Looking through ‘Death’s Gates’
Throughout my school life, the Holocaust has been a regularly discussed topic. The majority of British people will have some understanding of the Second World War. However, I doubt that many, when waiting in silence to remember those who died in the two wars, think of the millions of Jews who died in the Nazi death camps.
I was fortunate enough to gain an opportunity to visit both Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz Birkenau through the ‘Holocaust Educational Trust’. Along with another fellow pupil from Trinity I would start a journey to learn the ‘Lessons From Auschwitz’.
I left Exeter airport at five o’clock on a Thursday morning. The drowsiness was wearing off and I began to think about the other people in Britain. Trinity would be preparing to open the school for the first day of term, people would be getting ready for work and there I was on my way to experience a life quite different.
When we think about the 388 thousand British soldiers and civilians who died in the Second World War most of us feel shocked and sorrowful at the huge loss of life. However, this number is nothing compared to the Jewish death toll between the years leading up to the war and the eventual liberation of the Nazi death camps. Approximately six million Jews were murdered for simply belonging to a different faith and culture.
People had told me that no birds fly over Auschwitz. I was expecting it to be eerily silent, with no sign of life, so when I arrived at Auschwitz Birkenau I was surprised at the vegetation and the calls of birds. It was almost like nature had forgotten the death and decay that once surrounded the camp. I was then reminded of the reason why I was here. I was to become an ambassador, to share my experience and knowledge that I have gained with others. We need to ensure that the events of the Holocaust won’t be forgotten and such discrimination will never happen again. However, I’m not sure that society has learnt its lessons. Today, around the world, discrimination is still at large. For example, thousands of people are dead as a result of the genocide in Darfur.
As a got off the coach at ‘Death’s gates’, the entrance to Auschwitz Birkenau, I was stunned at the enormity of the camp. There was a distance of three miles from the two furthest points. Standing, looking out from the watchtower I could see rows of crumbling barracks. Few are left standing and most only have their stone chimney remaining. However, we were able to enter one of the wooden lodgings where 700 prisoners of war would try and survive when they were only built for 52 horses. The Nazis tried to destroy most of the camp as it was incriminating evidence, this included the crematoriums which only remain as rubble.
Having gone to Auschwitz, people often ask me if I ‘had a good time?’ My response is that ‘good’ isn’t quite the appropriate feeling but it was possibly the most intense and emotional experience I have ever had and I recommend to them that they go, because hearing is not like seeing.
The day was closed with a reflection, led by Rabbi Marcus. We stood in the shadows of the memorial at Auschwitz Birkenau, a group of humble students feeling separate from the rest of the world. A Jewish song rang through the silence and I felt numb. We turned our steps back towards the ‘Death gates’ from which we had entered. Down the remaining railway lines that once carried carriages full of innocent men, women and children to their almost certain death. Here I laid a candle, to show my respects and as a symbol that there is hope in this world. Hope that we will one day live in a world where discrimination is extinct.
I left Krakow airport at nine o’clock on a Thursday evening. I thought about the people of Britain, many would be putting children to bed or sitting down to dinner with their families. This would have been the case for Jewish people all over the world. Each person who was killed at Auschwitz was an individual, they would have had families and friends, just like you or me. So I ask you, on the 11th of November, when you’re waiting in silence for the heroes of Britain, to take a moment to remember the innocent victims of Auschwitz. For, if you were to wait a minute for each life that was destroyed at Auschwitz, you would be waiting in silence for four years.
Posted by
Hannah Wilce
Date
08/06/2009 11:39:00