14. 4. 2015 byl zcela výjimečný den. OA Neveklov pod vedením Mgr. Miroslavy Hulanové pro své studenty připravila ojedinělý zájezd – exkurzi na místo, které do dnešní doby v myslích všech lidí vyvolává asociace nepředstavitelných hrůz holokaustu a stále neodhalených svědectvích. Osvětim-Březinka (Oświęcim-Brzezinka) je v dnešní době čtyřicetitisícové okresní město v Malopolském vojvodství ležící pří ústí řeky Soly do Visly. Obě řeky v průběhu 2. světové války sehrály svou úděsnou roli.
První písemné zmínky pocházejí z roku 1179 – v té době byla Osvětim hradištěm. Název ve staropolštině znamenal „místo patřící Osvětimovi" (staroslovanské jméno pravděpodobného zakladatele). Kdo by si tenkrát pomyslel, že o 761 let později se toto místo navždy vryje do pamětí lidí jako vyhlazovací koncentrační tábor, který byl jen pouhým nástrojem absurdního plánu nacistů, známého jako „konečné řešení židovské otázky".
„The one who does not remember history, is bound to live through it again." (George Santayana (1863-1952) – americký filozof, kritik a spisovatel španělského původu)
Je potřeba si osvěžovat paměť. Následující řádky studenta 2. ročníku tomu mohou napomoct.
Auschwitz-Birkenau (Osvětim-Březinka)
On Wednesday 14th of April 2015 me and some students from Business Academy in Neveklov had a unique opportunity to visit the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is a huge complex used during World War II by Nazi Germans. Auschwitz was found in 1940 for politic prisoners, built on the territory of several displaced and demolished villages. At that time this camp had capacity 15-20 thousand people. There was a gas chamber for killing people. But it was not enough. So after 2 years, the prisoners built the second part of this concentration camp - Birkenau. This part had capacity 90 thousand people (10 times larger in size than Auswchwitz I) and there were 4 gas chambers. That is a lot! The third part of this camp was called Monowitz. But it was completely destroyed soon after the war.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was used for imprisonment and killing people - mostly Jews. During World War II there were killed about 1.100.000 people. This number is official. But Rudolf Höss, the camp Commandant, stated in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice that there were about 4 million people who died here, literally, they were murdered. Most people were deported here from Hungary and Poland. But the prisoners also came to Auschwitz from France, the Netherlands, Greece and Czechoslovakia. From Czechoslovakia it was about 73.000 people.
A journey to the camp was simple. The Germans told people that they would be moved to a better place to live. For that reason nobody was scared and suspected anything terrifying. But it was never accomplished. People traveled by train to Auschwitz. When they came to the camp, they were divided into two parts by 40 doctors, among whom Josef Mengele experimented especially on twins, too. The first group was killed immediately as they were preferably elderly, ill ones or children - generally 80%. In the second group there were people who had to work, but mostly died later – it was usually after 3 months. They died of hunger, extreme working conditions and exhaustion.
"Life" in the camp was not easy at all. Every prisoner woke up at 04:00 am and they had do work all day long. During the day they ate only soup for lunch and a slice of bread to dinner. That was all. Then a few weeks later, they weighed 35 kilograms only. Hygiene was terrible as well. The camp was full of illnesses and epidemics. The conditions were simly very hard. Too hard for everybody. It obviously led to high death rate.
When the Germans lost their fight at the battle of Stalingrad in 1943, they ran away back to Europe. Back to Berlin. So when the USSR (the Soviet Red Army) found and liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, there were only 7.500 people alive, because most of them were murdered by the Germans in the gas chambers. Later, other 500 prisoners died.
It was really a ghastly period of 20 century. I still cannot believe that it had happened only 70 years ago. I hope that this situation full of fear, neverending pain and suffering will never be repeated and all people will learn from our history.
Jan Janes, 2.A
Pro studenty 1. - 3. ročníku, stejně jako pedagogický doprovod, byl tento den nezapomenutelným zážitkem. Děkuji jménem nás všech za to, že všichni jsme společné časově náročné putování i dlouhé, přesto dechberoucí prohlídky obou táborů absolvovali v poklidné atmosféře. Byli jsme mile překvapeni až pietním chováním a vystupováním našich studentů. Doufejme, že se historie zhmotněná osvětimskou tragédií nebude nikdy opakovat.
Fotografie ze zájezdu v naší fotogalerii.