Present reading material

Auschwitz and Auschwitz Birkenau Visit

Upon arrival in the main camp Auschwitz, we participated in a series of tours around the camp and the Birkenau camp. We got the chance to visit different Blocks in, which each held its own secrets and history.

'Arbeit Macht Frei' - work will set you free. As the Jews thought that they were being sent to labour camps, the Nazi's (SS) deceived them further by creating the illusion of it not being a death camp - to not raise suspicion within them. Once inside the camp, many prisoners only lived a few days. They were put into a selection process upon arrival where the SS decided who was fit enough to work within the camp and who would be too young or weak for the work that needed to be done. Mostly young children, mothers and the elderly were sent to the gas chambers within hours of them arriving. The 'lucky' ones that were selected to work then had their heads shaved, all body hair shaved off with blunt razors, all possessions taken away from them and were cleaned with either boiling hot water or freezing cold. They were then put into striped clothing with wooden clogs for footwear.
When I visited end of January, temperatures were hitting -13 and colder - I was freezing in all my layers of clothes and thermals. It emphasised even more the suffering that they were put through as they were only in thin prison clothing. They tried to find and steal paper to insulate themselves in a poor attempt to stay warm. During the winter months, some of the punishments that the SS took advantage of - many were made to stand outside still from dawn to dusk bare footed, many died from pneumonia, or frostbite. They were also provided with wooden clogs as shoes which they had to oil up to ensure that they did not rub or become stiff and painful to walk in. 

We also went to blocks 10,11 and 12. Inside these were the prison cells, and one block had been made into a museum. In here were the thousands of shoes, glasses and human hair that had been found by the red army upon liberation. We were allowed to photograph everything apart from the human hair and inside the gas chambers, out of respect. We visited the only gas chamber left standing as the others were destroyed by the Nazi's in an attempt to cover all traces of their mass murders. It was silent with scratch marks up against the majority of the walls where people had struggled to escape from them, once they realised their fate. On the way out there was also a small number of crematoriums where some of the corpses were burnt by fellow inmates and turned to ash. 

Block 24a which was turned into a brothel. Previously this was used as housing for male prisoners before the Birkenau camp opened. I have already blogged in a  previous post about the brothels and the idea behind them.

This was a plaque that was in one of the museums, that shows how many people were murdered between the years of 1941-1945. Next to this plaque was also a monument of the remaining ashes that were found in the crematoriums/open land pits upon liberation in 1945.

1,100,000 Jews
140,000 - 150,000 Poles
23,000 Roma Gypsies
15,000 Soviet Prisoners of War
25,000 Prisoners from other ethnic groups

1,100,000 of these people died in Auschwitz, approximately 90% of the victims were Jews. The SS murdered the majority of them in the gas chambers.

These are a couple of photos that I took of the shoes and glasses that were taken from the prisoners upon arrival into the camp. There was two corridors of the shoes behind glass, and a huge box full of the glasses on show. Upon arrival they were also 'cleaned', where the SS washed them with either boiling hot or freezing cold water, and shaved any body hair from their bodies with blunt razors - this was painful for the prisoners. As well as this, they also shaved their heads and packaged the human hair into paper bags to be sent back to Berlin to be made in clothing for the SS collars of their uniforms. 

Between blocks 10&11, there is a small courtyard situated inbetween. The SS used this as an execution wall. Many Jews that we're being 'trialled' for crimes would be murdered here. Many women that had younger children were made to watch their children die before they were killed as well. In the camp now are memorial flowers and candles to remember the innocent that were brutally murdered for no reason other than being a Jew. Below is a photograph of the execution wall and the memorial reeves. 

After we had visited the Auschwitz camp we took a five minute drive to the Birkenau camp. Here we saw the vastness and size of the camp the Germans had built. In the wooden huts that the prisoners slept in, were two heat ovens which only could burn for two hours a day due to the lack of coal they were given. Many died of pneumonia and typhoid during the winter months.
There were bunk beds with 3 levels, 8 or 9 people would sleep on these wooden slats with one thin blanket between 2 of them. Disease was rife due to starvation in prisoners made them sick and with severe diarrhoea. Therefore typhoid and other diseases killed many. Some desperate prisoners also murdered others that were dying or weak/suffering so that there was more room and heat for themselves - survival of the fittest. 

We also saw the small cattle carriages that the SS transported the Jews in, cramming 100 people into a small carriage for weeks on end sometimes, with only a small bucket for water and another for sanitary use. Many died on the way to the camps. These carriages could only hold 8 horses, and they crammed over 90 people into them, this helps us to comprehend the squeeze and struggle. If people died during the journey, the corpses were piled up on top of each other and sat upon. They attracted flies and disease so this spread, helping the Nazi's with these sadistic murdering spree. 

Upon reflection, Auschwitz actually seems more emotional a few days after you've visited the camps, as whilst you are there it is too overwhelming to understand the vast scale of killing that went on. Looking back at my trip, you realise how lucky we are to have every small thing that we take for granted, such as shelter, clean water, and heat. I would encourage everyone to visit Auschwitz once in their lives, it may see a morbid thing to do but it will change your outlook on life as you know it.  

Schlinder's Factory & the centre of Krakow

SO today started at 4:30am which was a lovely cold start in Bristol (yay) to catch our 6:30am flight to Krakow. 

Upon arrival in the capital, -8 temperatures snow and arctic winds were the last thing I was expecting. We arrived at our hotel around 11am, then ventured into the city centre to have a wonder and see what it had to offer. Our hotel is located 5 minutes from the Jewish getto and the city centre. we found a lovely little polish cafe to have a much needed coffee/hot drink. Some of the next photos are of the city centre: 

We found a lovely cafe to warm up in- accompanied by a cheeky breakfast and a huge coffee!! 

Once we had finished here, we wondered back (and got lost in the now -10 temperatures) to our hotel and booked a taxi to Schlinder's factory. We then had a 2 hour tour which was very informative and quite emotional-! Here are some of the photos that I took there- 

In this photo German soldiers had hung some Jewish prisoners- this was pre final solution. Notice how the German guards are smiling. 

This was just one of the photos of all the Jewish people that Oskar Schlindler saved by employing them in his working factory. There were another 3 panes just like this one. 

The beginning of the Auschwitz tour

it's the night before we travel to Poland & I am so excited. This is one early start that I don't mind having! 6am flight will get us there for around 10ish in the morning, then we're spending the afternoon in schlindlers factory museum. Saturday's plans are visiting Auschwitz itself for the day, which will be a massive eye opener and a harrowing experience but one I need if I am to discuss in my dissertation. Sunday we are flying home hopefully with a notepad crammed with useful notes, an iPad stored with videos and millions of photos that I can look back at once I'm at the writing stage of the work. That's all I'm going to blog for today, the next chapters and posts will be first hand experiences and my reactions! 

Auschwitz visitor numbers - year of 2013

1.33 million people globally visited Auschwitz memorial in the year of 2013. The majority of tourists were young people/students that were part of school educational groups. 

*Top ten countries*

1) Poland - 336,000 visitors

2) United Kingdom - 178,000 visitors

3) United States of America - 101,000 visitors

4) Italy - 71,000 visitors

5) Germany - 169,000 visitors

6) Israel - 57,000 visitors

7) Spain - 52,000 visitors

8) France - 45,000 visitors

9) South Korea - 45,000 visitors

10) Czech Republic - 41,000 visitors

These are the current visitor numbers that were recorded from 2001-2011.

taken from - http://en.auschwitz.org/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1153&Itemid=7

The number of people visiting the Auschwitz Memorial individually, who decide to join groups specially organised for them, increases as well. In 2013, this number reached 345 thousand, which is a 32 per cent raise in comparison to 2012. Each visit guided by an educator includes both parts of the former concentration camp: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II—Birkenau.

“The number of visitors from Ireland has grown considerably (by 106 per cent)," remarks Magdalena Luranc, Head of the Visitors Service section. “The same or even slightly higher growth has been also noted among the visitors from Israel, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and USA. However, last year’s lower attendance of Polish school groups hasn’t changed,” says Magdalena Luranc. 
The said lower number of school groups is the reason of a considerable drop in the amount of Polish visitors during the last few years (2011 – 610 thousand, 2012 – 446 thousand, 2013 – 336 thousand). Even if influenced, among others, by demographic factors, it is mainly associated with the change in the core curriculum for history teaching at schools and the removal of subjects considering World War Two from the secondary school curriculum. So far, the attempts to create a common funding programme financing school trips to such an authentic Memorial have been unsuccessful.

Liberation and Revenge 'Inside the Nazi state' Notes

SS files were removed and burnt, gas chambers burnt pre-red army overrule. Nazi SS tried to destroy all proof of what they were doing. e.g. murders torcher etc. 

27th January 1945 - soviet 60th army army overruled Auschwitz.

84 days post Auschwitz liberation, the soviet army invaded Berlin.

Nazi leaders told to hide themselves within the armed forces, so that they were not found and murdered by allies. 

All SS guards had their blood types tattooed underneath their arms, although not all guards had them that had previously worked in Auschwitz; so many escaped. 

1) Rudolf Hoss former commandant of Auschwitz worked on a farm to protect his identity; under a different name. British arrested his wife and questioned her for 5 days, she proclaimed he was dead. on the 6th day, her son would be sent to Russia, or she could write down where her husband was and she'd go free with her son together. 

2) the British army stormed the farm at 11pm that night. The British Army hit him so much he nearly died, as they obviously knew of his crimes. 
Apparently he acted as a 'normal' person, had no emotion or any sense of guilt. He showed pride in his accomplishments.

3) Subsequently, he faced trial and was sentenced to death by hanging. This took place in Auschwitz.

Public information

If you have any information/posts you'd like to share with me on this page regarding the Nazi rein & Auschwitz please would you comment on this post. Some information may be used in my dissertation if valuable to my research but will be referenced accordingly. Thank you. 

The Nazi Hunter; Remarkable story of the Jewish refugee responsible for tracking down the Auschwitz commandant who slaughtered 3 million people.

Taken from the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2397354/The-Nazi-Hunter-Story-Jewish-refugee-Hanns-Alexander-caught-Auschwitz-commandant.html

A German-born Jewish refugee who served in the British Army during World War II has been unveiled as one of the leading investigators responsible for the capture of one of the worst Nazi criminals of the Holocaust.

Throughout his life in Britain, Hanns Alexander never spoke of his involvement in the hunt for Auschwitz commander Rudolph Höss, and the truth was not unveiled until after his death.

In 1946 he played a crucial role in bringing Höss to justice, a man responsible for killing millions of Jewish men, women and children.

Rudolph Höss was not only in charge of the deadliest of the Holocaust concentration camps, he was also the mastermind behind the use of Zyklon B to commit mass killings of, mainly Jewish, prisoners.

Mr Alexander’s story was uncovered by his great-nephew at the war hero’s funeral in 2006.

During a eulogy, Mr Alexander’s nephews spoke of his past as a Nazi hunter and Thomas Harding, whose grandmother was Mr Alexander’s sister, began to investigate his past.

Hanns Alexander fled from Berlin to London in 1936 after his father, already in England, heard rumours of what was about to take place in their native Germany.

When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, 22-year-old Hanns and his twin brother Paul volunteer for the British Army and were placed with the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps, a unit of refugees who wanted to fight the Nazis.

In 1945, having taken part in the D-Day landings in Normandy and witnessing the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp, Hanns Alexander was chosen to take part in a 12-strong team, tasked with tracking down Nazi war criminals.

As the team rounded up the Bergen Belsen guards and administrators, interpreter Hanns became central in the interrogations and uncovers Rudolph Höss’s role in the Holocaust. Hanns Alexander then began his hunt for Höss, knowing that the former Auschwitz Kommendant would hold the key information to the workings of the Nazi atrocities committed against his people.

The fall of a Nazi criminal: Rudolf Höss, pictured with Heinrich Himmler during an inspection of Auschwitz , left, and battered and bruised following his arrested by the British, in March 1946.

Justice for a killer: Rudolph Hoss's sentence being carried out at Auschwitz, on April 16, 1947.

After the fall of Auschwitz, Höss and his family had fled towards the Danish border. British intelligence had tracked them down to the Flensburg area, where Höss’s wife Hedwig and their children lived in an old sugar factory.

Having managed to intercept a letter from Hedwig proving that she knew where her husband was hiding, she had been taken in for questioning.

Hanns arrived on March 7, 1946 and begin to interrogate Mrs Höss. She would not budge. But neither would Hanns Alexander.

Hanns and members of his team brought in Höss’s oldest son Klaus and threatened Hedwig with deporting him to Siberia.

Ten minutes later, Hedwig had written down the location and new alias of her husband, who was living at a farm under the name Franz Lang.

Rudolf Höss was arrested on March 11, 1946. Hanns Alexander and his men dragged him out of hiding and beat him until he gave up his true identity.

Höss stood trial at Nuremberg in April and was subsequently handed over to Polish authorities on 25 May 1946, where he stood trial accused of murdering three million people.

Höss was sentenced to death on 2 April 1947 and was hanged immediately adjacent to the crematorium of the former Auschwitz I concentration camp on April 16.

Captain Hanns Alexander never returned to Germany, and died in London in 2006, aged 89.

Auschwitz; Frenzied Killing

During the start of 1944, 550,000 Jews were murdered in Auschwitz. In a matter of weeks, this increased by 300,000. (850,000 people murdered in maximum 4 weeks.) In this time, the majority of the fatalities were of Hungarian origin. Below is a photograph of one of the gas chambers prisoners would've been huddled into and then gassed. 

These YouTube clips help to illustrate the horrors of this year, and there are 5 parts to the documentary. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg1W6iPxOLg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbxUPglWGS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsEKYaKHLQk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS-LO1WLvY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCkXiXv2H4

On the 25th April of this year, from a SS proposal, they wanted to 'sell' one million Hungarian Jews in return for 100,000 trucks. This confused Hungarian government to an extent, and nothing was done about it at this time. 

-  Subsequently in July 1944, the truck/Jew swap was rejected as the Americans, Brits and Soviets didn't want to negotiate with the Nazis. 

After this, Germany began to lose its grip on the world war. Allied countries were starting to realise that Germany was in fact losing the war, and cut ties with the country. The Americans were aware of the concentration camps, and sent spy planes over the camps to take photographs of what the Germans had built. This was all part of a plan to bomb the railway lines into the camps so that no more Jews could be sent there and exterminated. Although this plan fell through, and is still the biggest un-answered question in the history of WWII. 

- Photographic evidence of Auschwitz during 1944. Taken from American planes. Referenced from googleimages.com

Whilst all of this was going on, on the 1st of July 1944; the liquidation of the gypsy camp began. This is the worst killing recorded in the history of Auschwitz. Gypsy children were taken off in SS trucks, with some children attempting to escape from them. In Response to this, the guards would beat their limbs with wooden batons breaking them and throwing them back into the trucks, ensuring that they were so injured they couldn't escape. They were taken to the gas chambers to be murdered. The gypsy race was seen as 'dirty', 'racially dangerous' and as 'anti social' as the Jewish race, hence the cruel handling of them. Their barracks were the worst to live in, with death, starvation and disease increasingly killing innocent people. 

some of the gypsy inmates - pre liquidation. 

As the months progressed, 1000 people were murdered per day over the Autumn, compared to the 10,000 a day in May. This showed that the SS were slipping, and slowly losing control over the mass executions. 

On the 7th October 1944, two of the crematoriums were set alight by rebelling inmates (2&5), SS guards were attacked, and the rebelling prisoners escaped into nearby woods, but were captured and shot shortly afterwards. Survivors state that they were made to lay face down on the floor with their hands behind their backs. Every third person was killed. The remaining escapees were sent back to the camps to carry out their slave labour aka death by work. 

During this time also - tens of thousands of Jews were trekked from Hungary to Austria for slave labour, and not sent to the concentration camps. Many died en-route. They were forced to trek due to the lack of trains available to take them - probably because authoritative SS guards had their own trains. 

Auschwitz Brothels. Just a myth or cruel reality?

In 1943, block 24a that housed male inmates, was turned into an onsite brothel. It was seen as the most ridiculous idea by some SS leaders, but the head of Auschwitz decided that it would be used as a reward to the 'hard working' prisoners. (non Jewish of course). The women were taken from the camps, not from the Jewish race. They were treated well with enough food, water and shelter, as well as walks, which other prisoners were not provided with. 

this is block 24a, which was used as the brothel for 2 years, 1943-1945
(taken from google images)

Inside block 24a

Only 'special value prisoners' were allowed to visit this brothel, and they had to obtain vouchers from SS guards who would then evaluate and decide whether they were good enough or hard working enough to be allowed into it. Usually the types of prisoners that gained access to these vouchers were skilled craftsmen. E.g. Chefs to the SS guards, hairdressers, fire brigade members. 

From my research, people that survived during this time do not wish or want to speak of what happened in this brothel.

Auschwitz; 1943-1944

In the autumn of 1943, whilst fitting Nazi leaders new boots, two Jewish men hatched a plan to attack and kill them. Whilst one man guided the German to a seat, the other hid behind a door with an axe. When the time came, the Jewish man jumped out but instead of hitting the Nazi with the blunt side of the axe, he used the blade murdering him. They hid the corpse underneath a blanket. Almost immediately, another German SS guard walked in over to the covered body and kicked it, asking 'what is this?' before they had chance to answer he was murdered as well. They stole all of their weapons; and ran at the electric fences whilst being shot at by Ukrainian guards and escaped into the nearby forest, surviving the minefield around the camp. 300 of the 600 Jews in one set of barracks escaped and survived that day.

However, their actions had fatal consequences for the remaining Jews in Auschwitz who were then gassed. 40,000 Jews were murdered that Autumn. 

During this time, political actions were also being taken. Italy refused to released their Jewish POW to Germany, ditto with Bulgaria. This is thought to be because the countries knew Germany was losing the war. Denmark also protected their Danish Jews. (September 1943). 
In September 1943, 8000 Danish Jews would be rounded up; and a bridge was built across to Sweden so that they had means of escaping the country. All Jews had fled to Danish ports to escape to Sweden, who had help from local fishermen and the Danish police. Some small fishing boats also transported them across. Upon arrival in Sweden they were given food and water and shelter. 95% of the Jewish population that escaped here survived. Below is an example of one of the boats that took them to safety. 

Auschwitz; The Corruption.

After spending around 4 hours watching two documentaries 'The nazis and the final solution' published on the 18th September 2013 by the BBC, I managed to collect numerous key and interesting events that happened during 1943 and 1945. 

In 1943, this was seen as the crucial stage of the existence of Auschwitz, and the bloodiest year that it had in the history of WWII. In march of this year, a series of new gas chambers were built and opened so that the SS could put into practice tens of thousands more murders of the Jewish race. 

£125 million pounds was spent on 45 different concentration and death camps, with Auschwitz being the main and 45 others being 'sub camps'. This map shows where all of these were located across Germany, Poland and Austria. 

The selection of the Jews happened immediately upon arrival. They were carted into the camps via cattle carriages, with only a bucket of water to drink and one bucket for sanitation. Many Jewish people refused to use these due to the amount of people that were put into each carriage. Children and mothers were sorted into one group, and men and women into another. Almost nearly all of the mothers and children were murdered within an hour of being in the camp, with all of their possessions stolen, their heads shaved and then marched to the gas chambers. The men and women were looked at and decided whether they were 'good' enough to work in the smaller factories they had running there. They were sentenced to death by work and slave labour.

One section of the camp was nicknamed 'Canada', and this was due to in the 1940's Canada was seen as a land of riches. The majority of the workers in this camp were women. Here they were allowed to grow their hair and have 'friendly' relationships with the German guards, although most of the Jewish women never replied to any of the love notes that the SS guards gave to some of the women. This resulted in the women being raped during the nights which was common practice. 

Most of the workers here survived, as they were sorting through all the stolen clothes and possessions from the Jews, and could steal any extra food that they may have found. Many of the SS guards stole from the Jewish possessions, such as gold, diamonds and foreign currency was taken and hidden in SS lockers, for them to use for themselves on the 'black market'. Working in Auschwitz was very profitable for SS guards, and they wanted to be posted here. Why fight in bunkers on the front line if you could live like a king here?

On site, the SS built a mini town, with some Jewish people slaving over them. They had a cinema, canteen, theatre and sports centre with some teams. They had alcohol rations, which they took advantage of every night and got drunk, whilst feasting on stolen foods and beverages. They were allowed to do this due to the lack of military discipline in the camp, and got 'wildly drunk' every night. Probably to drown out the edge of killing millions of innocent people per day.

Inhumane testing on children during the 1940's

During this time, Nazi doctors took this open opportunity to use Jewish children as guinea pigs, predominately twins as the Germans were particularly interested in at this time. From Jewish eye-witnesses and survivors, the testing involved things such as taking blood from the left arm of the child, whilst being injected with a minimum of 5 injections in the right arm, of course many children fainted and became very ill from this. One survivor became very sick and the Nazi doctor diagnosed her to only have 2 weeks to live. This was common practice as if one twin died then they could murder the other with an injection to the child's heart. The German's needed both twins to die at the same time in order to do an autopsy and send body parts off to Berlin to be tested on. Mostly eyeballs in packets labelled 'urgent war parts'. As well as these brutalities, 'Dr.Death' as he was known, used to operate on 18 prisoners per day at his peak, using no anaesthetic; whilst amputating limbs or purely injecting poison into the hearts of victims and seeing how long it took for them to die. They were not 'scientific' tests, but one of a crazed sadistic man.  

The Nazi doctors also tested on dwarves and inmates with gangrene on their faces - as a result of poor nutrition and living standards. Again their body parts were sent to Berlin for medical practice and testing. 

all photos taken from googleimages.com

The beginning of my blog!

Officially seeing as this is the 'first day' of my research its not gone too well! Finished an e business assignment, (woo) and still have two hanging over my head to finish by the end of next week; so this blogging lark may have to take a step back, although research for now will purely be based on watching documentaries and YouTube vids and clips. Already watched the 'boy in the striped pajamas', that was an eye opener and gives us an insight into what life was like in the 1940's for the Germans..and some Jews. Netflix is surprisingly good for Nazi and WWII documentaries, so I will be spending my life watching this for the next few weeks to get my head into the right mindset, by jotting down notes before I actually visit myself!

The start of the research..

So this is the first of I'm sure numerous blog posts to due with the two main topics, Auschwitz & Ground Zero; everything related, from photos, videos and opinions that I've trawled the internet and various journals/books for. Surprisingly the two case studies share a number of similarities so comparing the two may be a little more difficult than I first thought out.

From where I'm sitting currently, I've just realised how much work I actually have to complete by April 2014. 10,000 words on British perceptions; and I am yet to find a different perception to mine. (That of-course of pure horror and shock as to what actually happened here).

I have researched some YouTube documentaries which are proving very informative- I will post links underneath each post with relevant vids and clips to help me along the way.

Let it begin...