Although I don’t recall which exhibit it was in, that quote captures the essence of my thoughts on historical pilgrimages, which is what I term trips such as this one. Before I left, we struggled. You really can’t say “have fun” on a trip like this but you can hope to have an educational trip. That’s part of why I’ve come to call these ‘historical pilgrimages.” I don’t go for a religious calling but rather as part of a need to know/understand.
I can’t pinpoint my interest in the Holocaust, but I know I was interested enough to take a class called Auschwitz and After in college. I also remember studying it in high school and going to the local Holocaust Museum. I’ve never been to the one in DC, yet it’s always bothered me that I didn’t go to Auschwitz when I was here last time.
The shuttle from Krakow drops you near the road and the only clue that you’re approaching the camp is a sign that says “Auschwitz Museum.” In most places, that’s how they distinguish between the town and the camps, Polish v. German. Local language v. that of the ‘invaders’. As 7:10 was the first bus from Krakow, the two others on it and I were among the first at the museum, I quite liked that. I purchased a map and just walked. The museum’s website says to allow a minimum of an hour and a half, but I walked around Auschwitz itself for three hours.
I couldn’t pinpoint it at the time, but Auschwitz didn’t really ‘hit’ me.
It was a bit surreal to walk along the path from the museum and be standing in front of one of the most famous signs in history, but as a whole, it felt like a Holocaust Museum rather than a camp. I learnt a lot at some of the exhibits, including the one for the Roma because I do not know much about them, but other exhibits seemed to technological. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t like rooms that lit up when I walked in, or videos, it felt too put on. I much preferred to walk the grounds and take in the sites. As eerie as watchtowers and barbed wire fences are, they were real. They were what the Nazis left behind, not a recreation. It’s their stories I wanted to hear.
What gave me chills was to walk past the gallows. I associate the Holocaust with Zyklon B and Crematoria, not hanging. That said, what immediately came to mind was Ogden’s The Hangman. I was mulling that over for quite some time until it got too crowded and I decided it was time to move on…
Auschwitz felt like a museum, but Birkenau was very different…
