbed wire with electrified fences. Added to that were numerous armed guards and dogs trained to attack should anyone try to escape.
This is one of the barracks, still standing. More than 1,000 prisoners were held in a single barracks.
From the barracks windows, all you could see were the gates, fences and watchtowers where soldiers sat with machine guns waiting to shoot anyone who stepped out of line.
Fear was everywhere.
This is a courtyard between two barracks. If you look closely you can see how the windows of these barracks are boarded up. The soldiers didn't want the prisoners to see what was going on in this courtyard. This wall is where mass executions were carried out.
Inside the barracks, there is a memorial to all the personal belongings stolen from the victims. There were piles of thousands of shoes, suitcases, glasses, hairbrushes, household items, toys, even human hair that had been cut by the Nazis before the executions and collected. It was one of the most shocking moments. I could hear the cries and weeping of people breaking down as they saw the harsh reality in front of our eyes.
Next, there were the gas chambers. The ovens are still there almost intact; this was the actual room. The prisoners were given a bar of soap, a towel, and ordered to take a shower. But in reality, cyanide was what came out through these roof windows. Another striking thing about this visit is the immense number of scratches that can still be seen on the walls.
As time passed, the Nazis realised that Auschwitz was not large enough to hold all the prisoners, so they decided to create a second camp, Birkenau.
They built a railway track running directly into the centre of the camp for faster deportation of the Jews.
If you were standing shoulder to shoulder in a normal sized wagon, maybe 20 people could fit in. The Nazis crammed a minimum of 80 people into these wagons. They were held on these trains many times for more than a week while they were transported to Birkenau. They had no access to food, water, or toilets during the journey. Most did not even survive the journey to the camp.
Birkenau had a great impact on me. Also, the first time I went, apart from the bone-chilling cold, it got dark early and there were hardly any people there. The immensity of the camp is striking. Although most of the barracks were destroyed, you can see where they were.
Before their escape, the Nazis destroyed the crematorium in an attempt to hide their crimes.
Each bunk bed is the size of an 80 metre bed. So two people could fit on each level. But no. A minimum of eight people were crammed into each tier.
When the noché fell, no one was left in Birkenau. The silence managed to create an emptiness and anguish in me that I have rarely experienced. After walking through most of the vast camp, we decided to head back to Kraków, have dinner to unwind and meditate some more on the experience we had had that day.
I often look for memoirs and survival stories from World War II. If you are looking for more information about Auschwitz, Birkenau, and the War from a first-hand account, here are three of my favourite memoirs:
The hiding place
Two sisters in Auschwitz
Uninterrupted - Not about Auschwitz, but an amazing story of the survival of World War II.
If you have other recommendations for me, I would love to hear them. You can recommend them to me in the comments below or via my email: patriciaalvaro7@gmail.com
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If you have come this far, thank you very much for reading me.
It was a very hard time in our history, but I think it is also important that we are aware of it and do not forget it.
See you next time!
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"We live to prevent the horror from happening again" - Auschwitz camp survivors
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