Miami Volleyball in Europe Day 6 - Visiting Auschwitz Concentration Camp
5/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Today's video recap features @olivia_rusek talking about visiting Auschwitz and reuniting with family #MUVBinEurope https://t.co/SMwXLoA9rV
- Miami Volleyball (@MiamiOH_VBall) May 22, 2016
Photo Gallery Note: Some photos may be disturbing, viewer discretion is strongly advised
OSWIECIM, Poland ââ'¬" The Miami University volleyball team learned an important and sobering lesson on Sunday as it made the short drive to Oswiecim to tour the Auschwitz Concentration/Death Camp, where nearly 1.1 million people were murdered during World War 2. That evening, the RedHawks were able to decompress with a nice dinner and some free time in Krakow's town square, which is the largest in all of Europe.
Today's blog was written by assistant athletic communications director Mike Roth, who is accompanying the team on the trip and documenting their exploits.
Miami Volleyball in Europe Day 6 ââ'¬" Mike Roth
It was very humbling experience today to be on the same site as so much devastation. In our trip to Auschwitz we learned exactly how the camp operated, taking a tour of the barracks and the gas chamber. We also drove a few kilometers to Birkenau, where the Nazis built a much larger facility after they ran out of land at Auschwitz.
Our tour guide explained that once arriving via boxcar (in which there were 50-100 people crammed into each car for a trip that lasted several days, some were dead before they even arrived), 75 percent of the group was separated (including almost all women and children under 14) as being unfit to work. They were taken to what they were told was a shower, but instead were put in a room where poisonous gas would kill them almost immediately. The team was able to walk through the last remaining standing chamber. The remainder were put to work in the labor camps where they only had small beds, had to work 12 hour days and had very limited access to bathroom facilities. Prisoners had to survive on as few as 700 calories a day. As you can imagine, starvation and disease were rampant at the facility.
As a person who is Jewish and just a human being, it broke my heart to see how anyone could force their fellow man to live in such conditions. The people of the museum do a fantastic job in keeping the place as it was to help educate the public of its horrors. They also do a great job in getting oral history and documents from Holocaust survivors, information that will continue to remind us after they have passed on. There was a quote on the wall that said something to the effect of we shall always remember so that this happens never again. I won't ever forget this experience of visiting Auschwitz and hope that I will have the opportunity to help pass that message down to younger generations through the years.
Overall this trip has been fun and educational and I really appreciate Coach Condit and staff for letting me tag along.
Thanks,
Mike Roth
Miami will spend its final day in Krakow on Monday. The RedHawks will tour the city during the day, including a stop at The Schindler Factory. In the evening Miami will take on WTS Solna Wielczka for its fourth match of the trip.