#6 Auschwitz Birkenau & the Frank family

 I have visited Auschwitz Birkenau twice, the first time as part of a general tour with my husband. He was so overcome by it that he said he could never return, which is why I returned as part of a specialist tour by Leger. This graphic showed that all train lines led to Auschwitz from all over Europe. 

On my second visit, we were once again met by a specialist tour guide (in addition to our military coach guide) and we had the entire morning devoted to this space. 

To walk under the Arbeit Macht Frei sign again is humbling because you fully understand how momentous it is, how few left this space alive & how ever minute of their day was lived with angst.  

The Urn contains some ashes of the countless souls who died at Auschwitz. They will never have a final resting place, this is a powerful reminder of the loss.  I read in one of the many accounts that it was said "you can only leave Auschwitz through the chimneys" 

    

 
The images that are so familiar of the Auschwitz camp, the third we have visited on this tour with the Arbeit Macht Frei sign. The double fences which were electrified made escape impossible & we know from written accounts that many desperate inmates flung themselves at the electrified fences when they could not take it anymore. 

The double electrified (at that time) fences with no hope of escape, the watch towers, the cramped conditions, the roll calls in all weathers, the public hangings, & then of course the realities of the gas chambers & crematoria give this space a feeling that is hard to describe. 

The pretty Autumn day with sunlight & leaves turning on the trees could not lift the veil on the reality of Auschwitz, the darkness & death part of its ground & fabric. 

I was mentally prepared for the rooms of shoes, luggage, utensils, glasses, crutches as I had been previously, but it is still too much to take in.

On my first visit, the downstairs on block 11 overwhelmed me with sadness,  the first use of Zyklon B gas was used down there, as was rooms where people were crowded in, standing room only & left to die. This space in Block 11 was also used for torture. At the end of the corridor are some stehzelle / standing cell spaces where 4 people were locked in a 1 meter square space with a 5cm air hole. They were forced to stand all night then had to work all day.    The courtyard space between block 10 & 11 had an execution wall, the gun sounds echoing around the buildings. Block 10's windows on to this courtyard were block off with wooden shutters so those in Dr Mengele's  medical experiments could hear but not see out. 

Once again, a massive heaviness came over me in the downstairs of Block 11, the immense sadness part of the fabric of the building, the whole of Auschwitz is heavy but I have on both visits found this space to be overwhelming. 

The gas chambers & crematoria at this site are places where you have to steel yourself for the brutal reality of them. 

We had a lunch break then made our way to the nearby Auschwitz- Birkenau camp with its familiar gate house over the train tracks. 

Having a whole afternoon there meant that after visiting the wooden blocks with the cramped rough hewn wooden bunks & latrines down the centre, we walked along the train tracks deep in to the camp. 

An excellent book called 'The Place where you are standing' shows historic photos at various places where you are & it is so sobering to stand on the very spot where arrivals were separated with the flick of a hand - left or right, live or die, man or woman, woman or child, able to work or not ... 

 At the end of the camp railway tracks, the remains of the crematoria the camp officials tried to blow up to hide their murderous deeds as the Russians were approaching.  Passing that, our guide took us all out in to the cool forest behind the camp. The coolness & greenery belied its awful history of being the space those who were sent left were sent to - the gas chambers as they were too old, too infirm, too young etc to be worked to death. 

In the forests were more blocks with innocuous showers & crematoria to deal with those deemed unfit to work. 

A laundry room, as well as Canada block where all those carefully packed valuables & suitcases were sorted for redistribution across Germany, the valuables of gold, silver items, jewellery, money used to fund the German war effort. The clothes were sent back to families in Germany as aid. 

At a clearing in the wood, a sign & headstones asked that this area be respected as it was the spot where many arrivals were led to, forced to undress then shot in to trenches dug beside them, their bodies then burnt to dispose of them. 

The inscription read: "To the memory of the men, women and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide. Here be their ashes. May their souls rest in peace"

This place was a mass burial & the old photos alongside it showed the realities. 

This extended tour of the site over more than 3 hours gave a comprehensive understanding of the horrors of this vast second site. 

Only some of the blocks of huts remain, the others are marked by their outlines in neat lines as far as the eye can see from the bottom of the woods. It is overwhelming & there is a heaviness that  is hard to explain.

It is where the Frank family were sent, along with the others from the Secret Annex. 

It is where Anne's mother remained when the girls were sent on to Bergen Belsen where they died. They had been transported from Amsterdam to Westerbork, then on to Auschwitz Birkenau, before transported again to Bergen Belsen where they both died. 

Anne's story is perhaps one of the best known diaries, but not the only one as some of the places point out, However, it is through her story that I first learnt of the Holocaust & if her story can in any small way bring this period of history to the attention of people, then it is worthwhile. 

Thank you so much if you have managed to read all the parts of this story, give thanks for blessings you have, 

Dee