Auschwitz - Becca's perspective

January 10, 2010
Oswiecim, Poland

Wow. Today was yes, as Casie says, unimaginable. This is one of those times where you want to share an emotion or an experience, but don’t possibly see how words will accomplish that task.

Before we even got to the camp, I was having a bad day. My back and Poland do not agree with one another, and I’ve been feeling pretty badly the past day and a half. It was suggested that I miss today and rest, but how could I do that? How could I miss seeing this place that I have read about and studied for so many years, that frightens and horrifies me? The place that, if I had been there 70 years ago, would have told me to go directly to the gas chambers without giving my temperamental body the chance to work? The least I could do would be to go and honor and remember the men and women who were sentenced to an unjustified death, simply because I was able to do so.

There was an entire room devoted to the leg braces, artificial limbs, canes, any sign of handicap that the Jewish prisoners brought in with them to the camp. Anyone with a physical disability was immediately gassed. Today was another day that I didn’t feel the right to complain.

Casie covered some of the main points from the tour, but one of the most shocking things I heard today was that the Red Cross actually came and visited Auschwitz – but it was the more “tolerable” of the Auschwitz complex camps. It was kept moderately presentable just in case members of the international community came to visit. Birkenau, just down the road, was actually where the majority of the killing took place. But it was literally right down the road. The chimney stacks were high. The camp was expansive. How do you not know? Accounts from escapees were actually discredited in the U.S. because what they were describing was so unbelievable.

The snow. We trudged along in our huge coats and snow boots and gloves. The prisoners had none of that. They had wooden clogs to protect them from the snow. I can’t imagine. And our tour guide mentioned that today was not as cold as it would have been for the prisoners – global warming has made the average temperature increase dramatically in Poland. Hard to believe.

Overall, my word is unbelievable. The conditions, the thought process that led to such efficiency, the lack of knowledge or recognition of the horrendous killings, the list goes on. I am incredibly blessed to have seen what I did today. We cannot forget what happened to innocent people not so long ago.