Due to a request, I apparantly do need to say more about Auschwitz and Birkenau.
Auschwitz was actually smaller than I thought it would be. Seeing the gates for the first time was ver eerie. To me, that was the symbol of the Holocaust. Once through the gates, there were the barracks. Inside the barracks, there was an exhibit about Auschwitz. There were rooms filled with confiscated items like suitcases, brushes, shoes, prosthetic legs, and hair. The gas chamber was really creepy. Auschwitz only has one gas chamber because the camp was to small and the chamber was too close to the barracks so the other prisoners could hear them screaming. The gas chamber was unlike the others because it doesn't have the pretense of a shower. It is simply a room that they shove prisoners togethr and kill them. I lit a candle and said the Kaddish in the chamber before we left.
Birkenau was completely different. It was huge and had the railroad tracks running through the center. The barracks there were creepier than at Auschwitz because they weren't reconstructed and they were rock and concrete. Birkenau was a place people went to die so the living space didn't have to be decent at all. The gas chambers were destroyed but a memorial remains. Some of the barracks were destroyed and we found silverwear and cracked mugs in the ruins. I lit a candle and said the Kaddish by the gas chamber and crematorium ruins in Birkenau.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
May 31, 2009-Munich Day 2
Today is our last full day in Europe! We went to the Neuschwanstein Castle. King Ludwig II started building the castle in 1872. Unfortunately, he died in 1889 at a very young age and the castle was never finished. He only lived in the castle for 172 days before his death. Is death is a mystery. One day, his psychiatrist told him that he had a mental illness and was unfit to run the Kingdom of Bavaria. The next morning, both Ludwig II and his psychiatrist were found dead in the nearby lake. The castle was decorated very elaborately and expensively. Each room had a theme that was the story of one of Wagner's operas. The rooms also had a very religious theme as well. The castle is the model that Walt Disney used for the signature Disney Castle. There were swans everywhere because Ludwig II was apparantly very fond of them. It was the most detailed castle I have ever seen.
Later, we drove to Dachau. Dachau was different from the other concentration camps because it was originally set up to be a prison. It as the first concentration camp and was built in 1933. Because it was set up to be a prison, the gas chamber wasn't added to the camp until after the Wansee Conference. While killings were common, they weren't the purpose of the camp. People survived from its conception until 1945 because of this. However, like the rest of the camps, they were evacuated and people were executed all over the place... then typhus broke out (which is why everyone looked so emanciated)... One unique thing I learned about Dachau which differs from the other camps is how the prisoners related to each other. They helped each other and risked beatings and murder. The formed social networks and conversed about things outside the camp. This made them stronger in my opinion and kept their humanity. When the camp was liberated, they found box cars full of bodies who had been left to die. When the prisoners finally realized they were free, they tore the Kapos apart with their bare hands. (For those who don't know, Kapos were prisoners who were in charge of the other prisoners. They enforced the rules with brutal punishments and were treated better than regular prisoners.) After Dachau, we went back to the city center of Munich for dinner.
Later, we drove to Dachau. Dachau was different from the other concentration camps because it was originally set up to be a prison. It as the first concentration camp and was built in 1933. Because it was set up to be a prison, the gas chamber wasn't added to the camp until after the Wansee Conference. While killings were common, they weren't the purpose of the camp. People survived from its conception until 1945 because of this. However, like the rest of the camps, they were evacuated and people were executed all over the place... then typhus broke out (which is why everyone looked so emanciated)... One unique thing I learned about Dachau which differs from the other camps is how the prisoners related to each other. They helped each other and risked beatings and murder. The formed social networks and conversed about things outside the camp. This made them stronger in my opinion and kept their humanity. When the camp was liberated, they found box cars full of bodies who had been left to die. When the prisoners finally realized they were free, they tore the Kapos apart with their bare hands. (For those who don't know, Kapos were prisoners who were in charge of the other prisoners. They enforced the rules with brutal punishments and were treated better than regular prisoners.) After Dachau, we went back to the city center of Munich for dinner.
May 30, 2009-Nuremurg and Munich Day 1
After only one night in Linz, where Hitler grew up, we left for Nuremurg. We went to the location of the Nuremburg Trials where they tried numerous Nazis in high ranks for the crimes they commited during the Holocaust. We learned a lot about the political aspects that occured during the war and how the Third Reich got started. After the audio tour of the museum and looking at the unfinished buildings, we took a walk around the lake to Hitler's stadium wherehe gave speeches and hopped on the bus to head to Munich. After we checked into the hotel, we just chilled there because we had to wake up at 5:30 the next day.
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