Lessons from Auschwitz
Having just stepped off the plane to be
greeted by a bleak Poland, Rose and I began
to question why we had signed up for such an
unusual day. We had woken up at two am to
visit the most notorious industrialised killing
machine in Europe whilst the rest of our
friends would be attending school in a few
hours. On the 4th February this year we
visited Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of the
Lessons from Auschwitz program ran by the
Holocaust Educational Trust. Such an eye
opening and emotive experience is worthy of
reflection, in order to commemorate the 1.1
million lives that were lost there. If we were
each to hold a minute of silence for every
individual holocaust victim, the world would
remain silent for 11 and a half years.
Neither of us knew what to expect from our
trip; visiting a historical sight of such evil and
suffering is something you can never truly
prepare for. To help us with this, we attended
a seminar in London almost a week before our
flight. Here we met our group and began by
identifying any moral concerns regarding our
conscious decision to visit a concentration
camp. Surprisingly, our group found it almost
impossible to define the Holocaust. It is a
word thrown around with little clarification
that we have lost sight of its true meaning.
Does it concern the genocide of six million
Jews or all of the groups that the Nazis sought
to persecute? To make it more confusing, key
organisations such as The Imperial War
Museum and Yad vashem (Jerusalem, Israel)
have published conflicting definitions. Others
prefer to use the word Shoah, the Hebrew
word for ‘catastrophe’. One thing we could
agree on is that Jewish people were the only
group that Nazis intended to wipe out
completely – Hitler’s 'final solution'.
Auschwitz (and five other camps situated in
Poland) were the result of such discrimination
and assisted Hitler in achieving his last resort.
Another topic of discussion was the ethics
behind visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. Is it
morally right for us to visit a place where so
many lost their lives while we have the luxury
of returning to our homes on the same day?
The last thing that the victims did before
boarding a cramped cattle 'train' was lock
their door. They brought their keys with them
convinced that they would need them to reenter their house. The Nazis’ plan was so
elaborate in staging their departure as part of
being resettled. They went to the extents of
making the boarders label their luggage with
the purpose of being reunited with their
belongings. This never happened. Another
area of debate was whether there is a 'right'
way to visit Auschwitz. Our group was
presented with a legitimate advert from stag
and hen weekend organisers Last Night of
Freedom. They offered an "Auschwitz
Experience", available with a complementary
bar crawl and clubbing. We were shocked and
found it highly inappropriate. We argued that
a thought-provoking and commemorating
tour did not fit in with the overall itinerary of
celebration and drinking. More importantly it
was incorrectly advertised as an "Auschwitz
Experience". You do not share the experience
of the victims. You are not sent to the left or
to the right, marched to a gas chamber or
sent to an exhausting, laborious death, based
on a brief visual observation. Despite feeling
cold, fatigued and deeply emotional, we came
nowhere close to sharing the experience of
those in the same camp 70 years previous to
us. We began to even question whether, as
students with innocent intentions, we should
visit Auschwitz. It certainly wasn't the
ordinary activity of someone our age and
seemed deeply odd to visit a place of mass
extermination. How should we behave? We
were told to expect to see individuals
indulging in the 21st century craze of the
‘selfie’ on the grounds of Auschwitz. This
seemed out of place when we were even
contemplating not taking educational photos,
despite having permission to do so.
We finally discussed the proposed
refurbishments of Auschwitz-Birkenau. From
2007 onwards, Auschwitz has had an influx of
visitors - over 1.2 million people visit in just a
year. When we compare this to the 1.1 million
that were killed there over four years, we can
understand why many features of the camp
are deteriorating. Should, take for example,
the stairs be replaced or are we then no
longer visiting the same concentration camp
that the victims did? Like most controversial
matters, there is no wrong and right answer
but it certainly left us with a lot to think
about.
Our favourite part of the seminar was the talk
from Holocaust survivor, Zigi Shipper, whose
biographical overview can be found on the
Holocaust Educational Trust website. His story
was deeply touching and made us reconsider
our current perspective on life. We have so
much to thank the troops liberating both the
camps and Europe for, for the freedom of
thought and expression we are entitled to
today. What resonated with us the most was
the moral meaning behind Zigi's talk. Not one
hint of anger, hatred or revenge could be
found in his words. Instead he was a very
humorous 86 year old who had his audience
in stiches when giving his opinion on Trump. It
was so inspiring to see a man who suffered to
use that same experience to preach
forgiveness and toleration.
Our visit to Auschwitz met many of its
stereotypes; indeed it was eery, isolated and
freezing. The main purpose, we felt, for the
tour around Auschwitz I was to rehumanise
every single victim. It is now our responsibility
to restore their individuality and recognise the
people that were lost. In order to achieve this,
we saw a number of exhibitions. Many of
these involved glasses boxes containing the
possessions of individuals. Different boxes
held items such as suitcases, glasses, shoes
and more disturbingly hair. Little girls’ blonde
plaits could be found amongst this,
highlighting that even the youngest of
children were put to their death without
mercy. Another humanising aspect of the tour
was a narrow corridor full of mug shots of the
earliest detainees. Either side of the walls
were portraits and portraits of prisoners.
Despite varying in gender and age they all
shared the same facial expression of pure
terror. This was particularly challenging to
confront.
While the first part of the tour put statistics
into more comprehendible, visual figures, our
time at Birkenau gave us a greater insight into
the lives of the people that were imprisoned
there. We were shown around the stables
they were crammed in, the horrific conditions
of the toilets and the remains of a gas
chamber – it had been blown up on Himmler’s
commands in order to disguise what really
happened there. I personally couldn’t help but
feel very selfish during this part of the day. I
was being presented with something so
powerful which was undermined with shallow
concerns of how sleep deprived and hungry I
was. I only spent a few hours there, partook in
no such child labour and walked along the
direction of the tracks the victims never did. I
walked the other way. I returned to the
comfort and security of my everyday life,
something they never had the chance to do.
result of burning bodies was now an
embodiment of hope and benevolence.
A visit to Auschwitz is very personal and
reactions differ from person to person. A
week after we returned, we went to another
seminar to discuss the relevance of our trip
and the lessons we can learn and pass on. This
will be the focus of our Next Steps program
and our three main lessons will conclude this
article:
Humanisation
We finished the day with a poignant
ceremony led by a rabbi. Here we lit a
Yahrzeit candle as a sign of remembrance and
acceptance of the horrors that occurred here.
It only took one lit candle to light every one,
in the same way that simpe acts of
compassion can have a long lasting effect. We
placed the candles on the same train track the
victims arrived on which held particular
significance. The Yahrzeit candle is part of the
Jewish funeral rituals which helped sooth the
offence caused by the Nazis cremating the
Jewish people despite it conflicting with their
religious beliefs. These very candles were
placed on the spot where the true evil began.
We were placing light on these train tracks, a
light that then would have only been seen as a
Perpetrators were human beings – just like
anyone – who were products of the society
they lived in. Too often we hear the
perpetrators referred to as monsters, perhaps
as we don’t want our humanity to be
symbolised by the appalling crimes they
committed. Indeed they were monstrous acts
but the perpetrators were all human.
Similarly, we must recognise the role of the
bystander: those, including governments, who
had an awareness of the unfolding events but
did not or could not stop them. Finally, we
must recognise every victim who perished as
an individual human being, resulting in the
loss of not only lives but communities,
culture, customs and ideas. The Nazis sought
to strip those persecuted of their identity but
it is our responsibility to restore this.
Contemporary Relevance
The previous lesson is important in
understanding that all humans are capable of
evil things and repeating their mistakes, even
in todays society. While there hasn’t been a
genocide since to the same scale, murder is
still reported in current news. The existing
refugee crisis is another example of where we
can be intolerant and prejudice to those
trying to escape persecution. Instead we
should endeavour to challenge acts of
discrimination, even when this may be
unpopular or inconvenient. We must promote
tolerance of others regardless of age, gender
and race. We should welcome those who join
our communities and the cultural diversity
and benefits that this can bring.
Political Say
As educated students (something we take for
granted), we all have a responsibility to be
involved in the democratic process of the UK –
by exercising our role to vote at the age of 18.
The UK government plays a key role in global
events and we, as citizens, can influence
government policy and should exploit our
right to do so.
Words: Melissa
Photos: Rose