It is with deeply mixed feelings that I approached touring the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps outside of Krakow today.
It is possible that at least one of my ancestors died there. I have documents verifying that my maternal grandparents Philomena Kruszelnicki and Albertus Domaracki immigrated to America as solo teens just before WW1. They moved twice to work in textile mills in Fall River, MA after they married and eventually bought a burned out farmhouse in Somerset, MA on 48 acres where they established the small Montaup Dairy until my grandfather died prematurely at age 57 due to an infected broken leg that resulted from a factory accident while working as a textile loom mechanic.
My grandmother only returned to Poland once in her lifetime, solo- when she was in her 70’s. I have zero knowledge of where her hometown village is located. It was never discussed in the two tenement farmhouse that my parents and brother shared with her. She never shared any discussion after she returned to the US about her trip to Poland.
My parents did a bit of travel after they retired but never in Poland. It was as if there was a dark secret that no one would even dare approach.
My belief about a family death in Auschwitz has to do about a particularly frightening and disturbing Easter dinner that occurred with my parents, brother and grandmother present when I was in my 30’s. My grandmother became morose when offering blessings to each of us around the dinner table when she moved on to express some wishes to her own family. She became increasingly upset to the point that she cried and then started shouting about people being thrown into ovens to die. All of the rest of the family fell silent until the expression of grief settled back into silence. I believe that my family carries inter-generational grief related to events around concentration camps, separation from family, death, and national identity. I also hope that my presence in Poland may lead to an increased understanding about my family story.
WARNING: The rest of the post contains descriptions that will be deeply disturbing to readers. If you don’t want to be subject to such imagery, then it would be good to move on.
My brother Roy and I purchased two books from the Auschwitz bookstore/ shop. Our tour was with an official English guide and lasted approximately four hours with extensive walking. You are allowed to take still photographs with no flag in all but a few locations during the tour. I choose to keep my own photograph private, leaving the reader to examine further data themselves.
Our tour included Birkenau which was only 3 miles from Auschwitz. There were also more than 50 smaller slave camps in neighboring locations. The original site was built in 1914 and housed the Polish army. Twenty three buildings each housed 700-1000 prisoners. 11,000,000 Jews, Gypsies (Rom) almost all the women, and handicapped people were exterminated. 25% of people became slaves that were all worked to death. The average life span for a slave was 6 months. Worst atrocities were committed in punishment cells. Horrendous medical procedures were inflicted in the name of research.
Eventually the killing process was streamlined and resulted in 80% death rates upon the day of arrival in the camp with disposals of the corpses through incineration and the assists periodically removed ashes from the camp and dispersed then both in and outside the boundaries. The camp was eventually liberated by the Soviets on Jan. 27, 1945, just five years before I was born.
I have much to digest from my deeply moving and shaken experience of walking the same patches of earth where these horrific crimes against humanities occurred. I am infused with newfound power in confronting and speaking up when I witness bigotry and disrespect in my community. I am largely clueless about WWII, and that is going to change.
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