Tuesday, March 17, 2015

"You, to the left" - Fred Carter, Jr.

The last two days have been exhausting, emotional, depressing, heart-breaking, unbelievable, and like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Yesterday, I walked the grounds and building of Auschwitz I. At this site you will find the iconic iron sign that read “Arbiet Macht Frei  (Work Sets You Free).  That sign, just one among many lies told to over one million Jew, Polish political prisoners, gypsies (Roma), intellectuals, and clergy.  As I prepared myself to walk beneath that sign I thought about the people who never crossed that mark, not because they were saved, but because they were killed immediately upon arriving at the camp. At the main gate, guards employed by the Shutzstaffel (commonly known as The “SS”) would pick out individuals who would live no longer than 20 minutes.  These “selections” were made upon the arrival of the cattle cars transporting these prisoners who were to be interned and used as forced labor. SS guards would select those who would be unfit to work in the camps. Among those selected were the elderly, children under the age of 14, individuals with disabilities, pregnant women, and anyone who may have annoyed the SS guards throughout the process. After their selection they were told they were going to shower. Upon arriving at an underground hut, they were instructed to strip and to remember where they placed their belongings. They were walked into a large cement room fitted with showerheads. After 700 or so people had gathered the doors were sealed. From about it would rain. Not water, but small white pebbles of hydrocyanide. This chemical, Zyklon B, entered the chamber activated not by water, but from the collective body heat of the people trapped inside. The lucky ones were those who were close the hole from which the Zklyon B fell as they would die in 2-3 minutes. Those farther away and closer to the walls could suffer, suffocating for more that 20 minutes. According to recovered Nazi records, the chamber was ventilated and doors would be opened after 30 minutes. Then, a special group called the Sonnderkommando. This detail was responsible for emptying the chambers, shaving the bodies, searching them for valuables, pulling any gold teeth and then burning the bodies in the crematorium located in the next room.  This group was comprised of only Jews. The reason for this was because the only intention the Nazis had for Jewish prisoners was to kill them. As the work would involve witnessing the crimes, they would need to be killed. They were used because they were going to die anyway. The detail would be killed and replaced every 5-6 weeks. Experienced members may have made it 5-6 months…until others gained the experience. This was amongst the worse of the jobs at the camp, watching others die then having to dispose of the bodies…then killed a few weeks later.

            It can be argued that those who weren’t “selected” were the unlucky ones, unlucky because they didn’t face a fast and certain death. Instead, they were on their way to starvation, brutality, unsanitary living conditions, and forced labor. The Jewish prisoner were told that they shouldn’t expect to live longer than 2 weeks. For many it only took two weeks to meet their death for others it took as long as 5 years.

            As dramatic as it sounds, I have to stop there. Though I’ve assembled the above paragraphs, I remain unable to fully describe my experience there.


 Elie Wiesel, a survivor and author of Night took a 10-year vow not to speak or write about his experience in the camp. After seeing only the remnants, I can understand why.

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