European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 27, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                              A \ s \ jul empty Barracks and a Forest of chimneys Are silent evidence of the Birkenas experience. Is Ron Jensen Auschwitz continued from be 13 of the head a Small fraction of the 1.2 million who died Here. ". Explain the Block of death a prison within the prison where an ill timed stumble an unalloyed utterance or some other grand crime would land an inmate. Here in the basement Are four standing cells each 1 Yard Square floor to ceiling. Four prisoners were crammed into each one with room Only for standing in the pitch dark. Entry required crawling through a Small opening on the floor. Explain the Graffiti scrawled and scratched by prisoners on cell Walls in the Block of death. One had scratched a likeness of a crucified Jesus. Another left a message for the future "31-10-44 sentenced to  one Day later he managed "1-1t-44 still  photos of inmates taken upon their arrival and resembling the photos police collect of criminals adorn the Walls of one Block. Below these photos Are names and the dates of arrival and death. I pointed to one a Young Man with a frightened expression on his face. Look i said to Stojowski he was killed Only 10 Days after  so Good for him she said. As we walked the question arose Why am i Here Why does anyone come Here what is the purpose the fascination later that night in Krakow about 50 Miles East of Auschwitz i asked Henry Biliniewicz a first generation american born of polish immigrants. He had recently visited Auschwitz on a tour of the old country. I just needed to see How supposedly human people can turn into animals he said. Had the visit accomplished that yeah it did he said. Aaron Breitbart a senior researcher at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in los Angeles helped answer the question upon my return Home. There Are some very obvious answers he said in a Telephone interview. Brutality is something that fascinates people even those who Are horrified by it. There is an unbelievable fascination with horror and  Why do people read scary novels or attend movies that frighten entertainment he answered although he said he hated to use that word regarding concentration Camp visits. There is another reason he said. That is to remember. The holocaust should never be forgotten and visiting the Camps make forgetting impossible. He worries however that not everyone wants to remember. The Deutsche memory might not be As Strong As the Deutsche Mark he said in reference to the frightening shenanigans of Neo nazis in Germany in recent years. After the tour ended and we were returning to Krakow i asked Stojowski Why she continues to guide Tours at Auschwitz sometimes several times a week during the Busy season exposing herself again and again to the unexplainable sadness. I am often asked Why Why do you do it " she said. I say someone has to ". " is Ron Jensen scenes taken at the Camp above and below left. Bars on a window in the Block of death Only slightly hinder a View of the execution Wall where thousands were executed with a bulletin the head above right. Controversy rages Overcamp s future by the associated press the curators of the Auschwitz museum have a problem How painfully precise should they be in a major restoration of the holocaust s most infamous slaughterhouse their Mission is to preserve the horrific memory of the death Camp and of the holocaust in general while doing Honor to the masses who died Here. Advice on How to do it has conflicted sharply. Suggestions Range from letting the site slowly rot and burning some of its contents such As 2 tons of human hair to reconstructing its Gas Chambers Down to the last detail and offering video re enactments. The choices parallel those faced by film director Steven Spielberg who selected a documentary style with mostly Black and White footage in his recently released movie on the holocaust Schindler s list. But the 200 employees of the Auschwitz museum have Little of Spielberg s artistic Independence. Their three year multimillion Dollar project is being funded by Germany the United states and other countries. Dozens of historians Camp survivors and jewish leaders Are involved in the debate. Some argue that the Camp and its contents  left to a Graceful aging in the words of professor James Young of the University of Massachusetts. He contends that there is no honest method of recreating the holocaust experience. At the other extreme is Jean Claude pres Sac a French chemist who has documented the technical Workings of Auschwitz and wants to rebuild a Gas chamber so visitors can feel what it was like to be herded into one. Director Jerzy Wroblewski said the Basic purpose of the museum is to maintain the Camp in the state in which it was found in 1945. Then As now a single Railroad track passed through the brooding Gates of Birkenas the part of the Camp where mass extermination took place. It ends 300 Yards later on a Stone platform the end of the line for some 1 million people. The Railroad ties Are freshly tarred and new gravel covers the siding where nazi doctors separated the Able bodied from the Young old and weak who were sent directly to the Gas Chambers. But harsh Winters and swampy land Are causing Many buildings to collapse. The main Auschwitz Camp first set up in 1940, stands on 50 acres of land and has about 50 mostly Brick buildings which have been converted into museum space. Birkenas which the nazis built a year later As a mass a scene from Schindler s list Universal pictures extermination Camp consists of-430 acres of barbed wire guard posts and derelict Barracks. More than 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz and Birkenas 90 percent of them jews. It 1943 and 1944, when its four Gas Chambers could annihilate up to 24,000 people a Day jews from across Europe arrived in closed boxcars. Last december a group of visiting 11th graders from Hod Masharon Israel marched along the track waving israeli flags. They walked to the memorial at the end of the rail line and a few climbed into the ruins of an underground Gas chamber feeling their Way along the Brick Walls. We think they should recreate everything exactly As it was said Talli Cohen the class s 40-Yearrold teacher. Knowledge that it happened in t enough. It has to be shown to future generations so that nobody  although there is no current plan to rebuild a Gas chamber Cohen said she favored the notion. Annette Graczyk a historian at the cultural science Institute in Essen Germany found the idea abhorrent. It would be shocking to bring such a thing Back to life and it probably would be funded with German Money she said. It could become a cult hangout for  in the 1950s, polish authorities restored a former Gas chamber and crematorium that in the War s final years had been converted to a bomb shelter for nazi officers. But they attached false vents and a false Chimney. Ernst Zundel of Toronto a Well known holocaust denier seized on these details to say the Gas chamber was a fake and therefore the holocaust was a fake. Pres Sac who started out As a holocaust Doubter argues that his technical reconstruction of the Gas chamber machinery based on documents recovered from recently opened Kab files is vital to debunking the revisionists. The restoration plans for Auschwitz Call for More audiovisual aids longer text explanations and new guide materials for the huge Complex. The holocaust museum that opened last year in Washington has a wide variety of films photographs and personal artefacts of those who died. There is much debate on what to do with two tons of human hair harvested from Camp inmates for use in German Industry and displayed Fokine past .40 years in a huge Case in Block 4 of the main Auschwitz Camp. Some say the hair should be burned or buried out of respect to the victims. Others say it is the  testimony to the barbarism of the nazis. The museum curators say the hair after repeated washings is turning slowly to dust. It s a very Tough decision technically and morally said Wroblewski. 14 stripes Magazine january 27, 1994 january 27, 1994 stripes Magazine 15