Terezin/Auschwitz

Terezin (Theresienstadt)

Terezin was a former military fortress in the Czech Republic. It was a transit camp for Czech Jews especially, who were then sent to concentration/labor/extermination camps.  Terezin was used as an important propaganda tool for the Germans since the Red Cross was allowed to visit once. Therefore the Germans were getting ready for the visit and made the illusion that the people there were getting treated well. They even made a "barber shop" that was never used, made fake money that supposedly the people there used, and also made commercials about this "wonderful" place in different languages so people coming into the camp would have no idea what was happening until later. Although once there, it was not a happy place at all.  People were given very small portions of food and were forced to work.  Roughly 33,500 people died in Terezin itself but many were transported to death camps.

Terezin

In a room that was meant for about 20-25 the Germans would make 100 of them stay there. There was one window which was always shut and one bucket so people can go to the bathroom but was only changed weekly if not every two weeks.

Barber shop which was only built as a propaganda tool for the Germans

Names of the camps where prisoners were later sent

Graves of some of the victims

Auschwitz

Auschwitz was the biggest extermination camp located in Poland. In Auschwitz about three million people were eventually killed by gassing, burning, starvation, disease, shooting, and also by medical experiments. Children, elderly people, and mentally or physically ill people were killed upon arrival. Most people died within three months due to starvation and hard labor.  Walking through the camp made me think a lot of what the prisoners went through.  From everything I learned about the Holocaust and all the Holocaust documentaries/movies I thought about the death marches, registration, living in the crowded rooms, being cold in the winter and hot in the summer.  The people literally would do anything to survive and to help their family members. It was sad learning about all the medical experiments that people had to go through, especially children. I think the part that got to me the most was looking at the victim's eyes in the pictures that were taken when they went to the camp. Their eyes said everything, they were terrified. Some looked like they had given up while others had a defiance look. Another thing that I thought was sad was seeing the little kids clothes, how they were killed almost instantly, they didn't know anything, they had no childhood, they were taken from their mothers and sent to gas chambers or burned to death. I can't even begin to imagine what it would of been like before, with all the trains bringing thousands of people, Germans killing people in the background, people screaming and crying, and the chimney. Now all that remains is silence and memories that we will never forget.

Auschwitz entrance sign means "work makes (you) free"

All the different camps that sent prisoners to Auschwitz

Estimate of people that died in Auschwitz

Entrance to Auschwitz

Mass grave 

Schindler's Factory

Schindler was a German who had a factory and ended up saving 1200 lives of people that otherwise would have been sent to concentration camps.  According to the survivors, working in the factory was paradise compared what the others were going through. The workers there got paid and also got one meal, but they also worked 12 hour shifts with a one hour break.  The factory made pots and silverware.  There is a movie based on Schindler's factory and his workers called "Schindler's List".

Entrance to Schindler's Factory

Learning about the Holocaust before actually going to see the camps and Schindler's Factory really helped me get ready to understand better how everything that happened there. It was a horrible and sad place and it's horrible to think of what all those people experienced and to just imagine a day in their shoes.