Stories and Stealing

We arrived at 8 AM in Auschwitz with many layers on; I had leggings, ski boots, a sweater, a light shirt, and a ski jacket, yet I was still cold.  Several other people and I felt freezing, but then one of my friends said, if we were cold now with all these layers on, what would people that were in this camp feel like with wind and in freezing temperatures.  One portion of a barak was dedicated to what the Nazis stole from the prisoners like glasses, suitcases, and other things like that.  When we walked through one portion of the building, two big piles of shoes were showed on display.  There were 40,000 pairs of shoes on display that were piled from the floor the ceiling; but even sadder, is that the shoes on display were far less than the total amount of shoes that were taken by the Nazis just from Auschwitz. This number of shoes on display only represented a small amount of people from only Aushwitz, but there were several other camps like this with the same, or more amount of people which means more shoes and more lives were taken.  After the meaningful tour of Auschwitz, we quickly drove to Birkenau and began learning about some experiences from survivors and Jewish workers from the crematorium.  We began following the story of Ellie Wiesel and his story when he first arrived at Birkenau when we were standing at the train tracks.  Wiesel arrived with his parents and younger sister, but was separated from his mother and sister when they got off the train.  After Wiesel was separated from his mother and sister, he was guided on the path that passed the crematorium.  But as he got closr to the crematorium, he thought he was going to die, but he and the others in his line passed the gas chambers.  While Wiesel and the other people passed the gas chambers, he saw a ditch that was burning children; when the Nazis did not have enough time to put all the bodies that were gassed in the crematorium, they would make a pile of the bodies and burn them in a field.  As Wiesel passed the fire, he saw that the fire had child body parts.  The actual crematorium that Wiesel passed was later blown us later on by Jewish people that worked in the crematorium.  As Wiesel passed by fire, he still did not know what was still going to happen to him.  Wiesel and the others had to get out of the clothes that they were in, shave their heads, shower, and change into clothes made of thin material then had their number tattooed on them.  This process that the Nazis did with all people that were not sent straight to the gas chambers stripped the people from who they are and made them into nothings and the same.  In Birkenau, the place that the objects that were collected from everyone was right in front of the real showers spreading 60 buildings, where the contents in each building was to be shipped to Germany to be recycled and used to their benefit.  We learned that there was a division between Jewish prisoners and non-Jewish prisoners, which was that the papers of the Jewish prisoners were thrown out while the non-Jewish prisoners' papers were taken, but not thrown out.  Even though there was a difference in how they were treated with their belongings, the fate of their lives were equal.  In the years that Birkenau functioned, over 1.3 million people, not just Jews, were murdered in the gas chambers, if not sent to the gas chambers right away, the average life span at the camp was only three months.  The lives of the people that survived Birkenau and/or Auschwitz were changed in many ways, many lost their family in the camp, had to move their own families bodies from the gas chambers to the crematorium, or mentally could not get over their experience at the camp/s.  The camps that my grade visited today challenged us in many ways, whether it was emotionally or physically, we overcame them together.  This past week has been filled with many challenging moments, but now, as we begin to get ready for Shabbat, I look back at this week and I am how much I have learned and experienced.  We have done so much this week, Shabbat is needed and welcomed with open arms.  I hope that you have a great and meaningful Shabbat wherever you are reading this! Shabbat Shalom!