 Close to HellAuschwitz is the concentration- and holocaust camp which most of the people on earth have heard about. It was used between 1939 and 1945, during the Second World War. Auschwitz is split in two parts, Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2/ Birkenau and the camps are situated in the southern part of Poland, near Craców. These were two camps where Hitler and his army tried to exterminate the Jewish people and others, that didn't "fit in" in their society, the Third Reich. How can some people deny that these terrible things have happened not too long ago? We promise that a visit to Auschwitz will show the complete opposite.Why?We are four students who are involved in an international study group here at Parkskolan. We recived an invitation to Poland by an organisation called "Life Link" this winter and the trip included a visit to Auschwitz. That is the reason why we now can write this article.
The arrivalWe arrived to Auschwitz on the 25th of April 1998 with our Polish friends and our form teacher, Staffan Hagström. We started with watching a film which concluded the liberation in 1945. The film showed us a lot of terrible things, and the reactions from the audience were very different, many of us were moved to tears. After that, we stepped out to the sign " Arbeit macht frei ", which is the main entry to the big camp. Auschwitz was "cleaner" than we had expected it to be. There were a lot of brick buildings, with different terrible things inside the doors. The buildings showed us, for example, how they lived, the sanitary and the execution methods. In one building there were different things that had belonged to the prisoners. A lot of things were saved and the most horrible thing to see was the human hair. We were very touched and the tears wouldn't stop streaming.The death wall
Between two buildings you can find a big wall which is called the " death wall ".
This was the place where they executed people by shooting them.
The windows of the houses next to this wall were covered so the others wouldn't see what was going on.
It was very hard to imagine that this was a place where the nazis cold-bloodly had murdered innocent people.
Is there any way out?There was a high fence with 10 000V which surrounded the huge area. Anyone who touched it died directly. Many people committed suicide against this fence. We could also see a sign with a death's-head which said : " Halt! / Stój! ". We walked along the road where the prisoners had to stand during the selections and for counting.
The final stationOur next stop was the gas chamber and the crematorium. All we could see from the outside was a big green hill and a high chimney. A few seconds later we were in the gas chamber, a very dark room and there were big holes in the roof, where the gas came in. The prisoners' fear was stuck inside the walls, it was as if we heard their despair when they were climbing for fresh air. The room next to the chamber was the crematorium with four owens, where the nazis burned bodies. We could almost feel the horrible smell of burned human beings. Our feelings when we came out were relief and sadness, the tears started to stream without an ending.
Auschwitz 2/ BirkenauThree kilometres from Auschwitz 1 is Birkenau (Auschwitz 2). As far as we could see there were a lot of tree barns, but many of them were burned down by the soldiers just before the end of the Second World War. The so called houses had very thin walls (about 2,5 cm) and in the winter it must have been freezing. All you could find inside was a big chimney and reminders of their "beds", in which about ten persons had been sleeping.
Auschwitz was terrible, but Birkenau must have been a real hell. For example, in Auschwitz 1 the toilets were made by porcelain and they could flush them. In Birkenau there were just some holes in a row, (about 50). It was really unhygenic, just like everything else there. As we drew away from Birkenau we saw the wellknown railway disappearing out on the big field, where many innocent people had been forced to their deaths... Our experience from Auschwitz/ Birkenau have touched us deeply. How could they? We think that everybody should see it, but we'll never return there. Once is enough....
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