Chasing Colours

24. Living Beings

The Auschwitz camp was set up in 1940 in the former Polish Army barracks. Through the years, the camp had been divided into three parts, Auschwitz I, II and III along with other sub-camps in the territory. Out of the 40 camps and subcamps in the Auschwitz camp, Auschwitz II or Birkenau opened in 1942, was the largest and housed most number of prisoners including Jews, Poles, and several Soviet POWs. Birkenau served a combined camp for extermination and forced labour.

There were various crematoriums set up across the camp along with hidden gas chambers used for mass killings. Although, the prisoners remained unaware of the regular showering rituals that their fellow inmates were taken for to these chambers.

The barracks were divided into brick barracks and wooden ones which had been converted from former stables used to keep horses. Each barrack was provided with two stoves with brick heating flue although that did not help in the large space of accommodation, the thin walls, and earthen floors. The ground floor of each contained latrines, however, the usage was limited considering the number of prisoners housed.

With the least of sanitation that had been provided, the camps were easily manifested with bugs and lice. Epidemic breakouts became common and many died because of these crawling diseases while others died being exposed to the extreme cold or after being tortured during labour.

With the Soviet army entering the Polish lands, Germans had shifted their attention to hiding the evidence of atrocities caused and usually made prisoners toil to dismantle the structures inside.

(Edith)

My first day in the camp had seemed the longest. I had followed the horde of women as they were ordered to go up the stairs of the third brick barrack. I had been shoved a thin blanket and a piece of bread into my hand. Most of the crowd had been returning from their day's work then, exhausted and emaciated.

I had walked into a dark room with wooden bunk beds. The rooms had been overcrowded with more than fifty or sixty women shoved into one. As women hurried to find a place of themselves, I quickly grabbed the closest bunk to me. The darkness of the room was illuminated by the brick stoves in the far corners and a light bulb that had threatened to go off at any moment. The kapos had left us be.

Scanning the popping eyes around me, I brought my legs and my bread closer to myself. I had made a hungry grab for it, finishing it before it caught anybody else's eyes. Soon, two women had come into where I was seated and had made themselves comfortable on either side of me. I couldn't see their faces clearly.

The one on my left with whom I had shared my bed with was a lean and tall woman, her cheeks sunken, her short hair, in frizz and knots and eyes, piercing. Yet, she somehow had a smiling face. Her name,  she had said was Rosalyn. While the one on my right had been a burly woman, probably much older than Rosalyn. She was bald and had beautiful facial features wasted by the time she must have had spent there, yet there seemed to be a permanent scowl on her face. Her name had been Harriet. Both of them had been German jews who had been brought there.

As Harriet's eyes had fallen on me, she had said with a sarcastic tone to Rosalyn, "Oh, look. A new one between us. I am getting the hang of it." Then she had leaned closer and had spoken to me in German, "You sure don't come off as a Jew. What are you? Russian, Pole, Roma? I can go on naming all the races in here."

Rosalyn had sighed, "Give her a break, Harriet. She is new here."

Without meeting either of their faces properly, I had replied in a weak voice, "German. Aryan."

My eyes had quickly shot up as I had heard both of them gasp loudly at the time. A few eyes had turned our way as I had tried to shrink back into the darkness.