A Journey Through the Holocaust by Tony Bluejacket Southern Methodist University Embrey Human Rights 12

Dark Tourism: A Journey Through The Holocaust By Tony BlueJacket Southern Methodist University Embrey Human Rights 12

Majdanek Concentration/Death Camp – Lublin – Poland December 25th 2014 – Photo by Tony BlueJacket

“Dark Tourism: A Journey Through The Holocaust”

The Nazi Holocaust of World War II (WWII) remains as one the there to feel them, to immerse ourselves—the cold, the sorrow, darkest eras in human history. It is estimated that anywhere from the pain, the hell, and the darkness—dark tourism.

between 6 and 10 million Jews had their lives stolen from them, bringing a th th Day 1&2 - December 18 -19 , 2014: Warsaw 27-century diaspora to its knees, and the world would never be the same. This paper attempts to bring an ethnographic record through a cold “Today I left my home on a rainy Texas winter day in December experience of my travels throughout Poland (Appendix 1) with Dallas Ft-Worth to officially begin my journey that would the Southern Methodist Universities (SMU) Embrey Human Rights take me three flights bound for Warsaw, Poland by way of Frankfurt, and Berlin Germany. I am traveling alone program visiting various Holocaust sites, camps, and memorials, together on the first leg of this trip, and I realize as I arrive with the historical context of each. safely—bags in tow—in Warsaw that this is the farthest I have ever been from home—some 6,000 miles. I have Dark tourism is a term that has been used in both the academic, another day in Warsaw before connecting with my group and scientific communities to describe an old but recently renewed on the edge of Warsaw’s Old Town district. It’s beautiful phenomenon of traveling to sites that have a history of tragedy, and here. The architecture is absolutely stunning, and it is death. It is not simply a destination rather, but also a mindset and speaks not near as cold as I first imagined. It’s Christmas season to the motives of the traveler. In December of 2014, a group of Southern and there are lights at every turn. This is probably the hardest time in my life, and being alone is a true test of Methodist University students, faculty, and members of the community my resilience and determination. I feel humble in all set out on cold dark journey through Poland’s many Holocaust sites things, and I am blessed.” forgoing any kind of familiar Christmas holiday with friends or family. We were not there just to see the sites, and learn about them, but we were 3

The purpose of our trip was to visit the memorials, sites, and locations of as st many Nazi Holocaust sites in Poland to commemorate, research, and Day 3 - December 21 , 2014: Chelmno remember the atrocities of WWII. The first day that I was able to meet with my group from the Southern Methodist University--lead by the Director of “Today the trip took on the reality one may or may not the Embrey Human Rights program, Dr. Rick Halperin--would officially be the have expected. We boarded the bus around 9:00am in groups second trip day, but my first. The first destination for my itinerary Warsaw and set of for Radegast [Train] Station. We would be Radegast (Radogoszcz) Train Station around two hours from arrived at the station in about 2 hours. This isn’t a place Warsaw, and part of the Lodz ghettos system. From there we would travel to many have heard about, and I wasn’t sure what to Chelmno Extermination Camp. expect when we got there. Radegast Station was responsible for transporting Jews, and Roma to Chelmno Radegast Train Station is perhaps the most important site Extermination Camp. Standing inside the cattle boxcars connected with the Lodz Ghetto in Poland during WWII. Radegast is the train staring through the barbed wire adorned windows I station from which tens of thousand of Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), and Jews could not help but imagine the horror of the victims that were transported to labor, concentration, and extermination/death camps— were herded in by force--large groups up to 32 at a time. including Chelmno Extermination Camp. Starting in 1940 with the sealing off It was chilling. All the faces of our group turned somber of the Lodz ghetto, Radegast was used to ship supplies, food, and fuel to and we boarded the bus to Chelmno. The bus was quiet. support the production of shoes, clothes, and Nazi military uniforms. Also in If we didn’t know before, we certainly knew now of the 1940, the station was used to systematically transport Jews to labor camps in long dark road ahead of us. The feelings and excitement the surrounding region. Thousands upon thousands of Jews were later of being in a new country are now officially gone, and for escorted from Radegast to Chelmno extermination camp, and from the us, our emotional journey has begun as we tour a newly spring of 1942 to only the fall of 1942 alone, it is estimated that some 70,000 built museum at the Palace [Chelmno]. The showers that were sent to their deaths from this station. Most of the people unfortunate once stood where are standing have long since been to go through Radegast never lived to tell the story. It is reported that during destroyed, but there are piles of glasses, shoes, and the last transports some 70,000 people were escorted to Auschwitz, and very other valuables that make the heart heavy, and put a few would survive. (Zyskind-Web) personal touch on the many stories we have heard. We arrive at Chelmno [Forest] and it starts to rain, it’s cold, A few hours north of the Radegast Train Station is Chelmno-nad- but still bearable—still nothing like what I had expected. Nerem, the site of the Chelmno Extermination Camp. The Chelmno We walk past the big monument maybe half of a mile to Extermination Camp is one of the first mass extermination camps that the where a field opens up. The filed is about 300 yards total Nazi’s used gassing as a method of systematically killing people in large and contains large boxed out sections to outlined where numbers. It was specifically chosen for its out of sight location. According to the bodies of the victims were buried and dumped. My the London Jewish Cultural Center, it is thought that an around 360,000 thoughts turned to a movie I had seen where I remember thousand Jews were taken to Chelmno and murdered. The victims would the Jewish workers who were forced to burry the bodies arrive at the “Palace,” a large manor house where Nazis worked in disguise. being shot at the end of the day and thrown in with the On the premise of being provided food, and good work, they were stripped others. How can the world be so cold?” of all their possessions, undressed, and funneled through a show system write into the gas vans. From there they were driven about 10 miles to the forest in gas killing vans, and dumped at a burial site in Chelmno. The first The following day our travels take us some 80 miles wave of killings took place on December 8th, 1941 and continued through northeast of Warsaw to the Treblinka Extermination Camp. 1942. In 1943 Chelmno Extermination Camp would temporarily suspend Treblinka was built in correlation with Operation Reinhard (The operations because most of the Jews in the area—accept in Lodz--had Final Solution) in July of 1942. The extermination camp is hidden already been exterminated. It would later be opened back up to proceed in a dense forest rural area, and its soul design is for the purpose operations for the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto in 1944, and by September of systematic, cost effective mass-murder. The only camp of that same year the Nazis destroyed Chelmno trying to hide all of the quarters that existed at Treblinka were for the few guards that evidence. (LJCC-Web) were housed there--consisting of about 30 SS officers, and 120 soldiers from the Ukraine. (US-HMM-Web)

The Nazi’s employed the use Sonderkommandos for most of the horrifying work at Treblinka. The Sonderkommandos were Jews who were ordered to carry out a variety of tasks involving the mass murder of Jews including; handling the possessions/clothes of prisoners sent for extermination, cleaning out the cattle cars, disposing of the corps, and later on in attempt to hide the evidence, the Nazi’s ordered them to exhume the bodies for cremation. The Sonderkommandos would meet the same fate and were replaced every few weeks. (LJCC-Web)

In total it estimated that nearly 950,000 people had their lives stolen from them at the Treblinka Extermination Camp. The numbers are mind numbing, and especially when considering how many, and how fast. In merely a ten-month time span form July 1942, to April 1943, nearly 876,000 people were murdered— almost 25,000 per week. To assist in the liquidation of the 12

“....you can feel how far away from the world we are in this place. It is an isolating feeling—it feels like hell. We must never forget....”

Warsaw Ghetto, it is estimated that approximately 254,000 Jews Hanukkah Menorah at the top, and is surrounded by a from the Warsaw Ghetto along with 112,000 from the Warsaw chilling site of large jagged rock stones. The texture of it is area, were all murdered at Treblinka in just three months in 1943. chilling, and I can sense the darkness of where I am standing, I can sense the death—the murder of nearly (LJCC-Web) 1,000,000 victims. It feels like an eternity as one of the Our next destination lies some 60 miles straight north of students reads a poem, and lights a candle in remembrance of Treblinka—something we are doing at all Treblinka. It is a town that few in the west have heard of called the sites we visit. As I walk back my heart is broken. I Jedwabne, Poland. Jedwabne is not typical of most Holocaust seem to feel the weight of humanity. Every raindrop is sites in that it was a crime perpetrated by the Polish people. After piercing as if intended to hurt me. My socks, pants, three having been under Soviet rule for two years, Jedwabne was layers of shirts, and winter hat are all soaking wet, I have occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941. In a blood lust story never seen rain like this, nor I have ever seen pain the way I saw it today at Treblinka. I am cold, hungry, tired, and my uncommon for Poles, the men of Jedwabne began a witch-hunt to emotions are everywhere—I would not want it any other torture the some 1,600 Jews living in the community. The violent way. You can feel how far away from the world we are in acts were even sanctioned by the Mayor of Jedwabne, and this place. It is an isolating feeling—it feels like hell. We hundreds of Jews were corralled into a barn and then burned must never forget.” alive. For decades the blame was with the Nazi’s until Jan Gross released his book called, “Neighbors: The Destruction of the The Sobibor Extermination Camp was established by Nazi Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland,’’ and in July of 2001 Germany in March of 1942 in the Lublin District of Poland a few east Poland’s President, Aleksander Kwasniewski made a public of Warsaw, and it is the next stop on our visit. Sobibor, like Treblinka, was part of Operation Reinhard—Hitler’s Final Solution. apology officially holding Poles responsible for the heinous In approximately eighteen months from 1942 to 1943 it is estimated massacre. Today at the site of the bar, there is a single stone that anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000 victims were murdered at monument that reads, “In memory of the Jews of Jedwabne and Sobibor. (LJCC-Web) surrounding areas, men, women, children, and fellow dwellers of this land, murdered and burned alive at this site on 10 July 1941.” The reception, administration, and extermination areas (Martin:2011) made up the camp’s three sections. It was relatively small consisting of about a 4 or 5 football sized fields in area. Cattle cars on the railway from several countries transported Jews, including Germany, Poland, Australia, and the Ukraine. When prisoners arrived at the Day 4 – December 22nd, 2104: Treblinka reception area they were told lies about being transported the

following day to various labor camps for work. Under this premise “Today began like the others. We woke up in Warsaw they were instructed to take showers to disinfect. The victims were and had breakfast. We try to eat as much as we can separated—mothers and children, and then men who were all then because we don’t intend on stopping for lunch. Today forced into the gas chambers about 400 to 500 at a time. The entire we gathered on the bus early [7:30am] and drove process is thought to have taken approximately 2 to 3 hours before northeast to Treblinka Extermination Camp. I remember repeating itself with a new transports coming in. (LJCC-Web) Treblinka from my studies at SMU, and when we arrive I

am taken back how beautiful the forest is here. The trees stand as high as the eye can see and it’s a rich lush In October of 1943 the last of the many escape attempts green setting. All we could see when we get off the bus at Sobibor took place. Posing as SS guards, prisoners were able to is the public restrooms, and the Treblinka museum in the kill around 11 SS soldiers, and several other guards from the place where the trapezoid operations once stood. We tour the museum and read of the evil commanders in Ukraine. Approximately 300 prisoners managed to escape; however charge of Treblinka. You can clearly see the layout of most of them were later caught and killed. Of the 150 or so that this efficient killing machine in a makeshift model of how were not caught, about 100 died of the harsh elements, and in total, it once stood. It begins to rain hard as we make our way around 50 would survive to the end of the war (LJCC-Web). This is to the forest. It seems like we walk a mile before the accounted for in a book written by one the escapees, Philip forest opens up, and a site I will never forget greets us. There’s a huge monument of a single big stone standing Bialowitz’s, “A Promise At Sobibor (Bialowitz 2010),” and also a maybe 20 feet—or more—that has an engraved movie titled, Escape From Sobibor released in 1987. The uprising 5

“....My mind is still counting, and as of today we have stood in the places where 5,200,000 people were murdered, or died from disease, starvation, and exposure. This is hell. I am convinced. There is no other way to explain what we stand to bear witness to as we all know, we must never forget this place, the pain, the sorrow, the sounds echoing long gone, the death and evil.”

th was successful in closing down Sobibor for good on October 14 , 1943. Later bodies that had been gassed there. According to Andzej Wojcik, 12 defendants would be tried for crimes against humanity over Sobibor. Of a resident of Krepiec and a witness to the executions in 1942, the 12, one was given life, one committed suicide, 4 were given terms of 8 years or less, and an alarming 6 were totally acquitted (Halperin:2103). “I was at home and then I noticed that six or seven trucks full of children between 2 and 14 years of age arrived at the forest. The children were driven down to

rd the pits, and the Germans [Nazis] shot them. From the Day 5 – December 23 , 2014: Sobibor place of the murder the cries and screams of children could be heard. In all this lasted from 2 a.m. until 6 We began the day in Warsaw, Poland checking out of our hotel for a.m.” the first time on the trip. We drove for what seemed like many hours almost straight west towards the Lublin district to visit the site of the Wojcik goes onto describe the adult prisoners being driven to Sobibor Death Camp. It rained today again, but all in all the weather the site where the children were murdered and picking up their has been pleasant for what one might imagine for Poland in the children’s limp bodies, holding them, as they themselves meet wintertime. We arrived at Sobibor only to be disappointed that it the same fate. With the new crematoriums being built at was almost completely restricted from public access for new Majdanek, the executions in Krepiec Forest were halted in 1942, construction of a museum, I think. I don’t think this would have but in 1943 the Nazi’s began using the site to burn the bodies of stopped me under normal circumstances but someone in charge of the overworked Majdanek gas chambers. When the war ended, guarding the site approached us, and he didn’t leave our side. This there were still piles of charred human remains stacked on top was a place I was looking forward too a great deal having met and of each other deep with in forest. (DeathCamps-Web) listened to Philip Bialowitz, the author of, “A Promise At Sobibor,” last year. I also remembered the movie made about this site as a Belzec Extermination Camp is about 100 miles kid. We made the most of the visit and did our normal dedication in southeast of Lublin, Poland. It sits only a few miles from the the pouring rain all huddled together under umbrellas—of course I Ukraine border, and was originally used as a slave labor camp. didn’t bring one—but I think it brought us closer as a group. I In 1941 construction began on three gas chambers shifting wondered away from the group to a place across the street from the Belzec from a labor camp to an extermination camp. Belzec was site itself to the train tracks. There stood a bent rail track. It was the first camp to employee the use of non-mobile gas chambers. almost twisted up the air as if it were made of small wire. It was the Although Belzec was only in operations as a death camp for a end of the line for thousands of innocent victims, and someone, at short amount of time—from March 1942 to December 1942— some point, made sure it would not be used again. We were all a nearly 600,000 victims were savagely murdered there at the little disappointed on the bus ride to Lublin where we would be hands of only about 150 Nazi guards—30 SS, and 120 guards of spending the night, but I still used to time to immerse myself as various nationalities. (USHMM-Web) much as possible in the site. I found online that an archaeologist had recently discovered a gas chamber buried underground. Hopefully I Belzec was an instrumental part of Operation will get to revisit Sobibor in the future.” Reinhard. Jews were transported to Belzec as the Nazis began to liquidate the ghettos. As with the other camps, Nazis used Krepiec Forest is a few miles away from Lublin, Poland, and it is our Sonderkammandos in forced labor to work as part of the killing first destination on Day 6. You would be hard pressed to find information on machine. In 1943 as the Nazis began to cover up their crimes all the Krepiec Monument, and about what happened in the forest. It does not throughout Poland, and like many of the other camps, show up in Google Maps, and there are no signs to point you in the right Sonderkammandos were ordered to exhume the bodies and direction—or any direction for that matter. The forest was first used as an burn them. The even used machines to crush the bones to try execution site in 1940 when a few hundred Polish, and Jewish prisoners were and get rid of the evidence. After the job was done at Belzec, taken there from the Castle—prison in Lublin—and murdered. Most of the the remaining Sonderkammandos were shot, or sent to their estimated 30,000 to 35,000 victims of Krepiec Forest were from the nearby deaths at Sobibor. (USHMM-Web) Majdanek concentration/death camp. The forest was also used for burning of 12

who were shot or burned here. My heart is heavy, as Day 6 – December 24th, 2014: Belzec heavy as the stone monument I am standing in front of.

You can see the faces of our group slowly starting to “It’s Christmas Eve, and today we woke up early to board change and the day is only just beginning. We make the the bus to visit a place called the Krepiec Forest long drive to Belzec. The bus is quiet for most of the trip. Monument. I had never heard of the Krepiec Forest We finally arrive and I don’t think any of the new before today. It is located in a farm type area about 10 comers—myself included—were prepared for Belzec. It or so miles from Lublin. We arrived there and found sits on a hill, and the monument has been dug right into ourselves roaming through the forest trying to find it. the hill. The smell of sulfur or something I cannot There are no signs. There are no sidewalks. There are no identify is thick and inescapable. We walked down the roads leading you there. We literally got off the bus near pathway that is cut out of the mountain and the walls the edge of the forest and started walking through it on just keep getting taller and taller around us. It is trails. We came upon a single red memorial candle at no suffocating I think by design. It looks like something out particular place along the path. I wondered if someone of horror movie, and much Treblinka, reminds me of hell. had given up doing exactly what we were trying to do. I We arrive back in Lublin and I skipped the Christmas think we must have been walking through the mud for Midnight Mass and sat alone with my thoughts, about an hour when we were about to give up because reflecting on the day, and I am trying to stay humble the long drive to Belzec ahead of us. My cell phone gets about spending Christmas under such extreme service in Poland, and I could not even locate the circumstances. Today I toured the sites of where almost monument on the map, but I tried, and about that time 700,000 people were murdered, and my mind is starting our guide who had been running around looking for it to unconsciously keep count—over 2,000,000. I look at tells us she found the way—she was very nice and I felt every single face, of every single photo, and read every extremely grateful for her passion that was easily single date, and the faces, the pain of the world, is as noticeable. It s starting to rain, and today is the first day close as its ever been” that it is extremely cold. I keep telling Dr. Halperin that

snow is coming, and I think today might be the day— much to his liking. We hike the trail for about another half mile and out of nowhere in the dense forest appears a gated monument. It isn’t that big, maybe 25 x 50 feet. I hear the story of the forest, and the children and others

Top Left – Sobibor Extermination Camp Bottom Left – Chelmno Extermination Camp Right – Tony BlueJacket – Belzec Extermination Camp 7

Majdanek Extermination Camp is located in Lublin, in the the crematoriums only to met by the ashes of 350,000 southeast of Poland. SS Chief Heinrich Himmler visits Lublin, Poland, and people piled in a single place. There is no sight like it in the personally choses its location. Himmler originally orders the construction world. I have seen ashes of human remains so I that part of Majdanek as a labor/concentration camp to house prisoners and POWs my mind could understand, but the mountain I stood before as slave laborers in 1941 later that year making it part of Operation today, is not comprehendible. I also stood over the trenches Reinhard (USHMM-Web). Majdanek is constructed very much like a used to kill 18,000 Jews in one day—by shooting. This is prison. It covers nearly 700 acres and enclosed by a electric barbed-wire hell, Majdanek. There is no Christmas here, no sunlight, and fence. There are a total of 19 very intimidating SS guard towers the thick feeling of evil is all around. We left Majdanek in overlooking 22 barracks, two wooden gallows, and later 7 gas chambers, silence and drove several hours to Krakow were we will be small--and later--larger crematorium. (LJCC-Web) staying for the next two nights. The city is full of life and it’s snowing, but my mind, my heart, my thoughts all grow In total there are 54 nationalities and approximately 28 heavy. There are no presents, there is no tree, and no countries represented among the prison population at Majdanek. They conversations with family—Merry Christmas 2014” came from all over Europe including the Soviet Union, France, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands (LJCC-Web). Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau are located Victims at Majdanek were murdered in many different fashions. Some approximately 20 to 30 miles straight west of Krakow, in the were taken to Krepiec Forest and shot to death. Many dies from southwest region of Poland. This is the most famous of all the sites in starvation and disease. Others died from the extreme cold temperatures, Poland, and perhaps all the sites of the Holocaust. All together the and thousands were murdered in the gas chambers. Auschwitz system of concentration, slave labor, and death camps comprised of more than 40 camps. The Nazis originally built Operation Erntefest (Harvest Festival) took place on November rd Auschwitz I in 1940 as a place for political prisoners. In 1941 as part 3 , 1943. 18,000 Jews from the region, including 8,000 Jewish prisoners of Operation Reinhard, Auschwitz-Birkenau was built a few miles of the camp were taken to trenches that had been dug close to the from Auschwitz I, and was officially operated as an extermination crematorium. They were lined up, shot, and shoved to their deaths in the camp from March 1942 to January 1945. (History-Web) pits below. This is thought to be the highest number ever murdered at any one place during the Holocaust in a single day. Much of the camp As many as 80% of the prisoners who arrived at Auschwitz- remains today. The Nazis did not have time to destroy it before the Birkenau were selected for immediate execution. Like the other Soviets liberated Majdanek in July of 1944, but not before an estimated camps, prisoners were being told they were going to be relocated. 360,000 people were murdered. (USHMM-Web) When they arrived they were told they were taking a shower and to disrobe. Physicians or other workers would examine them for gold Day 7 – December 25th, 2014:Majdanek teeth and those with would be marked with an ‘X’ on their back. They were then packed into ‘’shower” rooms sometimes 75-150 at a “Today was a Christmas I will never forget—ever. Woke up early time. Once locked in the room, Nazi soldiers would then drop today to travel with my group to Majdanek Extermination Camp Zyclone-B gas pellets down into the room, and as the innocent here on the outskirts of where we are staying in Lublin, Poland. suffocated and screamed, the next batch of victims, women and We passed by it yesterday and I was confused having recognized children included, were being readied. An infinite cloud of smoke it, but today, it all made sense. This was our Christmas filled the air around Auschwitz with death for miles from the bodies destination by design. It’s freezing cold outside. I am wearing as being burned by the thousands, and the infinity of corpses sent to many layers as I possibly can, and still, my bones are in pain from pyres. Most would be dead with-in 90 minutes of arriving. Rudolph the cold. We arrive at Majdanek, and the site is familiar from Hoss, Commander of Auschwitz who would later be tried for the the pictures I had seen in my studies. I couldn’t stop focusing at deaths of 3 million Jews, famously argued he only killed 1.5 million— the top of the hill probably a mile or so away. I knew what was the other 1 million starved or died of disease. Hoss was sentenced to waiting. Majdanek looks like a prison. There are SS guard death and would hang from the very gallows he operated at towers everywhere, and you can sense the darkness, the death. I Auschwitz. The first execution was botched, and he would have to made my way through the prison gates and immediately there hang a second time. (LJCC-Web) they were, the gas chambers. This is one of the first sites I have visited that is still largely exactly the way it was when it was Auschwitz I, and Birkenau were finally liberated on January liberated. The Nazis didn’t have time to destroy it, and when I 27th 1945 by a unit of the Soviet Army. There they found walk in time stops, my breath is taken, my heart is heavy. There approximately 7,000 survivors including 100’s of children. Ten days are showerheads hanging from the celling of one of the larger earlier the SS had begun evacuating prisoners for what would later be rooms. I think they used two kinds of gas here—Zyklon B, and called the death marches, and the 7,000 they left behind were carbon monoxide. I knew it was there, and I don’t know why, but deemed unfit for the march. The SS tried to destroy the evidence by I checked, the blue stains on the walls from the murders. My burning all the documents they could, and blowing up the remaining emotions are everywhere, and I had to separate from the group crematoriums throughout the camps. Many of the survivors they keeping them in sight. You can feel everything. It must have found that day were within minutes of death, and most would not been zero degrees today, and if there was any life left in my survive the liberation. (LJCC-Web) group, it was sucked out immediately at Majdanek today. Hours today seemed like years as we toured the prison camp. I saw one of the children’s barracks and there are no alone words— there are no words—there are no words. The tour, I say tour but it’s not a tour we are all on our own--ended when you arrive at the crematoriums only to met by the ashes of Tony BlueJacket – Southern Methodist University – Embrey Human Rights

Day 8 – December 26th, 2014: Auschwitz/Birkenau Gross-Rosen Labor/Concentration Camp sits about 20 miles from both the German, and Czech Republic borders in Today we woke up and headed west on a short drive from Rogoznica, in the southwest region of Poland. It was constructed in Krakow to Auschwitz. I think most of us had been the summer of 1941. Prisoners were charged with building the anticipating this visit having known the most of about the camp, and also to work in the granite quarry located on site and infamous Auschwitz. It is snowing, and it does not take long owned by the SS German Earth and Stone Works. The first group of for blankest of white to cover everything as far as the eye Jewish prisoners arrived at Gross Rosen on July 8th, 1941 from can see. It must be zero degrees today, and the wind cuts Dachau. At one point in 1943, all the Jews of Gross Rosen were like a razor. We begin the tour of Auschwitz I and pose for transported to Auschwitz, until October 1943 through January 1945 pictures under the sign at the gate that reads in German, an estimated 57,000 Jewish prisoners were brought to the camp. “Work Makes You Free.” The only color here is brick and (Shoah-Web) death. You can feel it as your feet more one in front of the In December of 1944 the Nazis started to evacuate Gross- other through the muddy gravel roads. There is death Rosen. Just like the rest of the camps, Gross-Rosen would be mostly everywhere. It feels like Satan’s amusement park. There destroyed trying to hide the evidence. Of the estimated 125,000 are no words. We tour the building one by one. My brain prisoners that passed through Gross Rosen, an estimated 40,000 cannot quite compute what my eyes see. In one room there would die, but there is little information on the numbers of are prosthetics collected from the victims and I sit and stare deceased post evacuation where many would die of starvation in stuck on the pairs that obviously belonged to children. In route to their new destinations. It is thought that very few survived another room I am greeted by piles of shoes stacked floor to post liberation. (Shoah-Web) celling on all sides. A red pair here and there as if to say I will not break, I will not be broken. This never ends as I Day 10 – December 28th, 2014: Gross-Rosen walk through the buildings. One in particular housed the hair of the victims. I cannot describe the sorrow I feel. I see Today we drove from Wroclaw, Poland to the southeastern the braids, and I wonder if they belonged to the red shoes. border to Rogoznica, to the site of Gross-Rosen At the end of Auschwitz I is the gas chamber, but also the labor/concentration camp. I think we are close enough to gallows. I recognized every corner. I know this gallows I the Czech Republic to actually see it. The cold is so intense stand before and I have seen the videos of Commander Hoss that I feel like I am stuck in an infinite vacuum of space, of Auschwitz begin hung twice until his death. I am there is no sun, it does not exist here. Everyday I learn standing right in front of it, and I can barely sense that something knew about staying warm, and yet everyday I anytime has passed—like I have arrived only a year or so am colder and colder. I arrive at Gross-Rosen and like the after liberation everything is still in tact. After a few hours rest of the sites, it is dark. If God is here, he/she is hard to we make our way to Auschwitz Birkenau and I immediately see. I feel like I have taken a full tour of hell—that is the recognize the famous rail line entrance that would be the only way to describe it. We make our way to the rock last sight of millions. My spirit is broken. The snow is granite rock quarry where many innocent people were cutting through the five layers I have on, my toes are frozen pushed 7 or so stories to their death. Many more were and I have on snow boots with three layers of thermal worked to death or shot and killed for not being able to socks. As we tour Birkenau every second seems like an stand the sunup to sundown extreme manual labor hour, and every hour seems like a day. My body begins to conditions. I feel like if I scream here it would only come shut down as I know I am very close to hypothermic shock. I out as silence. I am morally defeated. I have nothing left do my best to separate from the group so they don’t notice for this trip. I think to myself that if there were an airport the convulsions of my body. Consciously, I know I have a close by I would be on the first flight, but there is no escape very limited time before I collapse. All I can think about is for me, nor for the prisoners of Gross-Rosen. We make our not dying—I know I am safe, but I also know I am very close way to the small crematorium in the main camp, and to being in serious condition. I would not have lasted a today here at Gross-Rosen, I am the last to light a candle week here. I would not have lasted the first day. Even if my and say a few words in remembrance. My face is frozen. body could endure the exposure, my spirit could not, and I There are tears in the form of ice on my face. I am shaking learn today that I am nowhere as strong as the millions who uncontrollably from the piercing wind, and all the while I endured this terrible evil. At the end of our group’s tour I am praying to God for a break in the clouds—to show me hurry for the gates. They seem like they are miles away, the sun still exist, and that I am indeed still in the world I and even though I am walking fast along the tracks, the knew before this trip. I light the candle with my shaking entrance doesn’t seem to be getting closer. I finally made it frail hands, and read a poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye; to the gates and ran into a gift shop to protect myself from Do not stand at my grave and weep the elements where I remove my glove and discover that I I am not there. I do not sleep. have a severe burn along my left hand, and arm. I must I am a thousand winds that blow. have been only a minute or two from frostbite and I am the diamond glints on snow. hypothermia. On the first day of this trip I was surprised by I am the sunlight on ripened grain. how cold it wasn’t, and now I couldn’t imagine that a place I am the gentle autumn rain. this cold exists. My mind is still counting, and as of today When you awaken in the morning's hush we have stood in the places where 5,200,000 people were I am the swift uplifting rush murdered, or died from disease, starvation, and exposure. Of quiet birds in circled flight. This is hell. I am convinced. There is no other way to explain what we stand to bear witness to as we all know, I am the soft stars that shine at night. we must never forget this place, the pain, the sorrow, the Do not stand at my grave and cry; sounds echoing long gone, the death and evil.” I am not there. I did not die.

In conclusion, Dark Tourism is something much deeper than Gross-Rosen, and another 35,000 were shot and killed at Krepiec I first imagined. I realized that we had toured most of the death Forest. We stood in each of these places in some of the harshest camps that were part of Hitler’s Final Solution. In the end I was sick conditions Poland has to offer. We were alone in many of them. We with grief, sick with things I can still to this day not describe. I could connected with the pain, the sorrow, and walked through the history not join the group for the final day in Warsaw and instead locked of the actual hell that took place here. None of our lives will ever be myself in my room alone with my thoughts, with my reflections, and the same, and we know what we knew before, that we must never the pain of everything I had experienced. We immersed ourselves in forget—we must never forget—dark tourism. the places, sites, and history of one of humankind’s most evil atrocities. Most of these sites were either constructed or Appendix 1 reconstructed as part of Operation Reinhard and the Wannsee Conference. DAY 1 Friday, Dec 19 ● WARSZAWA – ARRIVAL

th The Wannsee Conference was held on January 20 , 1942, DAY 2 Saturday, Dec 20 ● WARSZAWA- FREE TIME with the purpose of implanting Hitler’s unspoken “Final Solution.” This 90 minute meeting that would seemingly, passively, determine DAY 3 Sunday, Dec 21 ● WARSZAWA – CHEŁMNO – ŁÓDŹ – the fate of millions of innocent men, women, children, and elderly WARSZAWA was held by fifteen high ranking senior officers of the Nazi Party, the SS, and other various government departments. The purpose of the DAY 4 Monday, Dec 22 ● WARSZAWA – TREBLINKA – JEDWABNE – meeting was to make sure everyone involved would adhere to the WARSZAWA new “deportation” policy that would be the “Final Solution.” The

meeting was held in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin and was directed DAY 5 Tuesday, Dec 23 ● WARSZAWA – SOBIBÓR – LUBLIN Reinhard Heydrich SS Chief of the RSHA, Adolf Eichmann who

managed transportation and logistics for the Third Reich under the DAY 6 Wednesday, Dec 24 ● LUBLIN – BEŁZEC – LUBLIN Gestapo. The extermination of the Jews in Europe would be summed

and totaled in a mere 90 minutes on a harsh cold day in winter of DAY 7 Thursday, Dec 25 ● LUBLIN –MAJDANEK- KRAKÓW 1942. The darkest year of the century would soon follow.

DAY 8 Friday, Dec 26 ● KRAKÓW – AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU – Hitler’s “Final Solution” was implemented by the use of KRAKÓW transport, labor, and death camps. Prior to the death camps the Nazi’s were ordered to mass murder Jews using guns. The soldiers DAY 9 Saturday, Dec 27 ● KRAKOW – WROCŁAW would have to line men, women, and children up by the thousands shooting them one by one to-fall-to their final resting places. This DAY 10 Sunday, Dec 28 ● WROCŁAW – ROGOŹNICA – WARSZAWA technique had terrible consequences for soldier moral, and in a conquest to conquer the hemisphere; money and moral are two of DAY 11Monday, Dec 29 ● WARSZAWA the most important details. To help with moral the Nazi’s began using gas. First they had gas vans where Jews were shoved by the DAY 12 Tuesday, Dec 30 ● WARSZAWA DEPART FOR HOME dozens into vans that had makeshift exhaust pipes that led into the cabins, such as the one at Chlemno Extermination Camp. The vans would drive to an already predetermined location where most of the occupants would already be dead, and if not they would be dumped with the dead and buried alive. Another alternative that the Nazi’s used before the Wannsee “deportation” plan was to set up ghettos, small tiny portions of cities such as the Warsaw ghetto where over 100,000 Jews would die of starvation, disease, and at least 300,000 survivors would later be sent to their deaths at Treblinka during Operation Reinhard (The Final Solution), and labor camps with the hopes of working and starving Jews to death.

350,000 Jews would be murdered at Majdanek death camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland. 980,000 people were murdered at Treblinka, Poland—most from the Warsaw ghetto. 650,000 Jews were killed in nine months at Belzec death camp in the Lublin district of Poland. 350,000 mostly Dutch Jews would be murdered at Sobibor death camp in Poland. Outside Lodtz Poland, 350,000 people would be killed at Chelmno death camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau was a network of extermination camps where 3,000,000 Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, and political prisoners were murdered or lost their lives. 40,000 victims were tortured, worked to death, starved to death, and murdered at Tony BlueJacket – SMU – at the firing squad wall at th Auschwitz I, Poland December 26 , 2014

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Lodz Ghetto, Litzmannstadt Ghetto. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. "Chelmno." Death Camp. London Jewish Cultural Center, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

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Gilbert, Martin. "Jews in Occupied Poland: The Massacre in Jedwabne." Editorial. New York Times 10 July 2011: n. pag. Jewish Virtual Library. Web.

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Philip Bialowitz - Joseph Bialowitz - University of Wisconsin Press – 2010

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"Majdanek." The Holocaust Explained. The London Jewish Cultural Center, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2105.

Staff. "Auschwitz." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. "Auschwitz-Birkenau." - Concentration Camp. The London Jewish Cultural Center, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

"Auschwitz-Birkenau." - Concentration Camp. The London Jewish Cultural Center, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Staff. Gross-Rosen. Warszawa: Sport I Turystyka, 1968. Yadvashem.org. From Top: Gates at Gross-Rosen, Dr. Rick Halperin SMU Auschwitz, Shoah Resource Center. Web. 25 Apr. 2015. SMU Student at the Plaszow Camp Memorial, Wroclaw, Poland 11

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