The Crematoriums of Auschwitz II – Birkenau

Last time I visited a crematorium was during my confirmation in the church. We took a trip to the local funeral home in Burnaby and were shown how the bodies of those who had died were burned in a cardboard box and then given to the mourning family. Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the largest annihilation/work camp that the Nazi’s created, also had crematoriums. They also used these facilities to burn the bodies of the dead but that is where the similarity ends. These crematoriums (II, III, IV and V) became death factories for processing the Jews, Gypsies, Poles etc. murdered in the gas chambers. Crematoriums II and III were retrofitted morgues but crematoriums IV and V were specifically made to efficiently gas and burn prisoners. All the crematoriums were located away from the camp itself to hide them but as Miklos Nyiszli recalls in his book “I Was Doctor Mengel’s Assistant,” the minute he stumbled out off the transport wagon onto the grounds of Auschwitz II-Birkenau his “nostrils filled with the nauseous pungency of burning hair and flesh.” There was no hiding the death that pervaded that camp.

200 meter changing room

Crematorium with gas chamber underneath

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above you can see a video and a model showing the design of Crematorium III. Prisoners were ushered down a set of stairs into a 200 meter long underground room that looked like a change room with benches. Here they were told to strip bare, leave their belongings on a numbered hook and remember the number for later pick up. Of course there was no later pick up. Then they were guided into the gas chamber in the next room. This was just below the crematorium. It had fake shower heads in the roof to make it look like a shower room. Once the doors were locked the Zyklon B was dropped down holes in the roof with pipes that went all the way to the floor. There were vents at the bottom of the pipes and once the Zyklon B reacted with the air the poison filled the room and everyone was dead within 5 minutes. Next, anything of value was extracted, and the bodies were taken upstairs to the burning ovens by an elevator.

Example of oven in Auschwitz I

Example of oven inserts in Auschwitz I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once cremated the ashes were disposed of in the Vistula river. This death factory had the ability to process between 5,000 to 8,000 bodies a day.[1]

It is no longer possible to see the crematoriums at Auschwitz II-Birkenau because they were all destroyed. Crematorium IV was destroyed by a group Sonderkommandos (prisoners working in the gas chambers) in October 1944 and in order to avoid any evidence of mass extermination the Nazi’s destroyed crematoriums II, III and V in January 1945 before the Russians could liberate the camp. Today all that is left of the crematoriums is a pile of rubble and the horrible memory of what happened there.

Remains of Crematorium II

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[1] Nyiszli, Miklos. “I Was Doctor Mengele’s Assistant.” Poland: Frap-Books, 2000.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

The great thing about traveling is going to different museums. When I was younger I really didn’t appreciate when my parents took me to the British Museum in London or Lousiana in Denmark. Maybe that is just the way it is. Fortunately it seems like that has changed. While visiting my aunt Karin, her husband Ole and my cousin Sebastian in Hillerød we were able to go to Louisiana. This is the most well known museum in Denmark and is recognized worldwide. Good museum to visit.

Infinity and Beyond

Inside one of the homes

 

The main exhibit was on architecture. It talked about what it meant to have a home, what homes look like and what they could look like. I really enjoyed it but Nils got a little bored with it after a while. He was looking for more drawing and painting. Afterwards we went out for lunch and talked about art and what it means. We both found that the Danish art was very cerebral because it tried to express a certain idea. Perhaps this is because the artists that go to school in Denmark and probably many other places spend most of their time learning art theory rather than learning the practical aspects of making art. It was not as technically sophisticated as some of the other art. While I think it is important to analyze the art you are doing it is also about the visual. Personally I like art that has some visual appeal. Its not that it has to be perfect but the artist has to have some sense of space and the combination of visual elements. Art that is primarily about an idea would be better expressed in an essay as far as I’m concerned.

Art by Al Taylor

Model of housing complex

Plexi Glass Sculpture

Alternative Energy Source: Windmills

One of the major things we are concerned about as a global society is energy. For a long time we have relied on oil to provide for our energy needs but as we see how much damage oil can do, not only when we use it as fuel for cars but also in the extraction process, we are more likely to look for alternatives. One of those alternatives is wind. Much like tidal energy or solar power, wind is a source of energy that never runs dry. It is a little unpredictable because we cannot control when the wind will blow and in what direction but it provides what many are calling a clean source of energy. By clean they mean that there are no emissions of any sort other than what it takes to build the machines to harvest the energy and create the storage stations. It seems like a viable alternative to things like coal, nuclear energy or oil.

 

But of course it also has its downsides. There are concerns by wildlife organizations that windmills kill birds. People who live in areas close to windmill farms (a concentration of windmills in one area) complain about the noise they give off and there are always comments about how it wrecks the view. Of course it is easy to say that these are minor complaints when we are not the ones being affected but it must also be acknowledged that these problems seem much less dire than the impact we have already seen from energy sources like oil. No matter what we choose as a source of energy there will always be some negative impact. Perhaps in this society it is about finding those energy sources with the least impact on the environment.

Windmills in the countryside

Close up

Christiana: Danish Utopia?

Just outside of the very centre of Copenhagen in a district called Christianshavn (Christians Harbour) there is an experiment going on. The experiment is a community built within an old military base. It is called Freetown Christiana.

Mind you it has been going on for over 30 years so it is nothing new. And really the idea is not anything new either. It is an attempt to create a society that is in line with the values of those who live within said society. Some of those values include welcoming in all types of people, the free distribution and use of “soft drugs” such as hash and cannabis and no individual ownership of property. While the values are different it reminds me of the monks who decided that the church was corrupt and created there own community in monasteries.

Christiana Flag (Top) + The Law

One of the things I expected in Christiana was a very friendly and inviting community. Of course I did not realize that the drug trade there has created a paranoid culture. Especially on “Pusher Street,” the open air drug market, you are not allowed to take pictures. Unfortunately I had missed those signs and when I went to take a picture of the marijuana paraphernalia they were selling I was yelled at and told to give my camera over. Of course I refused to do that and told the guy that I hadn’t taken a picture yet which I hadn’t. As we left I saw the big sign saying “Do Not Take Pictures.” I thought it would be ironic to take a picture of this sign but the minute I went to do that  a group of young men started yelling at me.

You Are Now Entering The EU

Now I don’t want to colour the whole of Christiana with one brush because I am sure there is a beautiful community there. The problem is that all I got to see was a bunch of paranoid and aggressive drug dealers. Doesn’t seem like much of a utopia to me. I think that the idea that we can create a society that only embodies the good parts and leaves behind the bad is deeply flawed. No matter what type of society we create it is always made of humans. And if it is made of humans it will have problems. I also have a problem with people who bail on society because they think they can do a better job. Why not work with what you have and try to make it better? Isn’t that what community is about.

Other Artists in Køge Exhibit

Basco5 was not the only artist in the Walk This Way exhibit in Køge. Several other artists caught my attention while I was wandering around. Mormor (which means grandma or moms mom) is a fairly famous Danish street artist. Pink Army is an anti war group that expresses there beliefs through art. I can’t figure out who the last one is but I really liked it. Here are a few pictures of their stuff.

Artist: Mormor

Artist: Pink Army

Artist: Unknown

Basco5 Art Exhibit in Køge

Bleeding Bird

Two Faces

Staircase

While up visiting Nils in Copenhagen we decided to take advantage of free rides you can take on the S-Train every first Sunday of the month. At first we had thought about going out to the famous museum Lousiana Museum for Modern Art but ended up not having enough time. Instead we decided to go out and see Nils’s exhibit in Køge. The exhibit is called Walk This Way and  two parts to it. The first was inside the museum where Basco5 had most of his work. He had painted large figures on a bunch of the walls. Other artist had also done some work on the walls. The second part was a walk around Køge were you could see the art in it’s “natural” habitat. You are given a map that directs you to where the various artists have their art and then you can follow it around. I really enjoyed how there was a mix between gallery style displays and street art on the street. Often you find, especially with graffiti, that it is displayed in galleries but rarely as an outside gallery. Great way to display art.

Distortion Copenhagen: The Real Afterparty

Every year since 1998 Copenhagen has hosted a festival called Distortion for 4 days every year. It is for anyone who simply loves to dance. Each day the party is in a different part of Copenhagen with many different DJ’s playing all sorts of music.

I was able to go up for the last day on Saturday. It was definitely not nearly as intense as some of the other days but it was a great time to hang out with my brother Nils, drink some beer down by the harbour and enjoy the atmosphere. Some of Nils’s friends were supposed to come down but at about 10 pm we headed back to Nils’s apartment where we found them eating supper.

Katlin, Rasmus and Nils

As we sat down and chatted we started to “hygge os.” In Denmark the word “hygge” is hard to translate. It is a combinations of enjoying the company of those around you, feeling like you are having a good time and a sense of camaraderie. Once this happens things can get really fun. There is a sense that you are all in this journey together. You tend to drink at the same pace so that you can all enjoy the night together. In the end we sat around drinking until 6 am. Not only was is fun to hang out but it was especially nice to get to know Nils’s friends that I have heard so much about.