Europe 2019 - Day 27 (Part 2)

2 June 2019, Sunday 

We saw piles and piles of hair of women murdered in the gas chambers. The hair was sold by the SS as raw material for the German textile industry - to make fabric, mattress stuffing etc. Traces of hydrogen cyanide were found in the examined hair. I had to hold back my tears looking at the hair of millions of murdered women. Women who were just like me, with their own lives to live and tales to tell, and who perhaps had the same hopes and dreams as me, but never got the chance to even live.

We then visited 2 barracks in Auschwitz. The barracks were known as ‘Canada’ for 2 reasons - because that was a land of untold riches (I guess something to dream about when you are in this dire situation) and it is also an alliteration of a German word which means “no body here anymore” - because your body is completely destroyed in the crematorium. We saw some of the belongings of the victims which were plundered by the SS after they were killed, and which were found after the evacuation of the camp - everyday things such as spectacles, combs, shoes, clothes, pots and pans, crutches of invalids, briefcases, hand baskets, children’s shoes, shaving brushes, hair brushes and shoe polish. 

The sheer number of these everyday things were astounding. At one time, they belonged to real people with real lives. And now. And for what. It’s really heart breaking. Like I said, it’s really hard not to feel animosity towards the perpetrators even now, although all this took place a long time ago. 

Before going into Barrack No. 11, we first went to the courtyard between Barrack No. 11 and Barrack No. 10. From 1941-1943, the SS shot several thousand people at the wall in this courtyard - mostly Polish political prisoners and criminals, and included men, women and even children! The SS also administered brutal punishments here: flaggings, and a torture known as “the post”, in which prisoners had their hands tied behind their backs with rope or a chain that was then hung at a height making it impossible for their feet to touch the ground. The intense pain caused by the twisting of the shoulders sometimes caused the victims to pass out, and the ligaments in their shoulders were frequently torn. Prisoners injured in this way could be classified as unfit for labor and sent to the gas chamber. The punishment was administered for one to several hours.

Then into Barrack No. 11, which was also known as the “Death Block”. It’s main role was as the central camp jail, for both men and women suspected of involvement in clandestine activities such as attempting to escape, organising mutinies, maintaining contacts with the outside world and violating camp regulations - usually without the victims even knowing what they had done wrong because instructions were given to them in German and not all of them understood German. To extract information from these prisoners, the guards would hold inmates' heads against the stove, burning their faces and eyes. Some prisoners were made to spend the nights in standing cells measuring 1.5 m2, the cells held four men who could do nothing but stand, and who were forced the following day to work as usual. 

In the basement were the "dark cells", which had only a 5 x 5 cm opening and a solid door. Prisoners placed in these cells gradually suffocated as they ran out of oxygen; sometimes the SS lit a candle in the cell to use up the oxygen more quickly. Then there were starvation cells for those prisoners sentenced to death by starvation. From all of this, it’s clear that the SS were some sort of sadistic organisation, as they do not just kill, but torture and by the looks of it, enjoyed watching people suffer. 

The first gassing of prisoners took place here in September 1941, as an experiment in preparation for the mass murder of Jews. Most of those executed by gas poisoning here were Soviet POWs and Polish political prisoners. 

Then to Barrack No 10 where several hundred women prisoners, mainly Jewish, were held here and used as human guinea-pigs for sterilisation conducted by one Prof. Dr. Carl Clauberg, a German gynaecologist. Some died from the treatment they received, others were murdered so that autopsies could be carried out. Hitler with his propaganda of a superior race, wanted Germans to propagate. Twins and triplets were an obsession, and therefore a subject of meticulous medical experimentation by Dr. Josef Mengele, known as the ‘angel of death’.

We also saw the prisoners’ sleeping place, they slept crowded together on straw mattresses which they had to gather up and arrange in the corner of the room every morning. There were only public toilets and public trenches for washing or bathing. 

Then we went to another place of execution, this time by hanging - usually for those caught trying to escape or maintaining contacts with the outside world. Hangings were conducted in public, as a deterrent for those trying to escape. We also went to the location where the camp Gestapo was located. Prisoners suspected of involvement in the camp’s underground resistance movement or of preparing to escape were interrogated here. Many died as a result of being beaten or tortured. The first commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss, who was tried and sentenced to death after the war by the Polish Supreme National Tribunal, was hanged here on 16 April 1947. Serves him right. 

Then to the crematorium in Auschwitz. In 1941, the largest room (originally a morgue) was adapted for use as an improvised gas chamber. Many thousands of Jews were murdered here within hours of their arrival in Auschwitz, as were Soviet POWs and prisoners who were too sick to work. After the establishment in Birkenau of 2 more improvised gas chambers in 1942 primarily for the mass murder of the Jews, the gassings in Auschwitz were gradually stopped. 

Later, with the completion of 4 gas chambers together with crematoriums in Birkenau, the burning of corpses in Auschwitz were also stopped in July 1943. The building was subsequently used for storage, and then as an air-raid shelter for the SS. The incinerators, chimney, and some of the walls were dismantled, and the holes in the roof through which the SS had poured Zyklon B were sealed. The gas chamber and crematorium is now partially reconstructed using original components.