This is a post I have been putting off because I want it to be just right. How do you write a travel blog post talking about visiting Auschwitz, without glorifying it? I think it is important to bring awareness to such a horrible place with a tragic past, because it was life changing. The Holocaust was sad. And while we hope that we learn from the bad things that happened in the past, not everyone does. Its easy to look back and know what happened and where things went wrong, but sometimes you can’t pick out what is happening when it is. This was Nazi Germany and as an American, I think there is a lot we can tie into our country today. That is why a post like this is important. It is about building empathy. The Jewish people were the others in Germany. They were deported and sent to camps that most people did not know the details of. Please just let that sink in for a moment. Now lets talk about the tragedy that was the Holocaust.
The Holocaust is something I have been interested in learning about since 6th grade when our class movies became class documentaries. I chose the group that did the project on Anne Frank. It is a lot for a 12 year old to really grasp, but I still could empathize and put myself in the shoes of another young teenage girl. I remember how sad I was when I discovered that only her father Otto made it out of the concentration camp alive. Then it makes you think. How did this happen? To a kid its facts of history, but also as a kid you can’t see those things that make people different. Why would Jewish people be forced from their homes and even killed for their beliefs? As you get older you understand the world is complicated and there are just really bad people. I will always remember getting a little teary eyed at the end of our documentary when you find out Anne Frank died and all you hear is dripping in the background as the video zooms out on the picture of the concentration camp.
At 15 years old (I know still really young), I got to visit Auschwitz. In the 8 years since I have learned so much more about the Holocaust and my empathy has only increased. I could barely finish Life is Beautiful a couple months ago because I was bawling so hard. I believe this is because I had the experience of seeing Auschwitz. Now I don’t ever want to glamorize visiting a place like Auschwitz. This is purely an educational experience and it should be treated as such. So please do not take me writing about it to mean it is equal to my other travels. I encourage you to visit, because you have a lot to gain from it and we should honor those who died to such a cruel cause.
Before I discuss my day at Auschwitz I just want to say that this is a very serious topic. I treated the camp with the utmost respect to those who died. I have minimal pictures, because it did not feel right. I hope others will treat this experience the same way.
Now our day started very early. This stop was in the middle of our travel day from Prague to Krakow. On the bus ride we watched Schindlers List in anticipation of our stop. I had never seen the movie before. I just remember feeling confused and thinking it was very intense. Its still a heavy subject for a 15 year old to grasp. I just know I felt sad.
We arrived at the camp with the solemn mood that stuck through the entirety of the day. If you are unfamiliar with Auschwitz-Birkenau, it was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. It is actually two camps which you will see me explain. The Nazis had other concentration camps but the reality is what you see in movie or hear about these camps is most likely a reflection of Auschwitz in Poland. Over a million people died in this camp either through extermination or labor. Now the site serves a memorial to these people, an educational center where people can learn about the holocaust, and a reminder to never let this happen again.
We began our tour in the Auschwitz portion which was still pretty intact. The first stop was an actual gas chamber and crematorium. I think I was too young to understand what it mean for me to be here, because while I knew how to respect the area (I didn’t speak at all), I wasn’t feeling nearly the same amount of emotions as my mom. That’s the interesting thing about empathy. It just grows the older you get with more travel and experiences. I did have empathy, but just not to the all consuming level I have now, which I think is what my mom was experiencing. I also think some part of me was in shock and couldn’t really comprehend the impact of this place and what it did. I was looking at the actual crematorium where they put dead bodies to be burned. What does a teenager do with that?
After the gas chambers we walked through the exhibits in the surrounding buildings. This is the part that got me, because we were actually looking at the physical remains of the camps. There were piles of hairbrushes, shoes, and other personal belongings from the men, women, and children in the camp. The breaking point was the pile of hair shaved off the heads of the women entering the camp. It just sat in a huge mound along the whole length of one of the buildings, at least that is how I remembered it.
After roaming through the exhibits we got back in our bus to see the Birkenau portion of the concentration camp which felt to be three times the size of Auschwitz. We started at one end where the gas chambers WOULD have been. The gas chambers and crematorium were destroyed under the orders of Himmler when it became clear that the Nazis were going to lose the war. From here our guide took us into one of the many buildings that would have been used as the barracks for the Jewish people in the camp. It was insane because each building housed 600 people, which meant about 4 people slept in a bed.
This part of the day in Birkenau is really hard to describe because I had so many conflicting feelings. It’s interesting because I did a terrible job as a 15 year old journaling this experience, but I remember to this day some of my thoughts so clearly. The landscape around Birkenau was beautiful. It was absolutely gorgeous with the green hills, the bright blue sky, and the sun shining down on us. You would think such a solemn experience would be met with a gloomy day, but there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I remember just looking up and thinking how the sky seemed bluer than at home. But why was this the time I noticed this? Why was I admiring the beauty of Poland from a concentration camp? How could something so horrid happen somewhere so beautiful?
I think there are a few responses to these questions. One is that being here is a reminder of how precious life is. You can never take for granted the gift of life that you have. Another is that it is a reminder how lucky I am to not only be alive but with the ability to travel to Europe and learn about such a huge part of history first hand. Its one of those moments I talk about so much in my travels where I have this overwhelming experience that I am doing something that no one will understand. In this case it was that I am experiencing something that would make me a more empathetic and understanding person who can put things in perspective and think critically about what is happening. I can’t say it was the same for every student on this trip. You can only become as open as you will let yourself be and you can only have your life changed as much as you will let it be.
As for the question about something happening somewhere so beautiful. I think this is a reminder that bad things can happen anywhere. There are bad people everywhere. Something like this could happen just as easily back home in the United States if people let it.
That is why we need to visit places like Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is not to glamorize dark times in history with travel, but to remember what a gift it is for us to be alive and to be born into a time and a place where we have to ability to live out life fully and we should do it meaningfully. It it to plant a seed of change as well so that we recognize the signs and don’t let it happen again. Its easy to focus on what makes us all different, but we all have one big similarity and that is that we are all just people. Something like this should never have happened and it even more so should never happen again knowing what we know now from the Holocaust. We have the power to do that if we just allow ourselves to empathize with people. This is areminder that we are responsible for instilling change.
Thanks you for reading my reflection on visiting Auschwitz. I know its a hefty subject but by talking about it we create dialogue to remember the victims and stop this from happening to other groups.
If you are interested in learning more about the Holocaust you can visit the website for Auschwitz-Birkenau or the website for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I also recommend the books The Diary of Anne Frank and Number the Stars. There are also many great movies depicting the life of the Jewish people during the holocaust like Schindler’s List, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and Life is Beautiful. Its important that we share the stories of those that died. Their lives mattered.
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