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Auschwitz I:
A lesson in honoring survivors' stories
We first walked
with Noémi through Auschwitz I. Noémi was never
a prisoner here, but the tour was invaluable because it gave Noémi
reason to voice her concerns about how the story of the Holocaust
must be told, and how tour guides must honor Holocaust sites.
07/01/06 8:30
am [on the tour bus]
It’s 8:30 in the
morning, July 1, exactly 62 years after Noémi first arrived as a prisoner
at Auschwitz. At noon we’ll arrive at Auschwitz I itself ... Noémi will have visited
Auschwitz II - Birkenau earlier in the morning with her son Steven and her
granddaughter Julia. Noémi wants time to walk through Auschwitz before
the rest of the group and the cameras, to mentally prepare. I don't know what
to expect. Will Noémi be overcome and cry? Will I?
I had butterflies
in my chest. I had heard Noémi tell of her suffering in Auschwitz before and
had read her book, and they had moved me deeply. How would I react in Auschwitz
I, let along Auschwitz II, the very place where her suffering happened?
11:30 am [outside Auschwitz I]
Sean: This
starts the first of my recordings… As I look around I notice there are some shops and restaurants.
I
think that’s a little tasteless in a place like this. I think I heard it upset Noémi, which is one of the reasons we brought our own lunches here.
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12:21
pm
Sean: We walked
through the gates of Auschwitz I, under the
infamous sign made out
of wrought-iron metal. It said “Arbeit Macht Frei,” “Work Makes
You Free.” Which, it never did at this camp. There were two rows of
barbed wire fences which had been electrified at the time, and there
were signs with skull and crossbones on the inside that said, “STOJ,”
apparently
"STOP." |
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The tour guides said there is no way to be
certain, but the estimate is that 1.5 million Jews were murdered in
Auschwitz. 448,000 were taken from Hungary to Auschwitz. 400,000 were
murdered. Only 48,000 survivors.
Reflecting on
that number, I am so thankful Noémi survived. We walked through several
buildings that had been converted to museums housing
memorials
to the
victims, as well as items confiscated from the victims sent to
Auschwitz.
12:34 pm
Sean: We walked
by a clear urn of human ashes that people had left flowers by. I gave a bow of
respect to it. I didn’t take any pictures.
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1:08 pm
Sean: One
[exhibit] had empty cans of Zyklon B gas behind a glass case, and the other one
there was … it was a mountain of human hair behind glass. And they also showed
rugs that had been made up human hair. Looking at this I think there are so many
characters in the past that have claimed that people were being made slaves of
the economy. Well, in this case they were supplying the raw products of
the economy. The room with the rug was musty, probably from the smell of the
hair …Again I find myself at a loss for words, other than that this seems to be
the ultimate in dehumanization … Noémi once said “I want them
[students] to see clearly
what happens when hatred, prejudice and bigotry go uncontrolled. The result is
death, death for whom he hates and he who hates.” This is the proof it
that. |
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"Giftgas!" is
German for "Poisonous Gas!" The Nazis
put loud warning
labels on products
designed for mass murder. |
Another WWU
student on the tour, Ryan Shupe, is a survivor of cancer and has a
prosthetic leg. One of the exhibits had mountains of prostheses behind
glass. He paused
before
the sight, shocked. Lynn Stone, who is a special education teacher in the town
of Arlington and who is Jewish, broke into tears when
she saw piles of Jewish prayer shawls.
Some buildings in Auschwitz I now have been
converted to museums dedicated to the different victims of the Holocaust. One,
dedicated to the Hungarian victims, listed those victims' names. Among them were
the names of many members of Noémi's immediate family and extended family. I
read the following from a plate in that museum.
2:01 pm
Sean: “The German
occupation of March 19th, 1944, … Jews were marked, crowded into ghettos
and collection camps ... at a speed unprecedented
in the Holocaust ... In
56 days, 437,000 Jews from the countryside were carried off from Hungary.
The crematoria of Auschwitz - Birkenau had never worked with such an intensity
as in the summer of 1944, during the annihilation of hundreds of thousands
of Hungarian Jews. All of this would never have happened without the collaboration
of the Hungarian government … on the other hand, human lives were never so
extensively and so effectively saved by diplomats as they were in the Hungarian
capital during the winter of 1944-1945. One out of every ten victims of the
Holocaust, and every third victim of the annihilation camp in Auschwitz - Birkenau
was a Hungarian citizen. More than 500,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered between
1941 and 1945.
At one point
James Lortz, a WWU professor filming the tour, said Noémi was bored with
the
tour guides’ tour. Outside a building housing a gas chamber in Auschwitz
I, we learned Noémi
’s reaction was more than that. The tour guides unemotionally
listed facts about the number
of people killed in the gas chambers, and claimed the Poles in the
surrounding countryside had not smelled the burning ashes, a claim Noémi did not believe.
At one point I raised my hand and asked the guides if lives could have been saved
if the railways into Auschwitz had been bombed. The tour guide admitted they might
have been, and said “It was probably a mistake” to not intervene. Noémi had
her hand over her mouth and looked very upset. James Lortz told me that Noémi
was tired of being called a “they,” as the tour guides referred
to the
victims.
2:28 pm
Sean: Noémi said,
“For them, this is just a job. They don’t seem to have any feeling. They say it
like it
is something written in a history book. They don’t ever say they are sorry
that it happened.”
Noémi also said the guides did not acknowledge that the Holocaust
was “horrible.” Noémi said that
while the guides had been speaking, she hadn’t voiced objections because she
simply wanted to honor her loved ones, not start a discussion with the guides on how to present
the Holocaust. Noémi stayed behind while
I and others entered the gas chamber. Noemi's family likely died in a chamber
similar to this one.
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2:32 pm
Sean: Right now
I’m in one of the gas chambers. The tour guides said the Nazis would fit
up to 900 people at a
time in these, and they tried to get as many people in at a time because more
people means more body heat, higher temperature in the room, and when the
temperature is higher they need less Zyklon B Gas. It was more economical. [I paused my speech. The echoes of other visitors’ footsteps resound in the
gas
chamber]. The guides said
the crematorium, the original, could burn up to 340
people per day, I think it was. It wasn’t enough, so they had to build
another one.
This
place manufactured death … You can see the holes in the ceiling where the
Zyklon B was dropped … there’s a
memorial in the center. There are flowers and candles.
I exited
the gas chamber.
My mind worked over two deep concerns: Will future generations
remember survivors' stories in
more than just an abstract sense? Will they honor these places?
Though
it pains me to acknowledge it, Noémi and other survivors will not live forever
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2:36 pm
Sean: I’m afraid
one thing we’re going to be missing as survivors such as Noémi pass on
is … it’s going to be more and more that places like this, they become, in a
sense, tourist attractions. Of course, many people will be respectful, they
will
understand in an intellectual sense that something terrible happened here, I’m
sure many of them also will have emotional reactions, yet … there are shops
around here, some of the tour guides just state facts and statistics
matter-of-factly, and I think Noémi is right. They don’t seem to capture
the real horror of it. And maybe that’s impossible. Maybe only the survivors
could truly understand that horror ... we’re very lucky to be with Noémi. She will be able to give her insight, her understanding
of these places.
Introduction
Auschwitz I: A
lesson in honoring survivors' stories
Auschwitz II - Birkenau: Noémi's return
Writing, Web design and photos by Sean McGrorey
Copyright © 2006, Sean McGrorey
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