By Capt. J. Adam Landrum
Chaplain, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
The shoes of Holocaust victims remain piled in a room at the Auschwitz concentration camp near Krakow, Poland, Feb. 18, 2017. A group of 50 soldiers from 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, visited Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers, with more than 1.1 million people killed there during World War II. Unlike the history they witnessed, the BEB Soldiers now are part of an Atlantic Resolve mission that seeks to preserve the liberties of Polish citizens. (U.S. Army photo by Ch. (Capt.) J. Adam Landrum, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division)
OSWIECIM, Poland — About 50 Soldiers from the 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion experienced a sober piece of Polish history when they visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camps Feb. 18, 2017.
A week before the visit, Karolina Jackowska, a Polish citizen in Boleslawiec, where the battalion is headquartered in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, asked Soldiers if they learned about the Holocaust in school. She was pleased to know that they did, and the question served as a springboard to experience history in person the following weekend.
“Reading about it in books and seeing it are two very different things,” said Pvt. Klinton Whitmire, combat engineer, Company B, 588th BEB, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, who was one of the Soldiers who took a bus tour to the historic camps near Krakow.
Capt. Mark Dwyer, intelligence officer, 588th BEB, gave the Soldiers a refresher lesson on the history of the Holocaust during the 3.5-hour ride from Boleslawiec.
As they entered the first building at the Auschwitz Main Camp, Dwyer noted a quote on the wall from philosopher George Santayana: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Pvt. Jacob Debach, a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) reconnaissance platoon specialist with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, walks the grounds of the Auschwitz concentration camp near Krakow, Poland, Feb. 18, 2017, while listening to a guided tour. A group of 50 BEB soldiers visited Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers, with more than 1.1 million people killed there during World War II. Unlike the history they witnessed, the BEB Soldiers now are part of an Atlantic Resolve mission that seeks to preserve the liberties of Polish citizens. (U.S. Army photo by Ch. (Capt.) J. Adam Landrum, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division)
Tour guides led the Soldiers first through the main camp, Auschwitz I. They learned that not only were more than 1 million Jews killed there, but that all of their possessions were stolen by the Nazis as well.
“The reality of this horror was almost impossible to realize,” said Pvt. Jacob Debach, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear specialist with Headquarters and Headquarters Company. “Especially being there and seeing their pictures and actual hair and shoes after being gassed or burnt alive because of religion, race, beliefs. It was a different feel just stepping onto that ground when I first arrived.”
Unlike the past, the BEB Soldiers now are part of an Operation Atlantic Resolve mission that seeks to preserve the liberties of Polish citizens. The 3rd ABCT’s nine-month rotation in Poland and seven other allied nations focuses on maintaining a persistent presence that deters aggressive acts that could potentially lead to a repeat of history in Europe.
At Auschwitz the Soldiers walked through rooms filled with the Holocaust victims’ eyeglasses, suitcases, shoes, combs and dishes.
After the tour of Auschwitz, the Soldiers visited the Birkenau death camp — 500 acres of barracks that were once filled with Jews who died due to inhumane living conditions or were exterminated in the gas chambers.
Immediately following the tour, the Soldiers contemplated what they’d seen.
“Today I walked where they walked their last steps. I saw where they lived, where they slept, what they wore, where they suffered and died,” said Pfc. Cynthia Medina, combat engineer, HHC.
During the tour, Polish TVN 24 reporter Olga Poreba spoke to the Soldiers while broadcasting a story about their impressions visiting the camps.
“I think for many Poles your visit to Auschwitz is a very important and symbolic gesture,” Poreba said.
Soldiers from 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, take a tour of the gas chamber at the Auschwitz II–Birkenau concentration/extermination camp near Krakow, Poland, Feb. 18, 2017. A group of 50 BEB soldiers visited Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp and extermination center, with more than 1.1 million people killed there during World War II. Unlike the history they witnessed, the BEB Soldiers now are part of an Atlantic Resolve mission that seeks to preserve the liberties of Polish citizens. (U.S. Army photo by Ch. (Capt.) J. Adam Landrum, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division)