VI
EN
Nguyen Hien Mi, a resident of Hanoi, was deeply moved after her visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp. When thinking of Europe, people often think of France, Germany, Italy, or Switzerland, but for Nguyen Hien Mi (Mimidory), 29, who lives in Hanoi, the place that left the most unforgettable impression on her was Poland. The female traveler arrived three months ago and visited the Auschwitz concentration camp, now the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial.
"It's an unimaginable journey. There are places where you arrive and leave feeling happy and excited. But there are places where visitors carry sadness, haunting memories, and pain. And Auschwitz belongs to the latter category," Mi said.
Auschwitz was the largest and most notorious concentration camp under Nazi Germany. A dense barbed wire fence surrounded Auschwitz I, which served as both the administrative and prisoner-holding area. Inside were rows of neatly numbered buildings, each surrounded by an electrified barbed wire fence.
The Nazis displayed a large banner at the camp entrance: "Labor is freedom." However, the reality was quite different, as prisoners were forced to perform grueling labor. They were beaten, worked in terrible conditions, and were exploited to the point of death.
Stopping in front of Auschwitz I and II, Mi felt the cold. She walked slowly and carefully past several buildings that were opened according to themes to give visitors a more visual understanding. The two buildings that haunted the Vietnamese female tourist the most were blocks 5 and 11.
House number 5 was piled high with personal belongings, reaching like small towers. Thousands of suitcases, engraved with individual names, were given to prisoners by the Nazis before execution, ostensibly to free them but actually to send them to the gas chambers. Thousands of pairs of eyeglasses belonging to Jewish intellectuals or Polish and Gypsy prisoners... Mountains of combs, pots and pans, adult and children's clothing, and millions of worn-out shoes...
The basement housed a display of torture instruments and a punishment area with tiled cells approximately 1 square meter in size and 2 meters high. At the bottom, there were iron holes just large enough for one person to crawl through, while the rest was completely sealed. "After a hard day's work, if prisoners were punished, they would be brought in here. They couldn't sit still, nor could they stand, and the lack of air meant they quickly became exhausted," Mi recounted.
House No. 11 was considered the House of Death, with its "Wall of Death." When prisoners were brought in, they had to go through each room: sentencing, changing, communal living quarters, a bathroom (where prisoners were subjected to a painful, Nazi-style shower with a powerful hose), and finally, the Wall of Death – the execution site.
The next stop was Auschwitz II (Birkenau), or the extermination camp. Between the two sections of the camp was a railway line carrying people from the free world to death. They would be examined by nurses and immediately categorized: those who could be used for labor and those who needed to be eliminated immediately, such as the elderly and young children.
"I felt a chill run down my spine with every step, every touch, and every word I read. There will rarely be a second chance to come here and witness firsthand the remnants of a systematic genocidal regime, unique in human history. With 2-3 million people massacred, 700 escaped, and 400 recaptured, I grieve for those who perished and admire those who survived," Mi said.
Mi's mood after the trip was rather somber, but she said that the decision to visit was the right one. She had unforgettable experiences and the trip helped her appreciate her current life.
Hien Mi has visited 32 countries and territories. At each stop, Mi tries to explore the local life and culture as much as possible. She cherishes each trip, as they are invaluable opportunities for her to learn new things.
