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INTERNATIONAL DESK
Old Barracks
andthe
NewEurope
T
land that líes between
Katowice and Kraków is hardly the most
beautiful in Europe.
lt
is frozen and bleak
in wi nter, a swamp in summer.
lt
is now
part of southern Poland, a lthough it has
changed hands severa} times in the ebb and
flow of history.
At the end of the last century it was known
as Galicia, a region of t he old
Austro- Hungarian Empire. But it had by then
more or less reverted to Polish control. The
decision to bu ild
a
new barracks for a cavalry
regiment in this unprepossessing a rea went
unnoticed by the rest of the world, for it was,
indeed, a s ingularly unremarkable event.
The new barracks were just outside the little town of
Oswi~cim.
Thirty or so brick barrack blocks were built.
They would not have won any prizes for architectural
excellence, but they were strong and serviceable, anda
more than adequate home for the Polish soldiers who
would occupy them. Trees planted in the roadways
between the barracks softened the rather austere look
of the compound. The architect and builders of this
military facility would have had reason to be sat isfied
with a job well done.
Eventually the barracks were abandoned. Left to
the elements, they becarne dilapidated, but because
they were strongly built they did not become a ruin .
New Lease
of
Death
In 1939 Hitler 's armies swept across the Polish
border, and Oswiecim and its barracks became a
part of the Thi rd Reich. In the footsteps of the
victorious arrny carne men dedicated to fu lfilling the
dreams of their leader.
28
Hitler had outlined his goals sorne years earlier in
his manifesto
M ein Kampf
But few, including
rnill ions of straight-thinking Gerrnans who had voted
for hirn, had bothered to read it. But sorne had read
and understood, and now in the flush of victory,
they went to work to "cleanse" their thousand-year
reich.
The Nazis had begun to organize their
concentration camp systern severa! years earlier.
After Jands to the east were occupied, the Nazis
carne upon the old barracks at Oswiecirn while
looking for a new Jocation for a concentration
camp.
By 1940 the buildings had fallen into disrepair
and were no longer real ly fi t for human habi tation.
The area was unheal thful. Verrnin had taken over.
But that couldn't have suited the Gestapo's purposes
better. Reichsführer Heinrich Hirnrnler gave the
order to establish a concentration camp at
Oswi~irn
on April 27, 1940.
A double line of electrified barbed wire fence was
strung around the perirneter of the compound and
guard towers were erected. And so the old barracks
became Auscbwitz Concentration Carnp.
The first arrivals were brought to Auschwitz on
J
une 14, 1940. They were the vanguard of millions
of Poles, Jews, Czechs, Russians, Gypsies- people
frorn all over Europe. A new, even Jarger camp was
built close by at Birkeneau and the wbole area
around Auschwitz becarne a death factory.
Today the whole world knows what bappened
in the old barracks at
Oswi~cirn.
The buildings
still stand today, preserved by the Polish nation
as a rnuseurn and a rnonurnent to the rnillions
who suffered there during those four and a half
years of hell. A visit is st ill an overwhelrning
experience- the gas charnbers, the pathetic piles
of shoes and suitcases, the basernent of Block
ll
where certain prisoners were starved and kept in
airless cells unti l tbey suffocated. No words that
1
have can adequately describe the utter horror of
that place.
While wandering through the remains of the carnp
1
wondered how the original builders of those
barracks would feel if they surveyed their handiwork
today. But how could they have known what would
happen in their neat brick buildings? Architects and
builders don't always know what will be done witb
the fruits of tbeir labors.
The Only Solution
lt
is now 40 years since Auschwitz was liberated.
The PLAIN TRUTH