By M K George

Rome, August 9, 2023: Walking around the streets of Rome, I have first been intrigued and then pained by small 2×2 inches plaques which carried names of Jews which said, for one instance, Paskvala Blazevic born 1920, arrested 28.12.1943, deported to KZMautbausen, (concentration camp in Austria) dead 19.4.1945.

Reason obvious – the Nazis had murdered them.

A desire to study more on the concentration camps had lingered in my mind. Hence, when Father Smolich, director of International JRS invited me to join him for a visit to Auschwitz-Bikenau, I jumped at the opportunity.

That turned out to be one of the most painful, but insightful and compassionate experiences in my life.

The Auschwitz Museum

Auschwitz, in Poland, about 70 km from Krakow city, which was about the size of 6,000 football fields, now is rearranged as a museum. The original buildings are maintained. And the pathos hangs in the air.

As you enter the museum you pass through a concrete tunnel, and the guides remind you to remain silent and listen to the names being read out of the people who were cruelly murdered in that camp.

And the numbers are staggering:

‘KL Auschwitz was the largest Nazi German concentration camp and since 1942 also mass extermination center for Jews. In the years 1940-1945, the Nazis deported at least 1.3 million people to Auschwitz: 1.1 million Jews, 140,000-150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma/Gypsies, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 25,000 prisoners from other ethnic groups. 1.1 million of them died in Auschwitz.

Approximately 90 percent of the victims were Jews. The SS murdered the majority of them in the gas chambers.’

Children were not spared

‘The Nazis deported about 232,000 children and young people to KLAuschwitz, including 216,000 Jewish, 11,000 Roma (Gypsy), 3,000 Polish, and 1,000 Slavic and other nationalities. The majority of the Jewish children perished in the gas chambers immediately after arrival’

The emotional weight of this visit was unbearable. I saw many wiping their tears. I remember, one couple just refusing to move on in shock and tears. Probably, one of their own had perished there.

The layout – blocks

Auschwitz had opened in former Polish army barracks. Twenty brick building were adapted, of which six were two storeyed. By 1942, they had built 28 two-storey blocks.

The living conditions were horrible, initially with neither beds nor any furniture, open toilets, open wells and overcrowded.

On arrival, the prisoners were divided into groups for hard labour, or for decimation. ‘The prisoners were systematically stripped of their individual identities. They had their hair shaved off and a registration number tattooed on their left forearm.

Men were forced to wear ragged, striped pants and jackets, and women wore work dresses. Both were issued ill-fitting work shoes, sometimes clogs. They had no change of clothing and slept in the same clothes they worked in.

Inmates were always hungry. Food consisted for watery soup made with rotten vegetables and meat, a few ounces of bread, a bit of margarine, tea or a bitter drink resembling coffee…’

The guide told us, that neighbours who watched the emaciated prisoners would spare them some food. But they had to stop it because the SS would punish the donors.

The pain of it all

The most painful visuals are of the collected hair of women, shoes of children, boxes/bags of the inmates with their names, hoping that they would one day be able to return. Pictures of children who were experimented for medical purposes, treatment to dead bodies, especially of women and the gas chamber where thousands passed through every day to death by poisonous gas.

Passing through I saw Maxim Kolbe’s corner and I prayed in silent reverence and gratitude.

The Death Block in Auschwitz- Block 11

Block 11 is notorious for its cruelty.

‘Punishment here was usually connected with suspected sabotage, contact with civilians, escape attempts or aid to escapees, or apprehension while escaping. The windows in the normal cells had windows that were partially bricked up from the outside, and the inmates could sleep on wooden bunks.

Rather than windows, the dark cells had vents covered on the outside by metal screens with air holes punched in them. Prisoners slept on the bare floor. Confinement in the dark cells lasted from several days to several weeks. Prisoners confined to death by starvation for escape attempts, or after being selected as hostages in reprisal for escapes by others, were held in the dark cells.

From the beginning of 1942, prisoners were also punished by confinement in standing cells. These were four spaces measuring less than 1 sq. m. each. The only source of air was a 5 x 5 cm. opening covered with a metal grille. Entry to the standing cell was through a small opening at floor level, closed with bars and a wooden hatch. Four prisoners were confined in each of these spaces for the night. They had to go to work in the morning. The punishment was applied for periods from several nights up to several weeks in a row.’

Birkenau

Our second stop, about three kilometres away from Auschwitz, was Bikenau. Called, ‘home of the killing centre’, this has a huge sprawling area with large number of blocks, which had four large crematoriums created and used 1943-1944. The Gas Chamber here remains a harrowing memory. There are the disrobing areas, gas chamber and crematorium ovens.’

The death barrack in Birkenau

The death barrack here was ‘used to house female prisoners deemed unfit for further labour by the SS during their selections in the camp and sentenced to death in the gas chambers. Often, they had to wait here for several days before being killed, receiving neither food nor water.

As a result, many women died while waiting to be sent to the gas chamber. When this barrack was overcrowded, some of the prisoners had to remain outside in the enclosed courtyard.’ (Billboard at the entrance to the barrack)

Today as we look at “the fortified walls, barbed wire, platforms, barracks, gallows, gas chambers and cremation ovens show the conditions within which the Nazi genocide took place in the former concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest in the Third Reich. According to historical investigations, 1.5 million people, among them a great number of Jews were systematically starved, tortured and murdered in this camp, the symbol of humanity’s cruelty to its fellow human beings in the 20th century.”

One’s head hangs in pain and shame.

And my anxieties about India, my country

Do I see similarities or is it my imagination?

Prior to and during the torture of Jews, the Nazi leaders had started an intense hate speech. Examples: ‘Jews are a race that must be totally exterminated,’ said Hans Frank, Governor General in Nazi occupied Poland in 1944. ‘We must free the German nation of Poles, Russians, Jews and Gypsies,’ had said Otto Thierack, Minister of Justice of the third Reich.

I see in India today hate speech, violence against minorities, like in Gujarat, Kandhamal, Manipur and at various spots in the country, whose perpetrators often go scot-free, detention centres in Assam and I am terribly anxious.

Is history being repeated?

‘World Silence led to Auschwitz
World indifference led to Auschwitz
World anti-Semitism led to Auschwitz.
Do not let this happen againm’ reminded the last poster I saw in Auschwitz-Birkenau.