Today we woke up early and took the bus to Auschwitz.
Auschwitz had 40 sub camps. First we saw Auschwitz 1. It was originally a Polish military base, but the Nazis turned it into a concentration camp and then later an extermination camp. However, the main extermination camp is Auschwitz 2, more commonly known as Birkenau.
All the barracks at Auschwitz 1 hold different exhibits about Auschwitz and its sub camps. We walked through the barracks with a tour guide, then went to see the gas chamber and crematorium.
A collection of children’s drawings found in concentration camps, hiding places, and orphanages:
From there, we headed to Birkenau. We went into a barracks and Howard told his story. Then we held a service for all the victims of the Holocaust.
We took a bus back to the hotel, and had a Shabbat dinner. The food was delicious and we had a few interesting guests. First, a man spoke about studying Jewish culture in Poland. The second speaker was a man who had to cope with his grandfather being an SS officer despite having Jewish ancestry. His wife, an artist working to preserve Jewish culture, also spoke about the projects she had been doing.
Emma Stewart is a student at Winchester Thurston School.