Heart Drop

            A three hour bus ride and we were there, Auschwitz. This is something I can honestly say I was looking forward to experience during this program. However, after being there I realized I only need to experience it once. The moment we pulled up my heart immediately sank. If this was not an eerie enough place already it was raining and gloomy, with birds flying around making their noises. We started making our way through and saw some of the most horrifying things and heard about the people’s time there.

            We made our way up to the gate into Auschwitz. Inscribed on the gate are the words “Arbeit Macht Frei”, which translates to work will set you free. This of course was a lie because most of the people who entered did not make it out. Over 1 million people were killed at Auschwitz. We visited many of the barracks that had displays of not only things that were found after the liberation but also pictures that were found of this horrible occurrence.

            The things that were found ranged from shoes, glasses, pots and pans, and luggage.

            After making our way through Auschwitz we made our way over to Birkenau, which is just right up the road. This camp is bigger than the first and had separate sides for men and women. This camp was also less preserved than the first because when word came of the allies coming to liberate the camps they started destroying the buildings and moving people to another camp. The moving of these people was known as the death march because most of the people either died on the way or couldn’t walk any further and were shot. This was due to the fact that the Nazi’s did not want any survivors to be a tell all to the allies.

            This whole experience made me reflect on things I complain about every day.

How can I justify complaining about the food I get at a restaurant that just isn’t good enough?

Prisoners of Auschwitz typically got three meals a day and they weren’t nutritional. For breakfast they got a liter of coffee or tea that was typically not actual coffee or tea. Lunch consisted of vegetable soup which consisted of rotten vegetables. Dinner was typically a piece of bread, which was mostly saw dust in order to save supplies, and jam.

Most of the time I get more than 3 meals a day and they are big meals. They are warm and nutritional. I will never ever complain again about a meal.

How can I justify complaining about my sleeping conditions?

            Most of the time the prisoners slept on the floor with a straw bed. In Birkenau, we saw the women’s arrangements, which were basically bunk beds without the bed. It was a platform that multiple women would have to shove onto and sleep with multiple people. A lot of times they would wake up next to someone who had passed in their sleep due to starvation or dehydration or poor hygienic conditions. The beds were typically covered in lice.

            Most of us let’s be honest have a twin bed or bigger all to ourselves. We complain when the bed is just a little hard or too soft. But we don’t wake up to death, or lice, or the fact that we are in so much pain lying on just wooden bunks.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”     -George Santayana

            This is a great quote that really stuck with me. In the very first barrack we went in this was up on the wall. It is good for us to remember the past no matter how horrible so we do not end up in a situation like most of Europe did. I will forever remember this experience. It left me nauseous and light headed, with my heart so far down in my chest. This is the first time I have ever experienced my heart drop.