Shocking water misters at entrance of Auschwitz museum remind guests of gas chamber

Water mists were placed at the entrance of the Auschwitz Museum in Poland in an effort to beat the heat but Israeli visitors were far from "cool."

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - The mist raining down on guests reminded them of gas chambers, bringing back ugly pictures of what happened years ago in that very place.

Meyer Bolka, one of the Israeli visitors last Sunday, told Channel 2 in Israel, "As soon as I got off the bus I walked into the shower contraption. I was in shock. It was a punch to the gut. I walked up to the reception and asked the worker there about the showers, she said it was a hot day. I told her, 'With all due respect it reminds me of the gas chambers.' She told me she is very sorry."

During the Holocaust, around six million Jews were killed, with Auschwitz being one of the deadliest camps of the period. Stories include many cases where the prisoners were told they were going for a shower and delousing, according to The Telegraph UK. They were made to undress and received soap and a towel before going through the gas chamber that was modeled to appear as a shower room. The Zyklon B gas began to envelop the room before they realized what was happening.

"I think that in a place like this they should have thought about the type of connotation this would raise. If you want to cool the people down, you need to find another solution. It was not a pleasant sight to see those sprinklers," Bolka said.

Despite the shocked and offended visitor reactions, museum management defended their installation of misters, claiming they were not meant to form a connotation between mist and gas. It was a safety measure for whenever the temperature reached 37.78 degrees Celsius and that the Aushwitz chambers were completely different designs.

It was not their intention to offend or hurt the feelings of visitors and the museum plans to assess the situation.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'