« Weekend excursions | Main | Everyday life »
November 11, 2006
Auschwitz
Again, things have been getting busy here so it has been hard to write, not that I need to give any excuses, but before I go on with any other stories about Europe I must tell you about my experiences at Auschwitz. I am copying and pasting this blog from word where I am writing it now, to my blog entry page, so if those crazy little marks come back, that’s why... I will try to fix them where I can.
So two weekends ago Jennifer and I traveled to Krakow, Poland. We had a long weekend because it was the Czech national founding day, so we decided to take the overnight train on Wed night so we could take in 4 full days of the sights and sounds of Krakow. Well, did we ever! So we arrive at about 6 am and get off the train to try and find our way to the hostel. Seeing that Krakow is not very awake and moving at 6 am, we soon found that it was impossible to find a taxi, so next option, the tram. So we go to the tram stop where we are suppose to buy tickets from this little machine thing. Well, we are so kindly greeted by a drunk Polish man who had somehow just spilled this HUGE bottle of alcohol all over the sidewalk in front of him. He was yelling at me in Polish, but he was far enough away that I figured things would be fine. I was wrong. This dude decided to pick up a piece of broken glass from his bottle and chuck it at my feet. Don't worry mom, he just kind of skidded it across the sidewalk, but at this point I said screw the tram tickets and ran the other way. We eventually found a taxi about an hour later, but needless to say, not a warm welcome to Poland.
Thursday we spent most of the day seeing the sights of downtown Krakow. We met up with Jen's cousin (Jen’s relatives are Polish) who studied at the university in Krakow, and he took us on a tour of everything we wanted to see. Krakow is such a quaint little eastern European town, I loved it! It's really hard to explain just how cute it is, so hopefully when I get back I can show you all the pictures!
Friday was Auschwitz day. Auschwitz is about an hour away from Krakow, and we booked a tour through our hostel that was very reasonable priced and in English. We saw both parts of Auschwitz, both Auschwitz 1, where many of the prisoners worked and died in the gas chambers and Auschwitz 2, Birkenau, which was the main camp where the prisoners rode the train in and their destiny's were decided with a point of the finger. I think that some excerpts from my journal describe the day best-
"Today we went to Auschwitz. I have always wanted to go, which I felt weird about, but really I do think that it is an experience everyone should have. I was upset at the fact that I felt like Auschwitz has become a tourist attraction, but again, I think it is an experience everyone should have.
Just walking through the front gate was erie. Reading "Arbeit Macht Frei," work makes you free, which was a total lie to anyone who passed through those gates made me sick. Walking through exhibition after exhibition hall staring at all the personal belongings- shoes, glasses, suitcases- of thousands, even millions of people who were killed made my stomach turn even more. It wasn't until the display with the shoes that I honestly stopped to let it all soak in. For every one of those shoes, an innocent person died. I went through many feelings today, first of sadness that so many innocent people had to die, then of pure anger. Angry because I could not believe how Hitler and his forces could possibly carry out the extermination of so many people, angry that he had become a prominent leader at all. I know how he became the leader he did, but still I was angry. But then my feelings turned to that of hope, hope that people would come here and remember the people who had innocently died, realize that, and not let history repeat itself again.
The most moving parts for me were the building where they had starvation and standing cells, the death wall, and the crematorium. The death wall was very moving. Just realizing that thousands of people were shot in the back of the head there was a feeling of total horror. The basement where the cells were located was damp and had a certain odor that again, can not be described with words. It was so hard to think that so many people were forced to starve to death there.
The crematorium was, well, an experience like no other, for lack of better words. Walking in I imagined what it might be like to be a prisoner going in thinking that you were going to take a shower. The building was partly underground and it felt damp, dark, and musty as you walked in. You could see a few patches of light in the ceiling, where either the cans of gas were dropped in or the smoke from burning bodies would come out. Standing there in that room was a feeling that you can not describe with words. Knowing that so many people died there, and that I was standing in that same place was overwhelming and sickening. I wanted to run out of the building as fast as I could and throw up, which I seriously almost did. I can not and could not believe what happened at this place…”
Posted by Amber Ruppert at November 11, 2006 03:47 AM
Comments
Back in high school I went to Germany. One of the sites that the group I was with visited was Dachau.
I must admit that my feelings then and even now when I think about it mirror yours. I'm still capable of recalling in every detail the barracks people were housed in, the gas chambers and the crematorium. I see them now as I write this.
I could still smell the lingering odor of burning bodies in the crematorium there, that's not a smell I'll ever forget. I remember in the gas chambers, they were white and seemed so sterile, it was nearly a travesty to see them that way, knowing what happened there.
If those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, then take solace in the fact that to graduate high school in Germany, it's required that you go to one of the remaining concentration camps.
And I agree with you, visiting one of the camps is something everybody should do at least once in their life. It'll make you pay attention.
Posted by: Alex Wagner at November 11, 2006 09:26 PM