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Clare and I always knew we wanted to visit Prague so a small detour to see an old mate seemed like a great little side trip. Ostrava is not exactly a tourist town. It is always refreshing though to get off the tourist trail for a little while which can be a bit hard to do when travelling around Europe. For those of you that know Mappy, he now lives in the Czech Republic's third largest city with his Czech wife Eva and their two little girls. It was great to see them again and to meet their little girls finally as it's been over four years since they were last in Australia. It was only once we decided to come here from Budapest that it occured to us how close we were to Poland and one it's most famous historical sites "Auschwitz".
Clare had mentioned in Budapest that she was interested in it and being so close made it an opportunity not to miss. We were comfortable where we were staying in Ostrava so we decided to day trip from there rather than going to stay in Krakow for a couple of days and doing a tour from there like almost everyone else. Ostrava is actually closer than Krakow but if we thought that our proximity would make it easy to get to we soon found out that we were sadly mistaken. A train departing Ostrava at 2am and arriving in Oswiecim (town beside Auschwitz) about 4.30am was the only way to get there. Kicking around for nearly 5 hours waiting for it to open didn't really appeal. Neither did waiting another 4 hours after closing for the 11.30pm train arriving in Ostrava at 2am. We ended up hiring a car from a local guy from the back of a tennis court somewhere in down town Ostrava. It all actually worked out suprisingly smoothly.
It seems to me that for many Jewish people travelling to Auschwitz is almost like some kind of a religious pligrimage. I believe that many people feel some sort of connection to Auschwitz whether it's because of their religion or because of the history of their family and or acquaintences. I felt none of the above. I did become interested in visiting as we got closer to the time because i'm finding that i'm more and more interested in the history and politics of the places i visit. It is hard not to arrive with any preconceived notions. We were both expecting a horror movie. Morbid, graphic, stomach turning and tearful. People had told us not to go because we would be miserable for days after. This was not our experience. We were both surprised to discover that the experience of a visit to Auschwitz was not based solely on telling horror stories about the jewish holocaust. It was literally a history of the facility, the people that were interned there and yes of course, the attrocities that were committed.
This next part comes with a disclaimer. It is written from my recollection of the narative given by our guide. A local women who's age i estimate puts her as being born some time shortly after WWII. She grew up about 10kms from Auschwitz and has spent the last 25 years working as a guide there. I think we all know the gist of the attrocities committed here but for me there was so much more to learn. My apologies for any inaccuracies in my historical retelling.
Nazi occupied Poland is how this region was known to distinguish it from Soviet occupied Poland in the East. It is said that the Nazis had what was known as a thousand year plan. With this kind of forward thinking they obviously were interested in much more than just the extermination of certain minorities. Consequently it is relevant to realise that originally the Nazis were interested in this area for it's abundance of coal. Coal was already being mined here, the infrastructure already existed, the nearby army barracks could house their soldiers and POW/labour force, there was a town here in which the Nazis could house their officers and their families and the train tracks even linked what became their three facilities.
Originally the Polish Army barracks at Auschwitz was used by the Nazis to house a slave labour force made up of POW's and other educated Polish that they considered a threat to the Nazi occupation. These prisoners were used to construct the far larger camp at Auschwitz Berkenau which consisted of hundreds of barracks each capable of housing hundreds of captive labourers. They were intended to later be used as slave labour in whatever industry the Nazi government was to put in place. Presumably coal mining and whatever secondary industries stemmed from that. It wasn't until later in the war that the Nazi's finally determined what they termed the "final solution" to the Jewish problem. A problem/question that had arisen in certain circles years earlier. This is when the gas chambers were constructed and Auschwitz became a death camp.
As everyone is aware, the Nazis rounded up hundreds of thousands of Jews from around Nazi occupied Europe and crammed them into rail cars and sent them to Auschwitz. Upon arrival hundreds of people would spill like sardines bursting out of a can from the train carts. People were exhausted, filthy, starving and dehydrated and when released were thankful that their pleas to be released from the train carts were answered. They were to be sent for showers, to change clothes, for water and to eat; or so they thought. First though they were to be sorted. All strong able bodied boys, men and some women were sent one way. All other sick, elderly, female, children were sent another way. Straight to the showers. Again, so they thought. It wasn't until they were packed naked inside the tiled rooms of the gas chambers did they understand their fate. By all accounts their fear would have been short lived such was the efficiency of the Zyklon B gas and chambers. What slowed the process was actually their ability to get rid of the bodies. Cremating the bodies could never keep up with the speed at which people were being executed. The capability to execute en mass is what made Auschwitz different from other camps. Auschwitz was their most efficient concentration camp and is credited with the death of approximately 1.1 million people. Ninety percent of them Jews. Most others concentration camps were primarily prisons and or labour camps.
When the Soviet army advanced across Poland in 1945 they took control of Auschwitz as the Nazis fled. Somewhat ironically it was Nazi prisoners of war that were subsequently held captive at Auschwitz by the Soviet army. Following this it was as early as 1947 that Auschwitz was first opened to the public. Former prisoners were employed as guides. Those prisoners that survived Auschwitz were typically those that had only arrived there in the last three months of the Nazi occupation. Records show that the vast majority of those used as labour in the camp rarely lived longer than three months due to the work, the lack of food and nutrition, sickness and abuse.
People have often said that to see the future one must understand the past (or something of that nature). Until that excursion i didn't realise that the Nazis had the same plan for the Gypsies as they did for the jews. The even more interesting thing for me and the reason for the above piece of philosophy is because there is a lot of talk in europe in general about gypsies and the sociological problems that are often associated with or attributed to them. People often say to send them back where they came from. Our guide posed the question; Where do you send a supposedly undesireable population of millions of people? There is no where to send them. Many in Nazi political circles in the 1930's were asking the same questions regarding the Jews in Europe. Like the Jews, the Gypsies have migrated (apparently from India) across continents over a period of generations. For their sake and everyone elses let's hope that we all learnt something from the Nazis attempt and no one so much as entertains the thought of trying to repeat such a thing.
Was it worth a visit? Absolutely. Would i go again? Yes i'd even go again. There was so much information, so many unexpected events in the greater sense of WWII of which i've always been extremely ignorant that I could go again. Especially if it was with someone going for the first time. That said, i will not go out of my way to go again. To anyone that is considering going i highly recommend a visit to what is a facinating, sombre and important historical location both from the perspective of the past and what we can learn for the future.
Yes we did also make it Prague after that. However that might have to be a post for another day seeing as it's taken me weeks to write this.
- comments
ARDY ARMAN Thank you for saving me the trouble of visiting Auschwitz from Ostrava. I guess Krakow would be easier to start from.