Anniversary Of Auschwitz Liberation

Seventy-four years ago yesterday, prisoners were freed at Auschwitz which is located in Poland (not Germany). Prior to WW II this Polish town was known as Oswiecim.

In yesterday's news, you may have seen this photo of protestors at Auschwitz.

My sister Vicki and I visited Auschwitz on our European tour last November (Vicki's photo below). The wrought-iron sign in German says "Work Will Set You Free".

On our walking tour here, we learned more than any history class ever taught us in high school or college. When history books and the media report about Auschwitz, they condense history, giving us a dumbed-down version of the horrors of Auschwitz. I support those protestors yesterday. They are absolutely correct -- the world only knows the dumbed-down version of what really happened here.

These buildings at the first Auschwitz camp were originally Polish military barracks . . . but that all changed when Poland was carved-up and annexed by Nazi Germany.

It was a large Polish military complex. The "Work Will Set You Free" gate is identified as "A" on this map.

When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, they decided on April 27, 1940 to convert the Polish barracks into a concentration camp for the local Poles and dissidents. Poles are proud of their nationality; an estimated 780,000 Poles were subject to expulsion by the German SS.

They converted the barracks to a prisoners of war camp for mostly civilians and Russian military prisoners of war (not to house Jews at first) and added the barbed wire fencing and a few more buildings.



The imprisoned local Poles (considered deplorables) and Russian military personnel slept on straw mats on the floor or in bunks in these buildings.

These first prisoners were forced to work and expand the camp for more prisoners. This copy of a drawing (below sign) was made by a former prisoner who was an artist.

Roll call was deathly.

Excruciating . . . 

Books of death were recorded . . . 2,000 people each month, and one day November 4, 1941 the book of death records 352 prisoners had died, Poles and Russians.

Every day the ones who survived walked under the "Work Will Set You Free" gate . . . . 

Of about 10,000 men and a few women . . . 9,000 of them died. Vicki and I visited the barracks buildings converted to memorialize the Poles and Russians who died here. The walls are covered with their portraits taken by the Germans as part of their record-keeping tasks. The people look just like my grandparents did when I look at old photos of them; totally innocent people just trying to bring up a family and pass on their culture and traditions. Hitler and his followers wanted to "Germanize" Europe by getting rid of anybody who wasn't with the German program.

Five months . . . 9,000 dead including notable highly intelligent Poles in the sciences and medical doctors.

     Meanwhile, the second prisoners camp is ready for more prisoners from around Europe, more deplorables. This second camp is what the world is familiar with. It's about one mile west of the old military barracks.

Here at this second camp is the gate the world is familiar with . . . the entrance to the complex housing mostly Jews from 1942 to 1944. Five other similar camps in occupied Poland were also constructed to house mostly Jews.

There were two railroad tracks, one for incoming box cars of people, one for the empty box cars to exit and return with more people. By this time, the Jewish annihilation program is underway.

I stood here solemnly, just like the person in the photo above, looking at this view . . .

It's all that remains of Auschwitz II. About a month before Germany realized they were losing the war, they demolished their crematoriums to get rid of the evidence. This is one of three crematoriums today.

This is what the building used to look like . . . photo taken by the SS in 1943.

Sign at this location . . .

Vicki and I stopped taking photos eventually. The place is heart-breaking.  The most heart-breaking was all the photographic portraits taken of the prisoners by the SS (thousands of them), and if any survived, their stories written later and posted next to their photograph.

Now when I see or hear the word "Auschwitz", it encompasses much more than a persecuted minority religious group. And yesterday's protestors are Poles who want the world's citizens, the history books, and the media, to expand their knowledge, too.