A visit to Auschwitz | Teen Ink

A visit to Auschwitz

March 24, 2021
By Riddikulus BRONZE, New Delhi, Other
Riddikulus BRONZE, New Delhi, Other
2 articles 3 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
it is our choices that show what we truly are far more than our abilities
- professor Dumbledore


This piece of writing is my personal experience of visiting the Auschwitz camp from world war two in Poland. I personally am very interested in history and wanted to tell you about my memoranda of the Auschwitz camp that I visited last year. So here it goes –

First of all, I want to dedicate this story to all those who lost their lives in that camp. God Bless Their Souls.

7th November 2019 11:30 pm

It was exactly one hour till my flight to Poland I was just sitting there in the Indra Gandhi international airport New Delhi waiting to go on the most exciting journey of my life or so I thought

8th November 2019 5:00 pm

I reached Poland just got off the plane went to the hotel the next day I was supposed to go to Auschwitz I couldn’t wait!!!

9th November 9:00 am

Yes!! The day finally arrived; I was all set to go to Auschwitz

11:00am

Reached Auschwitz. Reaching there everything felt dark it seemed as if it was a very cold and dreadful day. I had written many essays on this camp in school but being there it felt like I was one of the prisoners I realized many souls lost their lives for no reason that’s how horrendous this camp was from that day I realised how cruel and inhumane humans are towards each other

Anyway……...

The tour continues-

Entering the camp there was this gate and ”ARBEIT MACHT FREI” was written in big bold letters it means that work will set you free many people paid for that tour but many of them turned back as they read the dark sign which was so misleading according to me it should be the welcome to hell at that time I thought that the sun never shone at Auschwitz, it was horrible going inside as I was walking inside I could see the railway tracks and barbed fence which were electrified and an if a person would try to escape and get electrocuted when I entered the camp it felt very cold seeing a place where millions of people were murdered for no apparent reason. I could see the anger, restlessness and nervousness on the people there as they walked inside that camp

The first blocked that we walked into was the extermination building, block 4. That building was full of pictures of the prisoners and the women children elderly handicapped who were brought to this camp by a train to die and they had no idea the tour guide showed us the original manuscripts of world war 2 on which there was a record of the person who died there and their reason of death

The next block number 5 was difficult of them all it was actual proof of crime there were remains of the prisoners at Auschwitz before they had been sent to die it was horrible seeing all of those clothes, shoes, glasses, hair of people who were tortured to death I felt so lonely being there it was like I could feel every prisoner just standing next to me. the most difficult section to see there was the prosthetic limbs, the clutches and the braces which were taken away from those poor handicapped people and I could not help but stare at on or two shoes there wondering who they belonged to.

The next building that we went to block 7 they were the living conditions of the initial days of the camp. they were so horrible and inhumane the instructor told us that the prisoners used to sleep with dead corpses just to provide warmth to their body as they were given no blankets or shawls some people who went against the Nazis as a punishment their clothes were taken away and were forced to sleep naked in the cold and chilly weather they were terrible living conditions

Then we went to block 11 it was the block where people were tortured and experimented on. there was also a room where people were forced to strip naked and then they were taken to the death wall I could see the clothes of those poor prisoners. they were rooms where people were shot and suffocated to death it was sickening listening to the tour guide tell us about all of these dreadful actions

Just outside block 7 seven there was the wall of death where people were shot naked sometimes in pairs and sometimes alone it was awful seeing that well and I saw that many people had kept flowers there to pay tribute to the people who lost their lives

After that we walked into one of the gas chambers, I don’t know why we were allowed to see such a terrible place where millions were murdered, they were suffocated to death. Going inside it felt like that I had entered hell. the walls, the floors all were black it was such an ugly room I couldn’t see a single window only the gas chimneys were visible. I thought that the word chamber  such an ugly word and which truly described the feeling of the room

We walked a few miles and reached the excavation camp also known as Birkenau

 There was a train station where people were bought segregated healthy people were kept as workers and the rest of them were sent to the gas chambers

We also saw ruins of one of the biggest gas chambers which were burned down to hide the evidence

After this we saw where people slept, they were very small cells where 5 people slept in one cell it was made up of concrete and people had to sleep there without any sheet blankets or shawls people sometimes slept on the pathway on the dirt because they were too many of them

In those cells, there were rats, diseases and all sorts of insects. standing there seeing everything in Infront of your eyes and realising what really happened there was very difficult to grasp I imagined what if I was there at that time I would have panicked and not been able o survive

But I still that its important such places so that humans don’t repeat their mistakes again and the world can be a happy place



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This article has 1 comment.


Lydiaq ELITE said...
on Sep. 25 2021 at 7:15 pm
Lydiaq ELITE, Somonauk, Illinois
172 articles 54 photos 1026 comments

Favorite Quote:
The universe must be a teenage girl. So much darkness, so many stars.
--me

I could not have handled such a visit. What is beyond me is how they could turn a death camp into a museum. It doesn't seem right to be able to walk out as a visitor when millions of people did not have that option.