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To the Editor:

Auschwitz.

It’s a name that many of us recognize as the most notorious of the Nazi death camps, though it may not be as commonly known that it was the largest among six extermination camps and one of approximately 20,000 concentration and work camps throughout Europe.

Many of us have seen pictures of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex and shudder at the evil that took place there from the spring of 1940 to January 1945.

On Jan. 27, I stepped foot onto the grounds and was forever changed by the experience. We were there on our first day to witness the ceremonies for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and to honor Eva Mozes Kor, founder of the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute and a survivor of Auschwitz. We were there to be witnesses for the witness.

On the second day, we entered through the Auschwitz gates above which hung a sign that reads in German “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which translates to “Work sets you free.” Everyone with our group knew that the statement was a cruel joke - that forced labor killed many of the prisoners if they managed to escape death by starvation, sickness or the gas chambers.

As far as I could see, there were rows of barracks where the prisoners lived and buildings where they worked. The enormity of the evil that created this place was overwhelming. In every building we entered, we learned more about the tragedies that occurred within. I was in a state of shock until I entered a room that showed videos of families before the Holocaust - videos of families having fun together, walking on the beach together, loving life and family and enjoying freedom. There were children in those videos, doing things with their families that I do or plan to do with my own children. It was a moment of normalcy. Then I learned that they had all died at Auschwitz. I learned that most babies and young children were sent immediately to the gas chambers, and my eyes welled with tears.

We then entered a room that contained drawings from the children who were old enough to work there. They drew pictures of their families. They drew pictures of trains. My older child has drawn these types of pictures, but his differ greatly from the ones I viewed. In the drawings at Auschwitz, the families were crying. In front of the trains, children drew family members separated from each other. There were times I thought, “I can not take this. It is too much.” I wanted to leave Auschwitz, but I remained and learned more so that I could teach my students about the experience.

On Thursday, Jan. 30, we toured Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau. Again, as far as I could see were barracks or the remains of barracks - over 300 buildings existed in Birkenau. In a camp of over 400 acres are, among other horrific things, the ruins of four crematoriums destroyed by Nazi explosives just before the liberation - in an attempt to hide what they had done. In the morning, it was cold and windy, but sunny. However, the afternoon brought rain, gray skies and increased wind. Immediately, the people in my travel group from CANDLES felt dread, but we all soon came to the conclusion that we couldn’t complain. We wore layers upon layers of clothes and held warmers in our hands to protect us from the cold. We wore waterproof ponchos, and some of us had umbrellas. We walked through mud - mixed with ashes, as one friend told me - but our feet were protected by footwear that fit us and kept us dry and warm. At the end of the day, we would leave, eat a hearty dinner and take a nice warm shower before sleeping in a bed that was cozy and warm and spacious. Those at Auschwitz had no such luxuries.

Eva Mozes Kor, the creator of the CANDLES Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute and one of the twin survivors of Josef Mengele’s experiments, had worn a thin cotton dress that was too big for her and shoes with holes in them the entire time she was at the camp. She had to walk from Birkenau, where she lived, to Auschwitz for medical experiments several days a week - a distance of nearly two miles that she walked in the mud or snow, wearing a thin dress with no coat, no mittens or scarf, no hat. The winter of 1944-45 is regarded as one of the harshest in Europe’s history. Temperatures were often near 0 Fahrenheit. Eva and her twin sister Miriam endured this - all while hungry because of the meager food supply they were given. After undergoing hours of criminal medical experiments, Eva retired to a cold barrack at the end of the day, slept in a shared hard bed and at times risked going out at night to scrounge for food. She was 10 years old.

What did I learn from Auschwitz? I learned some of the extent of the evil in the time period of the Holocaust, yes. But I also learned that good prevailed in the end. I am in awe that some survivors, including Eva Kor, forgave Dr. Mengele, the SS doctor who had performed the medical experiments on her, her sister and other twins and, in doing so, healed and unbound herself from the dark past.

Eva often reminded those who could not understand her forgiveness that forgiving is not the same as forgetting. I learned never to forget what happened during the Holocaust. One of the goals of teaching about it is to prevent history from repeating itself, and to do whatever I can to bring awareness of current genocides occurring around the world. I learned that the Holocaust did not happen overnight, and that racism, prejudice, discrimination and atrocities grow slowly in families, in schools, in towns and cities and in the world. If we can prevent those things or stop them on a small scale, they will not have the chance to grow. That is what I am bringing home to my students.

Finally, I want to thank the many people who made it possible for me to visit Kraków, Poland and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Thank you to the generous donor who made it affordable for me to go, the Putnam County Community Foundation for administering the grant, the North Putnam School Corporation and Dr. Singer. I appreciate their support.

Furthermore, I would like to thank Beth Nairn, the volunteer trip organizer, the CANDLES staff and Alex Kor for their dedication to an experience that will be memorable forever. Without them, the trip would never have been possible for me. I had wanted the opportunity to visit Auschwitz since I was a student in the eighth grade learning about the Holocaust, and I am so grateful that I was able to visit it at last. It was truly life-changing for me, and I hope the lessons that will come from it will be something that my students will never forget as well.

Jennifer Fischer

Eighth-Grade English Teacher

North Putnam Middle School