Tracing the Holocaust in Auschwitz and Krakow

Prior to arriving in the U.K. to embark on my undergraduate studies, I drew up a list of countries I wanted to visit before my time in Europe was up. Having read half of Martin Gilbert’s book The Holocaust (it became too depressing for me to flip another page) and having done my IB Extended Essay on F.D.R. and the Holocaust, focusing on the debate over his actions, or lack thereof, to aid the European Jewry, I placed Poland (and Auschwitz) firmly among my most eagerly anticipated destinations. Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List also remains one of my all-time favourite films and I was eager to visit Oskar Schindler’s enamelware factory in Krakow. As my third academic year in Durham inched towards a conclusion, I found my eagerness to visit this part of Eastern Europe turning into sheer desperation, and I was thankful to have managed to find a travel bud in Yan to accompany me this time round. In preparation for the trip, I’d begun reading Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s Ark, the novel upon which the aforementioned film was based. 

Trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camps

Many friends who have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau tell me about the sheer depth of emotion the place was able to evoke in them as they learned about the plight of the Jews who were sent to this particular camp, the largest and most famous among the concentration camps built by the Nazis. After slightly more than an hour’s ride on a minibus, we arrived at the entrance of the site which was expectedly flocked with groups of visitors. The Polish winter had been a long one and as we stood in the snowfall and chilling wind, we thought about what it must have been like for the prisoners who, wearing fewer layers of clothing and being severely underfed, were made to labour in even harsher weather conditions than the one we experienced.

As we walked through the main gate of Auschwitz I, we came across the German words ‘Arbeit macht frei’ (‘work will set you free’) which were inscribed on top of the structure. Ironically, as we were told, many who arrived in Auschwitz were sent directly to the gas chambers, never subject to the illusion of these words.

Walking through the exhibition of bags owned by victims of the camp evoked vivid memories of a poignant scene in Schindler’s List where Jews were asked to label their bags, leaving them behind while embarking on crowded trains, expecting that their belongings would greet them at their destination. As the train departs the station, the audience sees these bags being carted into a room where they were emptied as men separated the valuable from the mundane. The fates of those on board the train become more predictable than that of their belongings. In another block, the walls on the ground floor were aligned with rows of framed photos of many who had been interned at Auschwitz. These photos contained captions of when the individual prisoners arrived at the camp and the dates of their deaths. The duration between these dates were often short and the shortest I came across was a mere two weeks. It was a haunting experience stepping into this particular block and walking down the corridor with the eyes of the victims firmly fixed on you. Although the victims were murdered like cattle, en masse and in a dehumanising fashion, these photographs served to remind one that they were individuals like you and I.

'Beds' - each one shared among 4-5 people

I may have read about the Holocaust and have watched films and documentaries about its tragedy but being at Auschwitz added to my appreciation of it. Although the place has, over the years, become a major tourist ‘attraction’, it remains a palpable and symbolic reminder of the darkest recesses of human nature. While we may find it easy to condemn the atrocities committed by the Nazis and to dismiss these acts as gross aberrations, the knowledge that a people, from a country historically known for its educational and technological advancement, could engage in the cold-blooded, large scale extermination of another makes us wonder if anyone of us can confidently ascertain that we are above such evil. This is why the preservation of Auschwitz is important and why discussions about the Holocaust should continue. It was noteworthy that when entering one of the blocks at Auschwitz I, one will notice George Santayana’s famous words about how history would repeat itself if it was not studied. In this case, it’s the kind of history that Edward Gibbon alludes to when he wrote that the happiest people are those whom no history had been written about. As Keneally trenchantly observes in Schindler’s Ark, ‘fatal human malice is the staple of narrators, original sin the mother-fluid of historians.’

Touring the Jewish Quarter in Krakow

The Ghetto Memorial Square in Podgόrze

On our final day in Krakow, we decided to go on a tour around Krakow’s historical Jewish quarter in Kazimierz and the ghetto site in Podgόrze. Our guide, Philip, sporting a short but unkempt beard, sounded so much like the titular character of Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove that I couldn’t help but ask him if he had seen the film. Alas, he was not inspired by Peter Sellers’ portrayal of the eccentric genius. We were brought around Kazimierz, named after Kazimier the Great who invited Jews to reside in this part of Krakow during the later Middle Ages when many European Jews faced persecution around the continent. In the immediate pre-WWII period, Krakow was home to about 65,000 Jews, and most resided in Kazimierz. Today’s number stands at around 200, so few that only one synagogue remains functional, the rest serving as museums. Being shown the locations where Spielberg shot his scenes interested me but importantly, Philip was able to point out the actual locations where the actual events happened. For me, it was about recalling the various scenes from the film and recreating them mentally in the actual locations.

 Schindler's Enamelware Factory

Our tour ended at Schindler’s enamelware factory which today serves as a museum focusing on Krakow during World War Two. There were also exhibits dealing with Oskar Schindler himself and a short film was made comprising interviews with those who had worked in his factory during the war. The real Schindler remains a controversial character to this day and his previous dealings with the Abwehr serve to taint his legacy. Spielberg’s film, though hardly a hagiographical account of the man, omits such details, and Keneally’s book gives only cursory treatment to them, but it may be possible to argue that the image of a man dramatically altered by his first-hand experiences may be closer to reality than many cynics would have themselves believe.