Weimar and Buchenwald

This past weekend (November 7-9) our class took a trip with our Professor/Program Direcor Hans-Peter Soeder to the historic German city of Weimar. We took the train there, I think it was 4 or 5 hours but it was comfortable. On Friday night we arrived in Weimar and got on another train and hiked up to this 12th century castle and had a knightly dinner. What does that mean? Well we did everything like knights would have and ate what they ate and how they would have ate.

When we got there we had to put on one of those napkins that you tuck into your shirts, but since this was the middle ages, one of the girls had to come up behind you and tie it around your neck for you and give you a kiss on the cheek after. We then indulged in a lot of bread with lard, grapes, apples, and beer. Lots and lots of bread. And lots and lots of beer.

Here is the food and plate

Throughout the dinner our host, who was dressed as a man from the middle ages, organized games for us. There was darts, a middle ages dance, the firing of a crossbow, and other strange but fun stuff. We all had a blast doing it and our host was great. After the bread and stuff we had a bowl of soup jam packed with incredibly tender meat. With of course bread. After that we all got a chicken leg to eat, which was also delicious. It cam with bread. After that is when we did the games and stuff and we were all kind of hoping there would be more food. Then BAM! He brings out this giant tray of roasts. Each one was over a pound, just a huge, delicious, tender brick of meat. That was amazing.

Putting a beating down on the chicken

The roast putting a beating down on me

Modelling some lard and bread. I think I had 10-15 slices

Overall the castle experience was incredible. We had an incredible time. It was a blast. However, the last train from where we were back to Weimar left at 11:05 pm, so at 10:30 we were like uhhhh we should go... because its a far walk. Then about half way through the walk our professor was like uhhhh no we need to run. So we got there right when the train was arriving. I then tried on Cam's glasses, which might be my new look

I look somewhat sophisticated

The next day we visited the house of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a famous German poet, who is basically like the German Shakespeare, only actually interesting and fun to read (oohhhhh burn Shakespeare) 

We toured his house and I actually had to give my Referat, which is basically an oral report, about Goethe's house, while standing in Goethe's garden, which was cool. 

Giving my Referat in Goethe's garden

After the tour we got to go off on our own to look for some food. Cam Josh and I got a delicious sausage on a roll and then went to a bakery for an underwhelming dessert and coffee. Oh well. Can't win them all. 

We then met as a class again at the Bauhaus Museum. It was weird. I did not like it. Some of us decided to leave and take the 20 minute bus ride to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. 

Buchenwald, much like Auschwitz II Birkenau, was mostly destroyed. We were also there late so the main exhibition was closed, so we just toured the grounds. It did not compare to Auschwitz, but I was still really glad to be able to see it. Here are some photos.

The main gate

"To each his own" or "To each what he deserves" written in the gate to the camp

This is the site of the old quarry, where the prisoners would be forced to work

The view from Buchenwald overlooked a valley, and it was strange how beautiful it was there

We did not have much time at Buchenwald because we had to be in Weimar for 6:30 for a play, so we went back. The play was really weird. I don't know what happened. It was weird.

After the play Cam and Josh and I went on a hunt for good food. For some reason we went for pizza, and it was absolutely terrible. Mine had whole olives just strewn across the pizza. It was just terrible. Here is a photo of Josh and Cam expressing their disgust 

Keen observers will note that all of the pizza was eaten

After this we met up at a place called Havana Club Weimar with the rest of the group and had some drinks. We all had a great time, stayed there until about 1 am when I was getting ready to fall asleep at the table. It was a good time though. We went back to the Hostel, where one of the girls in our group had baked a cake, so we ate that and went to bed. It was delicious.

Cam and I at Havana Club Weimar

On Sunday we woke up and had to take an 8 hour bus ride from Weimar to Munich. It actually was not bad at all though. I thought I would hate it. The highlight was driving through Nuremberg, which was incredibly beautiful, Hopefully I go soon. The lowlight was when I got a bloody nose on the bus. It was incredibly thick and went on for about 10 minutes. I got blood everywhere and filled up the sink with blood. It was a disaster and was so thick it looked like my brains were coming out. I thought I was going to bleed out right there in a bus bathroom in Germany.

Here are some more random photos from Weimar

Group photo in Goethe's Garden

Group photo at Geothe's and Schiller's famous statue

Group photo outside the castle

That's all for now. I honestly will start trying to be better at this blogging thing and do it more often. Until next time, whenever that is

Day 4: Auschwitz II Birkenau

On Sunday morning we went to Auschwitz II Birkenau. It was very foggy and quite cold so the death camp had a particularly eerie feel to it that morning. Here is the photo I took of the famous gate. I know I posted it in the other one too but oh well.

The contrast between Auschwitz II and Auschwitz I cannot be overstated. The blocks that housed the prisoners at Auschwitz I looked like mansions compared to Birkenau. Also surprising was the number of buildings destroyed at Birkenau. A majority of the buildings were destroyed. Birkenau was also huge. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from the back of the camp where the gas chambers and crematoriums back to the front gate.

We first looked at the living quarters of the prisoners. We were there on about a 50 degree day, and it was not raining or snowing or anything, but it was still uncomfortable, and when you walk into the blocks the prisoners were housed in, it did not get the least bit warmer.

This is the inside of the barracks, and as you can tell, it is not very well put together or warm looking

The only source of warm came from these fire places, there was one on each in with the tunnel going down the floor in the middle 

This is the bathroom. 3 rolls of about 100 circles cut into concrete. No privacy, and if you took too long you were beaten

Cattle Car and guard tower

This is a cattle car that was used to transport victims to the camp. Hundreds of people were stuffed into these for days with no food or water

If you did not pass the selection, and were chosen to be sent to the gas chamber, you would walk through this gate and down a road to your death

This is that road

Remnants of one of the crematorium (I believe #2)

The pit that the ashes of the dead would be dumped into

We  then saw the remnants of the gas chamber. All 4 gas chambers and crematorium at Birkenau were destroyed by the fleeing Nazis as the Russians closed in

So this is what Crematorium/Gas Chamber II looked like during the war. The left underground tunnel is where the victims would undress. They would then be herded into the underground tunnel on the right, where they would be gassed. The bodies would then be shaved and have their gold teeth removed by members of the Sonderkommando, who were prisoners forced to do this. The Sonderkommando would then take the bodies up into the middle part of the facility shown above, which is the crematorium, and burn the bodies, normally 3 at a time. 

So this is what it looked like today. a little hard to visualize, but do your best. In order for it to make sense, you actually need to rotate the diagram above so that the changing room in on the right, crematorium in the middle, the the gas chambers traveling in a north east direction away from you. Or imagine you were looking at the diagram from directly above. You need to rotate the whole thing so that instead of the changing rooms pointing towards the 9 on the clock it is pointing towards the 6. Are you thoroughly confused now? Good.

This is the changing room. They had hooks and were made to believe that they were going to take a shower, being told to make sure they remember where their stuff is so when they are done their shower they can proceed quickly to hot food

So this is where it gets tricky. Did not take a good photo. But you are looking at the intersection of the changing room, gas chamber, and crematorium. So the changing room is to the right of this photo. The straight line of debris that starts from the rubble on the left side of this photo, and heads away from me in this picture, is the gas chamber. The rubble on the left is the corner of the crematorium

Same photo as the other, only zoomed out. This time you can see the remnants of the crematorium on the left

This is Crematorium/Gas Chamber number 3. So the tunnel on the left in the foreground is the changing room, the tunnel on the left in the background is the gas chamber, and the rubble in the middle is the crematorium 

The entrance to the changing room of Crematorium/Gas Chamber III

We then went over to a building called the Sauna. This is where, if you were lucky enough (or unlucky enough?) not to be selected for immediate death, you were sent to be shaved, tattooed, and issued clothing

This is the Sauna. I am not sure why it has that nickname

This is where prisoners were registered

Clothes were disinfected here for the prisoners

Also here

In this room prisoners were shaved and tattooed

Not far from the Sauna  is this, the remnants of the White house, where the first temporary gas chamber was set up. It was just a normal house that the Nazis bricked up to use for gassing

In my last blog I talked about Canada, where prisoner's belongings were stored. Well at the sites of the destroyed buildings where Canada was is this exhibit where it is all stuff that was found in the ground in Canada after the war. Victims were told before being deported to Auschwitz that they should bring everything they need to live a new life, so a lot of the things in here was dishes, bowls, scissors, forks, knives spoons 

As you can see

When the ground is wet, as it was when we were there, stuff actually still bubbles up from the ground in Canada. we found these scissors and other silverware remnants. There is actually a polish police officer there all the time to make sure you do not take anything

This is where Crematorium Number 4 was, the site of the famous Sonderkommando revolt

This is a pond right next to Crematorium 4. Sonderkommndo members have gone on record saying that sometimes they would throw the gold teeth they pulled off the gassed bodies and other jewels into this pond so that the Germans would not have it

One of the benefits of having a tour guide was being able to access the tower on top of the famous Birkenau building that the train tracks run through. If you do not have a tour guide, you cannot do this.

View from the tower. you can see how big the camp is, and it goes on forever to the left and right as well

Same view, zoomed in

After this we boarded back on vans and went back to Krakow. It was a truly amazing trip. When we got back to Krakow we did some shopping in the square I posted pictures of in my earlier blog. I would really like to be able to go back to Auschwitz 

THEN CAME THE FUN OF COMING HOME

Monday morning I was supposed to have a 630 am flight. It got cancelled at about 11 pm when I was already asleep. At 330 I woke up to a text from mom saying hey its been cancelled, figure it out. So I got to the airport at 445 am to wait in line to be rebooked. At 7 am it is finally my turn, and the lady says the earliest flight is tomorrow at 1 pm. Obviously that won't work I have class. so they came up this great plan of buying my a taxi from Krakow airport to city center, then having me buy my own train ticket from Krakow to Warsaw, so that I can take a 5pm flight from Warsaw to Munich. The train ride was 4 hours and costs 40 Euros. So instead of getting in Munich at 8 am so I could go to my 11:30 class, I had to spend 40 euros and arrive at 8pm. I wrote to Lufthansa like they told me to so that I could reimbursed for my train ticket and food and it has been a week and they haven't responded to me. For those of keeping score at home, Lufthansa is now at -3276, with seemingly no hope of going up

Day 3: Auschwitz I

We boarded vans in Krakow and headed to Auschwitz. I have no idea how long of a ride it was, probably less than an hour. We arrived at the Auschwitz Jewish Center there and toured the museum and got a little history about the city of Auschwitz before and after the Germans came and established the camp.

We checked into our hotel, called the Auschwitz Center for Dialogue and Prayer, which is directly across the street from Auschwitz I. We had a delicious lunch and then went to Auschwitz I.

So a little history for those who may need it. Auschwitz I was, of course, established first and was primarily a concentration/work camp. Auschwitz I is the camp with the famous "arbeit macht frei" sign above the camp gate. Auschwitz I did have a small gas chamber and crematorium, but when Auschwitz II was built it became obsolete. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is a separate camp entirely, a few miles down the road from Auschwitz I and was primarily an extermination/death camp. This is the one with the 4 huge gas chambers and crematoriums, and is also the one that is famously photographed with the railroad tracks leading through the building.

Like this

There is also the very little known Auschwitz III (Monowitz) camp that is a few miles further from Birkenau, which was for the workers of the infamous IG Farben chemical company, which used prisoners as slave labor to produce among other things, the chemical Zyklon B, which was used to exterminate the prisoners of the camps. Synthetic rubber was also produced by Monowitz.

Ok so we have that cleared up. So this blog will be about Auschwitz I.

For me, I was really anticipating visiting the camp because practically my whole life I have been reading about the Holocaust and Auschwitz and an extremely visual person. So for me I was excited to visit the camp so that I could better understand the books I have read and will read in the future.

We had a tour guide, which is kind of nice because you see the most important things, because there are so many exhibits, but at the same time, I like to go at my own pace and I generally like to spend way more time in museums than other people. But ultimately it was fine. 

The famous gate

The famous sign

Looking down between the electrified barbed wire fence. SS guards with dogs would patrol through this path.

One thing that struck me about Auschwitz I was how strangely beautiful it was. The building looked nice, like a small village. Was not expecting that at all. All the buildings look like this

And have nice lanterns like this

To be honest I am not really sure what to say in this blog. We have all read about the Holocaust, we all know the numbers, we have all read about Auschwitz. So this blog will mostly be pictures with captions explaining. Besides that I don't really know what to say. The photos speak for themselves I think.

A depiction of a cattle car transport to Auschwitz

The poison gas Zyklon B used to gas prisoners. A SS man wearing a gas mask would open a hatch in the top of the gas chamber and pour canister containing Zyklon B crystals into the chamber, where it would usually take about 20 minutes for the victims to pass away

The canisters it came in

You will note that this canister says "Giftgas! Zyklon" In German the word gift ironically means poison

The following are photos of things that people took with them to Auschwitz and had taken off them before they were killed. These items were taken to an area of the camp called "Canada" where the items were stored. The prisoners called it "Canada" because they believed Canada to be the land of riches. The items stored in Canada would be disinfected and sold by the Third Reich to fund the war. So here at the photos.

That is all hair. They have  2 tons of hair contained in the exhibit, running the entire length of one the buildings, called blocks. The hair was sold at a rate of 50 cents per 1kg

Glasses

Prosthetic limbs. Anyone with a prosthetic limb upon arrival to Auschwitz was immediately sent to the gas chamber

Dishes

Luggage. Th Germans instructed their victims to write their name and hometown on their luggage

Shoes

 There were more exhibits like this, showing things such as shoe polish and children's clothes and shoes and silverware, but these are the most famous and best photos I took.

One interesting exhibit was a hallway with photos of prisoners who were killed usually around 1942/43. In the beginning the Germans photographed the prisoners so that they could find them if they escaped, but soon it became too expensive and the prisoners were being killed so fast it was no longer worth it. Here is an example of one of the photos

And the hallway

The part of the camp that I really wanted to see was Block 11. Block 11 was infamous in Auschwitz because it was where prisoners were taken to be tortured. The idea that within Auschwitz, hell on earth, there is still a single place that prisoners feared. Prisoners would be locked into standing cells, dark cells, tortured, beaten, and taken out to courtyard to be executed. Block 11 is also where the first executions of prisoners by Zyklon B gas took place.

The entrance to the courtyard between Block 10 (on left) and Block 11 (on right)

Execution Wall at the end, Block 10 on left, Block 11 on right

The recreated execution wall, where thousands of priosners were taken to be executed 

This is poles where prisoners would be tied to and beaten before execution. Block 10 is in the background, and note how the windows are covered so the prisoners could not see what was happening outside

Cell in the basement of Block 11, similar to a dark cell

A cover over the window, to create a dark cell in the basement of Block 11

The entrance to a standing cell

The broke the wall down so you could see what a standing cell looks like. The picture does not do it justice. No food, no water, no light, barely large enough to fit in, to small to sit 

A typical guard tower along the wall of the camp

This is the guard house in front of the courtyard where roll call would be called every morning. Prisoners were forced to stand here for hours on end, the longest recorded was 19 straight hours, regardless of the weather. The tower is to protect the SS men from the elements while the prisoners suffered. If the prisoners collapsed they were beaten and sometimes killed.

We then went to the gas chamber and crematorium. 

The entrance to the gas chamber

The entrance to the actual chamber were prisoners were gassed. The doors would be shut and the gas dropped through a hole in the ceiling. The door shown on the left is the door to the crematorium 

Shown here

The bodies were taken through the door and put on that rack and rolled into the brick furnace, where the bodies were burned

In 1947 the Commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess, was executed in Auschwitz by hanging right next to the gas chamber. Here is the gallows used. 

I took over 300 photos at Auschwitz, but I think the ones here give a good idea of the camp.

Read the next blog for Auschwitz II Birkenau