Holocaust memorial day 2015 + my concentration camp experiences.

So today, Tuesday the 27th of January 2015 marks 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz- Birkenau and it is known as the Holocaust memorial day. In light of todays event's I thought I would share my experience on visiting two concentration camps and my thoughts on being a Jew in 2015. 

Let me preface this by saying my fathers side of the family is Jewish therefore somewhat making me half Jewish and it is something I am extremely proud of. Yesterday I wrote a blog post on my top 5 Holocaust books which I'll link here. 

So back in March of 2011 I was given the chance along with others from my year group to go on a school trip to Berlin (which coincided with our GCSE history course). I immediately said yes as this was something I personally wanted to do. Some of the places we visited were the Wannsee Conference House where the final solution to the Jews was decided, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. 

Wannsee Conference House

Sachsenhausen camp

The first thing I noticed when we entered Sachsenhausen concentration camp was there were no birds, it was a beautiful spring morning yet there was no noise. Trees were growing but there were no flowers, death still lingered 70 years on. I instantly felt very overwhelmed when walking through the gates marked "arbeit macht fret" and tears welled up. I found it a time to be alone and often shied away from my peers despite their comforting words. Sachsenhausen is known for holding mostly "criminals" and it's extensive medical experiments.

Our teacher (who was also Jewish) wouldn't take us into a gas chamber as he felt it would be too distressing however I was extremely curious to know what lied behind closed doors. One room he did take us to was an underground chamber in which they would hold dead bodies for their experiments. Everything about it felt like a gas chamber cold, dark and blood stained, as out teacher closed the door slightly I felt extremely confined and wanted to get out as soon as possible. We then went over to the museum in which you can see where one of the barracks was torched in 1992 by Neo Nazis, It disgusts me that such people are aloud to freely walk the place and that such groups still exist. 

In the Museum they had books and online software which gave the names of the dead. There I was looking at a book which contained my last name, it was then reinforced by my peers showing me on the computers. It's not a very common name therefore there is a high chance we are related, once again I felt the need to step away from my classmates and have a moment to myself. 

Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. 

Another monument we visited was the Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe which features large blocks of concrete varying in different heights and sizes. I found it really moving to walk through and it felt like you could see the light at the end of the tunnel but it was extremely hard to get their due to the uneven flooring. Over the years the memorial has been subjected to vandalism. Whilst we were there both class mates and children were seen running through and on the concrete which I felt was extremely disrespectful to what it represented. 

Overall it is definitely a trip I will never forget. 

Auschwitz I

In February of 2012 my dad and I decided to take the trip to Poland to visit Auschwitz, it was something we had both wanted to do for a while and it was an unbelievable and completely different experience to the one at Sachsenhausen. As you can see from the photo above it had been snowing and therefore added to the experience as it made you imagine how cold they would of been in just thin rags. I can only imagine that they never got warm as I had about 5 layers on and a hot bath still couldn't warm me. 

We were taken on a guided trip around Auschwitz 1 and it was very educating to have someone tell you about all the different buildings. Once again it was extremely quite and all I could hear was the leader speaking and our boots on the snowy paths. We passed small cells, endless amounts of barbed wire and a wall where they would line inmates up and shoot them. 

One thing that surprised me was that you could smell death, literally there was a distinct smell in the air that can only be described as death and burning bodies. It is something that has stuck with me 3 years on. 

Parts of some buildings had been turned into museums and housed thousands of prisoners personal belongings such as shoes, suitcases and prosthetic limbs. 

Prisoner's glasses

Our tour guide then proceeded to take us to the gas chamber. I knew instantly I had to see it for myself however my dad was quite hesitant and only poked his head in. It was extremely eerie as you can almost hear the thousands of screams and see the scratch marks on the walls. The large room had only one window located in the ceiling where the officials would drop the poison in. I didn't want to stay in there for too long and proceeded to the room next door which housed the ovens for them to quickly and continuously burn the bodies. 

After that we were then taken a couple miles down the road to Auschwitz-Birkenau which is the main camp and famous for its elaborate entrance and train tracks. It was extraordinary to see the vast amount of space and we only walked a very small amount of it. We walked into what should of been barracks for houses yet it would of housed hundreds of people inside each one. I remember my dad and I didn't talk much as we were going around as we were too busy taking in our surroundings. 

 I naturally wanted to document everything I saw and took hundreds of photos, it wasn't until I got home that I saw something interesting in one of my images. A small number had been etched/written on the side of a bunk, I'm not sure what it meant but I can only assume that it was a prisoners number. You can see this in the bottom right corner. 

Overall I'm really glad that I made the trip as it was something that I personally needed to do. I felt extremely moved that I could walk around there FREELY with my dad and at the end of the day walk back out of those gates when so many couldn't. 

I asked my dad what he felt about our trip and he said "it was very sad and moving but he felt he had to go, if you want to see grow men cry that's the place to go".

The Holocaust is something we need as a generation and as humans to learn from and always remember otherwise it will happen again. This quote that I found in Auschwitz 1 is extremely accurate.

In 2015 we have already encountered the terrorist attack in France and anti-semitism is at one of its highest points, I feel that more needs to be done to support those who feel in fear just because of who they are or what they believe. I reiterate that I am extremely proud of who I am and where my family have come from and I will continue to voice my experiences and thoughts on the Holocaust as soon there won't be survivors left but just their stories to tell.

Until next time, Sophie