A Textbook Couldn't Teach This

The Holocaust has been something that I have always found myself wanting to learn more about. Besides reading The Diary of Anne Frank in middle school, I really didn’t learn much about the Holocaust until my senior year when we read Night for my senior transition class. I was horrified when I saw pictures of starving Jews and piles of bodies that looked like nothing more than skeletons. Then my freshman year in college my world history professor touched on the subject as well. She did a lecture in which we watched a film of Hitler rallying the crowds. She also taught us of how efficient the Nazis were. They didn’t waste a thing, but kept hair to make blankets, golden teeth to gain a quick buck, and many more personal possessions.

This past weekend a friend and I visited Krakow for Easter. While there we did a tour of Auschwitz, the largest and most well known death camp of the Holocaust. It was a haunting sight to see, but after years of learning about the atrocities that took place there, I’m glad I got to see it firsthand. Many of the buildings, or blocks as they were called, were turned into small museums. There were pictures and testimonies plastered on the walls. As the tour continued, we were led into a room where piles of hair were kept in a glass case. Our guide told us that all of the hair weighed nearly two tons. There were more cases containing shoes and kitchenware. We also got to see the standing cells and other confinement spaces. I think the most chilling sight for me was when we walked through the gas chambers and I saw the crematory ovens. That, the execution wall, and the case of shoes were the hardest sights to take in.

The Holocaust was an unbelievable event that took place in the 20th century. This time period is so well known for the advancements made; advancements in industry, standards of living, and globalization. But during the Second World War, politics really seemed to fail those being persecuted. Furthermore, on top of either an outright hatred or an under-the-rug hatred for those who were different, there was booming industrialization that allowed for a new kind of violence to take place. Genocide of millions of people took place through industry and did so without a personal effect on those who carried it out.