So last night we had dinner at a local polish restaurant. I had soup in bread which is a speciality here and was delish! Then had some dumplings as well. Then we ran to a bar up the street to watch the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina! It was 0-0 at the end (which mum was thrilled about!!!! Haha) but then in extra time Mario Götze for Germany kicked a great goal and they won! All the Germans in the bar went crazy! I had been speaking to an Austrian guy most of the match and he was pretty stoked too. Mum and dad chatted with a couple from York for most of the match. I've come to appreciate while I'm over here that 0-0 can actually be exciting (sorry Pa!). The intensity in last night's match was really high and even though both teams kept missing they had lots of great shots. Was a pretty good match anyway! All my Topdeck friends were in Berlin and went to a street festival and had a great time too. After the match we ventured into the square because we could here music and there was a random festival on with strange angel type thing floating in the air held up by a crane!
Today we got up at 7.45 and got the 8.25am public bus to Oświęcim (or the German name - Auschwitz). The bus was really cheap but so hot that it was awful. Today was 28 and sunny so it was really stuffy in the bus. It took two hours to drive to the concentration camp and we were glad to be off the bus.
We arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. There were so many people everywhere and it was very confusing. But we soon found out that between April and October you have to join a guided tour to see the camp. So we bought our tickets and joined the 11am English tour. Our guide's name was Dorota and she was great and very informative.
The camp was originally a military base and has 2 parts; Auschwitz and Birkenau (3.5km apart). Auschwitz was mainly used to house prisoners who did hard labour during the day and only had one gas chamber which still stands, while Birkenau was the extermination camp and had four gas chambers (which were either blown up by the nazis or by rebels so are now ruins).
Our tour started at the 'ARBEIT MACHT FREI' gate. The original sign was actually stolen so this is a replica, but its message is still chilling all the same. The English translation is 'work sets you free'. We all know that this was not the case for people placed in concentration camps. In fact it was quite the opposite, the work and camp conditions were designed to slowly and painfully kill people through starvation, disease or just exhaustion. We spent about 1.5 hours in the Auschwitz camp and were given a lot of information....
At the camp, 3-5 trains arrived per day carrying 3000 people per train. 75% of those who arrived by train were deemed unfit for work so were sent straight to the gas chambers where they were murdered. In 24 hours just in the one gas chamber in the Auschwitz part of the camp, 2000 people could be gased and 1500 cremated. At the start of the mass murders, the gas wasn't strong enough so it took up to 48 hours for people to suffocate to death. Zyklon B was developed which killed people very quickly. 1.1-1.5 million people were murdered at the camp, 500000 of whom were murdered in the last three months before the camp was liberated by the soviets on January 27, 1945. This was because by this time many other camps had been destroyed so the nazis sent those to be murdered to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The average life expectancy of prisoners at the camp was 3-6 months after arrival.
I walked around with tears in my eyes most of the time and had to blink them back. I've been to Dachau before (outside Munich) which was also an emotional experience, but this was on a much larger scale as so many people were murdered here. I couldn't help but cry when we saw a window with small childrens' clothes in it who were sent straight to the gas chambers. Awful awful and it's giving me goosebumps just typing it and thinking about it again. Other chilling exhibits included hair that had been cut off womens' heads to be sold by the kilogram to textile companies by the nazis, as well as suitcases that people had brought with them containing all their prized possessions as they were told they were moving somewhere else. Most people sent here had no idea of what was to come. We saw heaps of belongings but our guide told us that these made up just 1% of the personal items brought to the camp. The rest were sold or destroyed.
We toured cells, roll call square where prisoners were made to stand for hours on end and the standing gas chamber. Just like Dachau I felt very claustrophobic in here. It's shocking imagining what it must have been like and what must have been going through peoples' heads regarding the gas chambers, as initially they were told they were merely going to the bathroom. Here some obnoxious American lady with completely inappropriate high heels (seriously?!? You're walking like 5km!!) took photos of all the ovens and gas chambers - what the hell is wrong with people? Why would you want photos of instruments of mass murder? I took photos of some of the buildings and to show the size of the camp, but I myself think it rather disrespectful to take photos of the ovens and has chambers, as if to glorify and gawk at what happened in there. Each to their own I guess...
After we had toured Auschwitz I, we caught a 5 minute shuttle to Birkenau. My high heeled friend decided not to come because her feet hurt *rolls eyes*. Birkenau is 25 times bigger than Auschwitz, and I immediately recognised the railway terminus out the front from when 'The Amazing Race' visited. The train tracks stop abruptly inside the camp, and this is where people were sorted - either deemed fit for work and lived to see another day, or deemed unfit for work and sent to the gas chambers. The whole day was a bit surreal due to so many people being around, but here it was almost like I could picture people getting out of the cattle cars and being sorted. We read a book in year 11 called 'Elli' and I could remember snippets from her story so kept picturing her here and how horrific her time here would have been. She survived though.
We saw the ruins of the four gas chambers. Had another 'what the hell is wrong with people?' moment as dad told off a family who not only snuck under the chain fencing off the ruins of the gas chambers, but decided it might be nice to take a piece home with them. Because you know, what better souvenir than a piece of a ruined gas chamber? Just what you want to show for your holiday, right? Can you tell these people annoyed me yet??!!??
The Birkenau camp is massive and at the end of the tour we got to climb a tower to really see just how extensive and huge the grounds were. But the nazis tried to destroy as much as possible coming up to liberation so a lot of it is ruins, whereas the Auschwitz part is pretty much all still standing.
We saw some barracks where the prisoners slept. Ten people shared one half of a bunk bed, that's about 1.5 planks of wood each. I don't know how anyone survived at all. We were completely exhausted after walking for just 5 hours in the sun. Prisoners here had limited or no water and food, no shelter and worked outside all day. Winter would have been freezing as well. How did anyone survive those conditions?
We got a bus back and arrived into Krakow about 4.45pm. I bought some shoes at the train station shopping centre. They were $16, mum and I are doing more shopping tmro as everything is so cheap here - excellent! Then we walked through old town and did some souvenir shopping.
Today was a bit of an emotional ride and a difficult experience, but definitely a necessary one to pay our respects to the 6 millions Jews of Europe and everyone else (including gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people and polish political prisoners) who were murdered by the nazis. They will never be forgotten, and I will be sure to (just as my mum and dad did) one day educate my children about this horrific period in history. Never again.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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