6 July Auschwitz II -Birkenau

We had lunch at Birkenau in the spring of 1989. The Triumph of the Spirit the story of the Greek boxer Salamo Arouch, was filmed at Birkenau. Students and friends of ours from the Jagiellonian University were hired as translators and they invited us to come out for lunch. 

We did--it was a surreal experience as actors were in the striped pajama uniforms of prisoners. There  was a train on the train tracks. And the crematoriam had been rebuilt, or at least the front facade. In the story, it is blown up.

The caterers were Israeli and used a Barrack for lunch which was pasta and green salad-- one of the very few green salads we had that year.

The caterers burned six small candles every day for the six million killed in the Holocaust.

   

Construction for Birkenau began in 1941 for the overflow in Auschwitz but was repurposed as a death camp--The Final Solution for the Jews and the largest extermination camp. There were four crematoriums here.

Birkenau is a huge space with much to see.

We began by walking up to the top of the observatory,

And a bird's eye view. The Nazi's tried to destroy as much evidence as possible before the Soviets came and much was burned. You can see the outline of burned barracks.

We looked down over the tracks where the train brought the prisoners. There is a train car on the right.

We walked through some barracks. This was the latrine, a good place to work as it was inside and out of the elements.

We saw where prisoners slept.

We walked along the tracks

We walked by the train car, the kind that carried prisoners into the camp. This one has all its flat surfaces covered with stones and small Israeli flags.

We continued to walk toward the Memorial.

The Memorial is massive,

Marking the largest cemetery in the world.

The countries of the dead  are represented by the plaques.

We looked at the plan of Crematorium III

And the ruins.

We looked toward Crematorium IV which was destroyed in part by the 12th Sonderkommando

Revolt, 7 October 1944. The women's resistance smuggled the gun powder which made this revolt possible. Roza Roboth is one woman remembered for this heroic action.

We walked through some beautiful woods and I recorded the sweet birdsong but can't figure out how to get it onto blog. 

And through a restoration that explains how the Crematoriums worked.

And this last exhibit showed photographs of people, and the rich lives all destoyed here. 

And remembering the million children who lost their lives.

Their photographs....

I took this photo of a family history because it mentions an Eli Aron who survived. We wonder if he is related to our friend Elijah Aron.