Visitng Auschwitz and Why We Must Stand Against Divisive Rhetoric Today

Two weeks ago we visited Auschwitz – a place forever scarred by unimaginable cruelty. Over the years, we’ve visited many sites marked by war and tragedy: the battlefields of Vietnam, the Killing Fields in Cambodia, and the site of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Each one left an impact, but nothing weighed as heavily as Auschwitz.

Walking through the camp, seeing remnants of lives shattered, and hearing the detailed accounts of systematic horrors, it became clear that the lessons from this dark history cannot be forgotten. Everyone, I believe, should know this part of our past.

Auschwitz stands as a reminder of what unchecked hate and divisive rhetoric can lead to, and it holds a message that resonates in our world today.

An image of a quote saying those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it
  • Save
A very important reminder

A Place Unlike Any Other

Auschwitz was unlike other concentration camps. It served as both a forced labor camp and an extermination center – an efficient machine for mass murder. The Nazis built gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz specifically for the organized killing of European Jews and others they deemed inferior.

Our tour began at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. This was the heart of the killing machine.

Here, trainloads of people arrived daily – Jews, Roma, Soviet POWs, and anyone who dared resist the Nazi regime. These prisoners were packed into freight cars, with 80-100 people crammed together with no food, no water, and sometimes not even a bucket. Some never survived the journey.

An image of a freight train car used to transport victims to Auschwitz
  • Save
Freight train cars used to transport victims to Auschwitz
The end of the rail line at Auschwitz II Birkenau
  • Save
The end of the line both literally and figuratively

For those who did, arrival was just the beginning. They faced immediate selection, an act that determined life or death. Anyone deemed strong enough was kept as a laborer, while the others were sent to the gas chambers.

The Path to Death Disguised as a Shower

It’s impossible to forget the deception that awaited those sentenced to death.

Told they would be showering, they were directed to undress and hang their belongings on numbered hooks, with orders to remember their number so they could easily find their things afterward. The Nazis even installed fake showerheads to maintain the illusion. This careful manipulation stripped these individuals of any final comfort or dignity.

The guards packed them into a large room and then sealed the doors. Through vents in the roof, an orderly would drop in Zyklon B pellets, which, once exposed to air, turned into a deadly gas.

An image of a demolished gas chamber at auschwitz
  • Save
A demolished gas chamber and crematorium at Auschwitz

The reaction was horrific.

Gasping for air, the victims would panic, pushing, shoving, and climbing over each other in desperate, futile attempts to escape. This agony would continue for 20 to 30 minutes, the gas slowly suffocating them all.

Try to picture that. Picture that chaos, that pain. People in their last moments, treated like nothing more than bodies in a room.

The Unthinkable Aftermath

The horror didn’t end with their death.

Once the gas cleared, the Nazis forced a special unit of prisoners, the Sonderkommando, to do the unthinkable – pry the bodies apart, remove jewelry, search orifices for valuables, and pull out gold teeth.

Finally, they would load the bodies onto a makeshift elevator that led to the crematorium, where they were reduced to ash, which was then scattered in ponds surrounding Auschwitz.

An image of a memorial at auschwitz for the victims whose ashes were thrown in the pond
  • Save
An image of the pond at Auschwitz where ashes of victims were deposited
  • Save
The pond at Auschwitz where the ashes of victims were deposited

Standing in that space, I felt the weight of each life lost, the inhumanity seeping into every corner. It was almost too much to bear, and yet, it was something I needed to see, to remember.

Where Humanity Was Stripped Away

After spending hours in Birkenau, our group moved to Auschwitz I.

The Nazis burned much of Birkenau in an attempt to erase evidence of their crimes, but Auschwitz I, a former Polish army barracks, remains largely intact. Today, it is a museum, preserving the brick buildings that now house the artifacts of its victims.

Inside, you see remnants: suitcases, shoes, glasses, even hair the Nazis had collected to turn into textiles. Walking through, we confronted each item and the life it belonged to, the person it once served.

This is where you see the infamous entrance sign, “Arbeit macht frei” – “Work sets you free.” The phrase, cruel in its deceit, still hangs above, a lasting symbol of Nazi lies.

An image of the work will set you free sign at the entrance of auschwitz
  • Save
“Work will set you free.” – the sinister and cynical sign at the entrance of Auschwitz I

In Auschwitz I, prisoners lived in the most brutal conditions, starved and broken down daily. They were forced to work on rations that barely kept them alive, often collapsing from exhaustion or hunger.

Many died on the job. The prisoners would carry the dead back to the camp because every evening the guards would do a roll call and the prisoners would be forced to wait outside in the elements until everyone was accounted for.

An image of a starved Hungarian woman at Auschwitz
  • Save
This is what starvation looks like. Notice the before picture on the bottom right

The Atrocities Behind Closed Doors

Inside Block 10, the nightmare continued in ways even more twisted.

Here, SS doctors conducted gruesome medical experiments on children, twins, and people with dwarfism. They sterilized women, castrated men, and killed just to perform autopsies.

Next door, Block 11 served as the prison block. This was where they held sham trials, where prisoners were tortured for minor “crimes” or attempts to escape, and where the first improvised gas chamber was constructed.

Between Blocks 10 and 11 stood the Death Wall, where countless people were executed.

An image of the death wall between block 10 and 11 at auschwitz
  • Save
The death wall between Blocks 10 and 11 at Auschwitz

As I walked out of Auschwitz II, the final words of the audio guide hit me hard: “We hope that these traces of Nazi crimes will make you think about what men can do to another human in the name of nationalistic aspirations.”

Those words, and this place, will never leave me.

Exploiting Pain to Gain Power

I often wonder how on earth something like this could have happened. How did it get this extreme that millions of people – mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, friends – were slaughtered as though they never mattered?

Our guide, Justyna, emphasized that the Holocaust didn’t begin with camps and executions – it began with words. Hateful, divisive rhetoric.

And when people hear these words repeatedly, they begin to accept them as truths.

victims of auschwitz
  • Save
victims of auschwitz (1)
  • Save
victims of auschwitz (2)
  • Save

We also must remember the state of the world and Germany in the 1930s. Long before any invasion, Hitler preyed on Germany’s deep wounds from World War I.

Germany was left humiliated, broken, and economically devastated. This created a fertile ground for Hitler, who offered hope to a nation filled with frustration, anger, and a yearning for dignity.

The people who followed him were victims of a system that exploited their pain. Many were desperate for change, and Hitler’s words promised a new, stronger Germany.

His message was essentially “Make Germany great again!”

But in exchange, they were asked to accept hate, to see certain people as “others” and to believe in a twisted ideology that promised to bring them power but ultimately brought destruction.

An image of a quote that says jews are a race that must be totally exterminated
  • Save
These are the kind of words I’m referring to

The echoes of this tactic are still around us today. Leaders who prey on fear and frustration – who target groups as scapegoats – still manipulate societies to fulfill their ambitions.

And like those who followed Hitler, people today risk becoming victims of a similar system if they give in to divisive rhetoric.

Complacency Is Complicity

If we don’t react to aggression – if we allow hate speech to go unchallenged – we risk allowing history to repeat itself. Complacency is a form of agreement, and agreement gives power to the darkest parts of humanity.

Every day, people are dying in conflicts fueled by prejudice and propaganda.

We must remember that each of us has a responsibility to reject hate and to challenge the language that divides.

Standing by quietly is not enough. We must be vigilant against any attempt to dehumanize others because of their race, religion, nationality, or any characteristic that someone chooses to target.

An image of shoes belonging to the victims of auschwitz
  • Save
Shoes belonging to the victims of Auschwitz

Our Shared Duty to Stand Against Divisive Rhetoric

At the end of the day, we are more alike than different. We all want peace, safety, and respect. We want to be able to provide for our families.

Please, don’t let anyone convince you that another person is lesser, that someone is dangerous simply because they are different.

Let us not become complacent, for complacency is akin to complicity. Our vigilance and humanity are our greatest defenses against future tragedies.

We have never seen the likes of horrors such as these in America. I hope we never do.

An image of the only 3 images secretly taken in auschwitz
  • Save
The only remaining pictures taken secretly by prisoners. From left to right: Jewish women being driven naked to the gas chamber and bodies of people who had been gassed being burned

Final Thoughts

Visiting Auschwitz was an experience we’ll carry with us forever, a reminder of what happens when humanity turns its back on itself.

It’s up to each of us to resist divisive rhetoric, preserve our shared dignity, and ensure that history’s darkest chapters are never repeated.

3 thoughts on “Visitng Auschwitz and Why We Must Stand Against Divisive Rhetoric Today”

  1. I also visited ! It was 1972 before the Munich Olympics. It was extremely sad ! Your story perfectly explains it.

  2. Tamsyn van Gelderen

    Thank you for this Rachel. Beautifully written and from the heart. Everything you say is on point. And you are right although I believe that many people living in the US today would disagree that hate speech is not prevalent in the US and that similar horrific treatment meted out to people in the camps, is still happening to some degree for a great many people right now. It most definitely is especially if you are a person of colour or a different nationality living there (and other places throughout the world too). Trump is busy creating his own version of what happened then right now and I hope the American people see this man for what he really is…a little dictator with immense power who will divide his country with appalling repercussions for many of the people living there. But that said, I hope that the majority of people are able to stand against this kind of blind hatred for anything or anyone different and show their compassion and empathy for fellow humans and animals and make a change for the better. Thank you for writing this.

    1. Auschwitz

      Hi, Tamsyn! Thanks for the kind words about the post! And thanks for sharing your thoughts. I hope too that people will begin to stand up to the hatred. I do believe that most people are good and have good intentions but the divisive rhetoric emboldens the worst among us and gives them a license to say terrible things and treat people with disrespect. Thanks again for reading the post and sharing your thoughts 🙂

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top
Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap