Auschwitz-Birkenau

Hello everyone. I know its been about a month since I last wrote something here. I am sorry for my lack of updates. Hopefully I'll get better as time goes on. And I am still trying to figure out how to post pictures so you can see what is going on here in the Czech Republic. All in good time I hope. But I did want to talk a little about my recent trip to Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Krakow is only a couple hours away from my home in Ostrava, CZ and so some friends and I decided to drive there to see the lovely city and visit the concentration camp that is close by. Driving itself was an adventure (and another story for another time). The city of Krakow was beautiful and perfectly relaxing. My friends, Steph, Alyssa, and Anneka and I ran around the city taking pictures and popping our heads into various stores and coffee shops. It was nice not to have a plan or schedule of what to do when. Hence why the day was so relaxing.

Our only plan was to stop by Auschwitz-Birkenau on Sunday before driving home. As morbid as it sounds I have always wanted to visit a concentration camp. There is something about WWII that fascinates me. And as a student of history I believe it is something that I must do, especially since I live so close to it. So heading into the weekend I was unsure of how I would react when we got there. Would I bawl my eyes out? (I'm a rather emotional person so I expected a flood of tears) Would I throw my hands up in the air, disgusted and frustrated with the existence of evil in the world? Would my heart break inside of me, feeling the pain and anguish of those who had passed through the gates of the camps? What would I do and how would I feel? I just didn't know. But I expected tears and a heaviness of heart.

So when we arrived we joined an audio tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Auschwitz looked much prettier than I expected. The buildings were made of red brick and there were trees everywhere. I had expected more desolation and was surprised to see trees and such. Granted I still would not have wanted to live there...but it was nicer than I expected. We spent the better part of 2 hours walking around this camp and looking at the displays set up in the buildings (also called blocks). Auschwitz had been turned into a museum with a variety of displays, showing the history of the camp and those who were imprisoned there. I enjoyed hearing all the stories and thought the information was helpful. But I didn't get to process anything. We were rushed from exhibit to exhibit that nothing really sank in. The whole time I also kept thinking, "I've seen this before. Why is this so special." And I felt horrible for thinking that. It's just that I've been to Holocaust museums before and have studied atrocities in history and now I was walking through a place that FELT like a museum. I had to remind myself that it wasn't just a museum...this is where those atrocities ACTUALLY occurred. It was hard to make that sink in. I think the one moment that made everything hit home was when we went to the camp prison. Our guide was explaining that in the basement there were various types of cells in which to punish, torture, and kill prisoners. After walking through the building and seeing the cells and then walking to the back where guards would herd prisoners from this building outside to kill them I was speechless. Words really can't explain what and how I was feeling. Sometimes I think I still don't know what exactly I felt at that moment. The whole tour we heard so much information that it is still hard to make sense of it all.

After seeing that camp we got on a bus and drove to Birkenau which is only 1 kilometer away. Now Birkenau looked like what I expected a concentration camp to look like. Flat, muddy, no trees, and desolate. It was evening time so there was a thin mist that covered the camp. It just looked and felt completely desolate and had this eerie and foreboding feeling about it. It was really weird and rather surreal to be standing in the place where people were turned to the right and to the left-death or life (which was more like hell on earth). It was just really weird to be standing in a place where so much pain and suffering took place. And all I could think about was how we have not evolved that much over the past 65 years. Sure nothing to the extent of the Holocaust has happened since then, but people are still murdered, brutalized, raped, and tortured all over the world. The pain and suffering that is so prevalent in the concentration camps and gulags of the past exist all over the world. And really, why do I need to go to a concentration camp to see the reality of evil, pain and suffering when all I really have to do is look in front of me? Don't get me wrong here...I think it is important to see these places so we always remember the past. I just wonder why we tend to create a chasm between the past and the present and concentrate so much of the suffering of the past when it exists right in front of our faces.

So I'm not sure what I expected to learn by going to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and I am not sure if I learned anything. But I hope it has made me more aware of the present. And really this is why I chose to study history...to understand where we are today and how to prevent making the same mistakes all over again. So history is really all about the future. But what does that mean for the present?

So those are my random thoughts about my trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I don't promise to have any answers, nor do I always need them. Sometimes the journey is the questions.

PS...if you want more information about Auschwitz-Birkenau my friend Alyssa found some guys blog about the camps. It is really informative and explains more about what is at the camps-the exhibits and stuff. Here is the website to his blog:

http://scotteurope2009.travellerspoint.com/8/