After spending a couple days in Warsaw, we took a two hour plus train to Krakow. The trip was on time and efficient. We spent a day walking around Kraków’s Old City, which was much larger than Warsaw’s. It was a bit more commercial with things like a Hard Rock Cafe, Harley Davidson clothing store, and lots of Starbuck’s. But it also included many local outdoor eateries and shopping options. There were numerous Catholic Churches and the Wawel Castle, pictured above. Hundreds of years ago, Krakow was Poland’s capital … Wawel Castle was the home of Poland’s royal families, and also served as a protective fortress. It towers over the neighboring streets and offered a highly strategic position. It now serves as Poland’s finest art museum and attracted more than three million visitors last year.
Our second day took us on a ninety minute drive to Auschwitz. Once again, Mrs Bear has family history here as members of her extended family were executed here.
I have been waiting for an opportunity to visit Auschwitz for a long time. We have been fortunate to have visited many of mankind’s achievements: The Taj Mahal, Yosemite, Victoria Falls, Siam Reap, to name a few. But I’ve always thought that we should experience the worst and Never Forget !!!
Auschwitz was set up to hide the atrocities, at least initially. The picture above was at the initial entry and the words above say “ hard work will set you free!!” Prisoners played music for the newcomers.
The above map shows where “ undesirables “ were transported from. This location was selected because of its favorable location for these transports and the availability of rail lines.
The exhibits and story of Auschwitz was told by moving from longhouse to longhouse. These structures were used to house the prisoners who were considered healthy enough to work. This is where the story really starts to become depressing.
There were photographs and drawings of the horrors. The top photo above shows women after receiving tattoos. The next depicts women and children who were selected for the “ not able to work” line. And finally a photo of the pots confiscated from the prisoners upon their arrival. The one that affected me the most was a description of women having their heads shaved, standing naked. There was a quote on the wall from a prisoner who said that “ they have taken everything from us !!” To me this seemed even more horrific than the gas!! It makes me mad days later just thinking about how cruel it was.
There were two display rooms with just human hair !!! This was not allowed to be photographed, maybe because it was disgusting. Some was woven into mat-like materials, but still !!??
Auschwitz had crematoriums ( two I think). It I sensed almost as many people died through a combination of disease, beatings, cruelty, and malnutrition. Our guide told us that prisoners were lined up and stood at attention for hours… she said the longest was over 24 hours!! Anne Frank died of malnutrition, not gas.
As good as Auschwitz was at killing prisoners, it wasn’t fast enough for the Germans!! So they built a second camp, Birkenau, to speed the process up. We took a shuttle bus to get there but it was probably about two miles walking. Whereas Auschwitz tried to hide its intent from arrivals, Birkenau made no pretenses. It looks like a prison.
The tracks brought the trains right into the middle of the camp. The size was several times larger than Auschwitz. And the barbed wire and guard station left no doubt !!
I took the last photo above to show how far the longhouses extended, and the Germans were continually building more.
There were four gas chambers at Birkenau, doubling those at Auschwitz. Before the fall of the camps to the Allied forces, the Germans destroyed them, hoping to erase evidence of their atrocities. This is what they look like today…
I spent some time trying to figure out how to summarize all of this… and then I realized I didn’t have to. I am glad we went, but angry at mankind for doing this AND not stopping it earlier. I’m angry at our current government who have shown some of the same traits the Nazis possessed. And my belief is reaffirmed that a society’s greatness is exhibited by how it cares for its sick and poor!!!
The Adventures of Barry Brink 