Arbeit Macht Frei ( Work Sets You Free )

Ironically, we had been to this historic spot in Poland on a rare weekend when we could extricate ourselves from from work. And we were put face-to-face with this: “Auschwitz”, the largest Nazi Concentration and death camp – now an universally recognized symbol of Genocide.

“Arbeit Macht Frei ”: This was the slogan that greeted more than 1.5 million victims at the gates of the concentration camp – many of whom were murdered en-masse in this hell. Crimes unprecedented in human history were committed here and none before had inspired such multifaceted and extensive reflection upon the morality of mankind.

The gallows of the slave coasts in Africa are indeed grim reminders of the cravenness of the Western Nations and mankind in general. But the ghettos of Auschwitz camp just jolt up the conscious and unconscious souls of ours and make us take a hard look at our very understanding of civilization and human nature.

The Nazi policy of expansion and extermination was rooted not only in a desire to achieve political domination of Europe and the world, but in plans for affecting wide-ranging demographic changes. Hitler had ordered the ‘final solution’ to the Jewish question. The extermination centers existing then would not suffice for activity on such a large scale. The German forces occupying Poland during World War II, established in May 27, 1940 on the orders of Heinrich Himmler a concentration camp at Auschwitz - chosen for its suitable location in terms of transportation and because the area could be easily isolated and concealed. The Jews were considered the eternal enemies of the German nation and were to be extirpated. The Fuhrer believed that if they were unable to destroy the biological forces of Judaism, then the Jews would one day destroy the German Nation.

The Nazis tried to confer the character of punishment for violations of camp discipline upon executions at the camps. This was mainly by shooting point-blank (in full view of the rest of the prisoners) at the back of the head of the subject, who was made to undress as well for the ceremony ! This was the economic and effectively ruthless German way of enforcing discipline among the prisoners.

Hunger, coupled with physical exhaustion was the basic method of extermination at the concentration camps. Other factors related to poor living conditions (clothing & hygiene) increased the prisoners ‘ death toll. Many of the prisoners were also used as guinea-pigs for horrendous medical experiments. This method was in contrast to the one employed at the “Extermination Centers” where the victims were murdered immediately upon arrival.

After arriving at the camp, the people were divided into two groups – men, on the one hand, and women and children, on the other. After this, in both the groups only those deemed fit for work would be selected and given camp clothes, registered in the camp records, tattooed with camp numbers, and subsequently employed at the camp for their slow death. The others ( based on statistics, around 80 % of the arrivals ) were sent to gas chambers for being murdered and cremated. The five crematoria here were capable of burning 4,756 corpses a day ! After an experimental gassing there in September 1941 of 850 malnourished and ill prisoners, mass murder became a daily routine. By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale with some estimates running as high as three million persons eventually killed through gassing, starvation, disease, shooting, and burning ...

All that is left at the camp today though are only the photographs of thousands of victims, tales of heroic efforts of many of them, distressing and untold miseries of the lives that were snubbed here, the facilities themselves with all their horrifying detail and the gas chambers with the thousands of souls whose gasps for a breath of oxygen still echo round the place……………through the expressions of shock and disbelief from the visitors!

The memoir on stone tablets says in various languages:

“Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe” ---- Auschwitz and Birkenau, 1940-1945

The evil symbolized by Auschwitz neither began when the gates for the camp opened nor ended when the last crematoria were shut down. Prejudice and discrimination can still lead to mass murder. But, the revolting feeling from Auschwitz comes because of the realization that mankind is capable of genocide on such a mass, industrialized and bureaucratized scale! Yes…………..that is akin to the present day lingo: “State Sponsored Terrorism”.

Thus the Auschwitz experience paints the backdrop of a sickness in the human spirit………….and looking at the recent events back home in India – we could not help having a feeling of deja-vu. What’s more, there even seems more than just a tinge of approval from the state to the violent acts being perpetrated. This should hit us hard - especially so, when we in India are on the high pedestal of having demonstrated to the world the power of the other extreme of ‘hatred’ that Auschwitz represents: “PEACE”. And, with the glory of having as the Father of our Nation, a man who with his simplicity had wrested freedom from the fists of the most powerful Nation by moving the emotion of this entire country, many of whom are still on the lookout for the next meal !

The rising fanatics in our backyard are only cousins of the fascists of yester era - objects of abject abhorrence today. For sympathizers of these and those changing history (Sic) as it should be recorded / studied / taught, here is a warning:

“The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again” - George Santayana

Sources:

a) Details at the Auschwitz – Birkenau Concentration Camps / Museum

b) Auschwitz : Nazi Death Camp, Second Edition, The Auschwitz – Birkanau State Museum and Douglas Selvag


PS: Article originally written during the period of   '2002 Gujarat Violence '