The main Auschwitz site (Auschwitz I) is surprisingly small and in comparison to the Birkenau complex, positively tiny. That was a major surprise. Nothing prepares you for what you are about to see on entering the site and the emotions that are evoked. We walked through the main entrance bearing the arch above with the words Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free). And then it hits you.
The weather was beautiful with temperatures in the mid thirties and a clear blue sky. That just seemed plain wrong! And not a sound – no bird song for example. It felt strangely eerie.
The accommodation blocks are arranged in a grid system and are set close to each other. We wandered around slightly aimlessly trying to find our bearings and went through a darkened entrance. Without realising it, we had stumbled into a gas chamber. We found out later that 60,000 people perished in there, a place where Zyklon B was used and perfected. The place had a feeling and sense of death around it – cold, dank and dimly lit too. At that point the mind starts to create images and they are not pleasant ones either.
These days each of the accommodation blocks is themed and is effectively a memorial to a particular country that lost some of their population at the camp. As you walk down the corridors of the blocks, pictures of former camp ‘inmates’ peer at you from the walls and there are thousands of them – each one telling its own story. Most expressions are just grim and sad, gaunt and desperate; of course none smile at you.
One of the most chilling parts of Auschwitz I is what has become known as the Execution or Death Wall. This small courtyard is the area between accommodation blocks number 10 and 11. Prisoners were tortured in this space and thousands executed and shot. There is clear evidence of bullet holes in the brickwork around the courtyard. This is truly a humbling space in which to stand and silence is observed.