My Journey to Auschwitz (part 1) (10 pics)

[Behind the Aegis]

While in Poland, we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau (I will have a separate thread for those). We drove to Oświęcim, Poland from Krakow, about an hour drive. Along the way, I saw some beautiful countryside, but about 30 minutes outside of Oświęcim, I started to see the railroad tracks along the route. That was very disturbing, especially as a gay Jew. These aren't some of the best pictures, but they, IMO, convey something powerful.


The infamous Gate. The slogan, "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Will Make You Free&quot , was on the entrances of all three concentration camps I toured.






Memorial urn of the Ashes of Millions


A picture of a picture, but I couldn't stop looking at that boy looking at me.


A replica model of the bodies in the crematorium awaiting burning


Tallitot (prayer shawls) of Jewish victims


The luggage they were instructed to carry to be "relocated".


Children's shoes


A little girl's shoe

[samnsara]

1. The Holocaust Museum in DC has much the same effect...

..When I visited it was winter...cold..so I had on a 1940s style (faux) fur coat with the padded shoulders and all. I carried a purse that looked like a brief case and when I saw the exhibit with the actual train car that carried victims to the prison... I got a real chill.

They have a stack of eye glasses... and the eye chart hitler used to distinguish the pure blooded, blond, blue eyed Aryans from the rest of the victims (TRUMP IS USING THIS SAME CRITERIA!)

[Behind the Aegis]

3. I have yet to go there.

My husband I have plans to go...maybe this summer. We also are planning a trip to Israel (well, a Mediterranean cruise) and we would see the one in Israel.

The room which was the worst for me was the one with the mounds of human hair (we weren't allowed to take photos). I saw a few people finally break when they passed the room of children's shoes.

If you haven't read it, I posted an editorial (elleng posted it originally in the Jewish Group) titled: A Modest Immigration Proposal: Ban Jews. It is worth the read and speaks to your point about "racial purity", then and now.

[Mira]

2. This makes me so crazy,

as you might notice on some of my other responses, that I did not notice you had a whole number of threads on these places. I'm now finding this one, and saw there is yet another.
I am very glad you are posting and showing these. There are never enough reminders of "Never again". Especially now.
The photo of "Arbeit macht frei" is very good and tears at me like all the others. I recently saw the short series "Auschwitz" on Netflix. I recommend it.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. It was surreal to pass under that gate.

I don't know how to explain it. It was just...I don't know. I don't know how to describe how I felt then, or even now in remembering it.

[Mira]

5. Thank you my friend

for all your sensitive and understanding words about my emotional outpourings when I saw the photos. It only touches the tip of a huge iceberg of personal knowledge, history and experience, and I wish we could sit down and talk about it.
Have you seen the film: "The boy in the striped pajamas"? I only saw it recently and it is haunting me. Or the Oscar winning "Life is Beautiful". Of course there are others. The infamous 12 years in German history are, I learned recently, the most examined and written about years in history. Yet, to me, it's not yet enough since I am every now and then running into Americans who have never heard about it. I just this week started reading: "Roosevelt and the Holocaust". One of my favorite movies, period, is "The Comedian Harmonists". My Dad loved them so much and kept playing their songs.
I honestly cannot imagine walking under that sign. I truly cannot. But maybe I will anyway and think of your words about my photos, they warmed my heart.

In the spring I am going to take an extensive trip starting in Berlin - through Prague - to Belgrade and Budapest - Vienna and Munich.
I may take some detours......