Saturday 27 January 2007

Holocaust Memorial Day


Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, as it is the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz/Birkenau in present-day southern Poland by Russian forces moving against Nazi Germany. Auschwitz was not the first concentration camp to be liberated, but it has achieved extreme notoriety.


Auschwitz ended up being a slaughterhouse for human beings, set up specifically to kill and destroy on an industrial scale. During the early 1940s, the Nazi regimes in Germany and countries occupied during pushes in 1940 and 1941 had a policy of isolating those sections of society that were deemed to be inferior. A special focus was on the Jews, but the nefarious race laws meant that anyone who did not fit the description of the Aryan race was liable to be removed.

Following a period of social isolation, Jews and others would be rounded up in pogroms (raids, in some places referred to as razzias) and taken to the railway station. From there, trains would take them to concentration camps. This is not a Nazi invention; they were first conceived by the British during the Boer Wars in South Africa around the turn of the 19th/20th century. Apart from Auschwitz/Birkenau, there were hundreds of concentration camps across occupied Europe. Infamous names include Dachau, near Munich, Mauthausen in Austria, Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbrück to name but a few in Germany; Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia; Westerbork in Holland.

At the concentration camps, people would be stowed on board cattle trucks, box cars, without any facilities whatsoever. Water, toilets, food were all NOT provided. The journey could take days. The train would carry an armed guard, and anyone trying to abscond was liable to be shot on sight.

On arrival at Auschwitz, people would be hounded off the train like animals. Men, women and children would be lined up and brought in front of an SS officer [SS were the elite soldiers of the Nazis; the letters stand for Schutz Staffel, Adolf Hitler's Lifeguard]. He would decide for anyone to go right or left. One direction meant imminent death; the other meant survival in a labour camp. Those sent to the wrong direction would be directed into a changing room for the purpose of de-lousing. They were ordered to remove all their clothes, and everyone would be crammed into a small chamber with showerheads dangling from the ceiling. The last to leave was an SS officer who would throw some Zyklon-B crystals into the room. These would release hydrogen cyanide gas, which can kill in minutes.

After half an hour, the room would be opened and all inside were dead. The bodies were propped up into the walls as high as they would get to escape the gas which was at its densest nearest the floor. None would escape its deadly effects. The bodies were removed and any gold teeth extracted. The belongings would be meticulously sorted and logged. The bodies were then taken to furnaces and incinerated. This was done at an industrial scale. One to two million people were killed in this fashion at Auschwitz alone.

When Russian forces approached the camps, the Nazis tried to obliterate all traces of their evil work by blowing up the ovens. Sufficient evidence remained though. Auschwitz remains today as it was found 62 years ago. The gate with the euphemistic quote "Arbeit macht frei" [Labour Liberates], and the barbed wire fences, which were electrified. The sheds, housing those working in the camp. For the Nazi soldiers couldn't operate this death factory on their own. It was inmates that fed the ovens.

People visit Auschwitz to this day, and find it an overwhelming experience, to visit a place where so many died - because of sheer malice. Personally, I have not been there, and am not likely to visit.

This entry is dedicated to Holocaust Memorial Day, to those that died at the hands of the Nazi doctrine. There is plenty of further, detailed reading on this subject; I suggest this link.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

8 comments:

  1. I've been there, about six years ago I did a tour of Eastern Europe and a trip to Auschwitz was included, no opting out as we stopped there on our way to Jasna Gora. I didn't stay inside for long, all the personal belongings of those poor people and going inside the gas chamber were just too much to look at. I think the whole place should be burnt, it's the most evil place I've been too. Jeannette xx  http://journals.aol.co.uk/jlocorriere05/Welcometomytravels/  

    ReplyDelete
  2. I still can't believe people can be so cruel to have allowed this to happen.  This was something that never should be forgotten.
    Pam

    ReplyDelete
  3. There are no words that can express my feelings about this so I won't even try, may God bless all those that died and all those that survived this nightmare, Sam xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello....I wanted to thank you for sharing this information. I have read "The Diary of Anne Frank" several times but I am glad you shared this piece of information about the Holocaust. It is sad to know that people could do such horrible things to people but we also see it in on the news about the war in Iraq. We should all remember times like this especially with a war going on. Thanks for this very informative entry. Do take care.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I didn't know it was a memorial day.  Didn't even know there was one.  But I am glad to know that you and others are keeping the truth of what occured out there for the world to see.  It gives me chills that some think it never happened.  -  Barbara

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pittsburgh has a huge Jewish community so this is a day that is well marked here.  I have mixed feelings of keeping Auschwitz open.  To many Jews, it's a grave site and memorial for their loved ones; yet to others it's a huge hole in their hearts.  I'm not sure I would want to visit it.  I've seen some horrid pictures as my father and ex FIL were both in Germany during WW II.  Chris

    ReplyDelete
  7. It gives me chills just to read it... can't imagine the experience of visiting there... I would like one day, to pay homage.

    be well,
    Dawn

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good of you to remind us that we should never forget what happend in those camps.
    bella xx

    ReplyDelete