Rainy and depressing day. Good day to visit Auschwitz.
Our driver picked us up from our apartment right on time at 5:50 am. About a 70 min drive to the museum. The death camp of Auschwitz became a museum in 1947.
The Germans renamed cities and streets in Poland in preparation for creating cities for themselves. Oswiecim was renamed Auschwitz and Brzezinka was renamed Birkenau. Auschwitz because so efficient at killing people that a second, much larger camp was needed. Birkenau or Auschwitz 2 was built a few miles away.
If you look up National Socialism in wikipedia, you will see that they list it as a “far-right” ideology. “Far-Right” because Communism was considered “Far-Left”. Whether it is National Socialism or Democratic Socialism, I find socialism of any kind to be far left. This museum is an example of what socialism always leads to. We found that out during the pandemic. Neighbor turning on neighbor. Government shutdown of businesses. All justified by the ideology that some people are better than others. When I first learned about what happened here I was in elementary school. This was a far away place. Normal people could never do something like this. I realize now that this could easily happen here.
I’m guessing he felt that the front of his head wasn’t worth looking at.
“Arbeit macht frei” – German for “Work makes you free” . Only death did that here.
Auschwitz was originally built as a Polish military camp. The brick buildings looked nicer than I imagined they would. It was Birkenau that contained the wooden barracks that I remember from the movies. Our guide said that 90% of the original records of what happened here during the war were destroyed during the war as a way to try to hide what they did here. I’m not sure why. The Nazi’s seemed quite proud of what they did during the Nuremberg trials after the war. The gas chambers and crematoria were all blown up. One remained in Birkenau.
Rudolf Hess was hung here after the war.
Waiting for the “Doctor” to come and do the selection of who went directly to the gas chamber and who would be spared to work. I imagine the conversation between the two SS officers went something like this “Karl, did your wife and kids enjoy the dinner and show in town last night?” “We did but Gertrud felt ill and we left early”.
Auschwitz was the largest of the extermination camps. 1.1 million were murdered here.