Sigh, I knew this was going to happen. As soon as you get lax with a "diary" - it just haunts you. And, since I am such a procrastinator, I keep telling myself that I'm going to write this on the next train, or at the next cafe, or the next night, or ___, or ____. Consequently, it is now officially October (when did it become October??!!) and I am just now finally writing about Krakow and Auschwitz....which I saw in August...mid-August at least!
Back in 2009, I had contemplated trying to get over to Krakow so I could visit Auschwitz - morbid, perhaps...but one of those things that "should" be done, in my opinion and in Mom's. It didn't happen in 2009 due to the time constraint, but it definitely did here in 2011 - but with the sacrifice of Prague...once again - I just can't seem to get to Prague. Even better, I was accompanied from Warsaw to Krakow by Karolina, Pawel's wife. I told her she didn't have to babysit me but she insisted that she needed a "get-away". Hey, having someone to handle the language is always welcome! I knew I wouldn't have much time in Krakow b/c I was on a bit of a schedule with Turkey looming - I had a flight booked - so could only spend 2 days and 1 night there. I would have liked to visit the famous Salt Mines in the area as well, but with only 1 full day, Auschwitz it was.
But first - Krakow.
Krakow is absolutely lovely. Unlike Warsaw, it was not destroyed during the war, so everything you see is original. Yet another UNESCO World Heritage Sight - I've really been racking them up! Krakow was the capital of Poland and the country's largest city for nearly six centuries. Polish rulers resided at Wawel (Wah-wel - yes, one sounds silly saying the name of this place) Castle until the Court and Parliament moved to Warsaw in 1609. But, Krakow was still considered the un-official capital since rulers were still crowned and buried in the cathedral on Wawel Hill.
Karolina and I arrived late in Krakow, b/c the train was late....of course. Contrary to many American preconceptions about the efficiency of trains, etc. in Europe - from a "boots on the ground" person....they are late about as often as planes are. Depending on your luck with planes - this can be a little or a lot. There is just no telling.
So - we arrived at our hostel - Flower Hostel - and checked into our room. We were surprised to see an "old man" in our room with his shirt off and we both flashed a look at each other that said, "Uh Oh". I went and asked if we could change rooms, but the place was full. The guy must have heard this question b/c he then walked right up to us and introduced himself. His name was Yuri, he lived in Israel, was a doctor and had made Aliyah from Russia to Israel 20 years ago. Karolina and I both felt bad for judging someone so harshly. Yuri, Karolina and I ended up having a wonderful evening together full of stimulating conversation - of course, Israel was high on the topic list b/c I am fascinated with all things Israeli for some reason!!
But - before our evening out - I saw a few sights....
1. Wawel Castle - quite cool, but really just a big castle. Dark colors, leather on the walls, ornately carved and gilded ceilings, enormous marble fireplaces, Italian paintings, Flemish tapestries (these were massive) and painted friezes. The one thing we managed to miss - and I don't know how because I was constantly on the lookout for it - was the "Hall of Heads" - so named because of the many, many, many little carved wooden heads attached to the ceiling. Totally disappointing that I didn't see these - especially after getting a glance at the postcards in the Gift Shop. C'est la vie.
2. St. Mary's Church - Impressive gothic towers set at an angle on the east side of the Market Square. The left-hand tower is topped by a spire added in 1478. It served as the city's watch tower and still today a bugle call is played every hour. The bugle call has a cool story ....
In the 13th century, the city was constantly under attack by the Tartars. There was a lookout posted and one day, he saw a particularly large contingent of the enemy bearing down on the town. He loudly started sounding the alarm, but was shot through the neck by an arrow, abruptly ending his warning. Today, each time the bugle call is sounded, it trails off and ends just as it did when the lookout was shot with the arrow.
Inside, the church's greatest treasure is the huge altarpiece - 39ft. high - by Veit Stoss, who lived in Krakow from 1477 to 1496 (like you really care about that little nugget, right?) The outer panels show scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin. The middle shutters are opened each day at noon to reveal the huge carved centerpiece, "The Assumption of the Virgin". There is also a neat crucifix also by Mr. Stoss know as the "Slacker Crucifix" - I think something might have gotten lost in the translation on this one....
3. Market Square - It is said to be the largest town square in Europe (not sure I believe this one....) and is divided in two by the monstrous Cloth Hall. Another statue of the "famous" poet - Adam Mickiewitz (saw one in Warsaw as well...they love this guy).
There was a festival going on in the Square while I was there - saw lots of folk-dancing from the surrounding countries, reveled in the massive quantities of delicious Polish food and beer (had some of the best grilled mushrooms of my life) and closed my eyes to inhale the aroma of burning wood. It was sweet and pungent at the same time.
While at the Square - I had what qualifies as the "strangest" experience of my travels. I sat down with a "Gypsy" (not one of the ubiquitous Roma people pan-handling) - a bona fide, grizzly old women wearing a hat with branches and leaves sticking out of it. If ever a person looked like a witch - this one did!! Karolina saw her and wanted to go talk to her b/c she had received a reading from "Gypsy" (that was the name we gave her...trying to stick with this European mentality of calling things what they actually are...i.e. Cloth Market) - 13 years ago and everything Gypsy told her came true. I have never believed in this hocus-pocus but decided to have a reading done for fun. Karolina had to translate b/c Gypsy did not speak English. I won't go into everything Gypsy told me - but suffice it to say - I left with ice in my veins and tears running down my face. She knew things that are just too creepy for words. On the "bright" side - depending how you look at it (ha ha) - I am supposed to give birth to 2 boys and will meet a widowed man with a son. 3 boys in Bethy's future....Bah-Hahahahaha....The gods are certainly laughing at that one!!
That concluded the Krakow part of the Krakow trip. A lovely 1/2 day of sightseeing, a night of delicious food and as previously mentioned -- great conversation. Next day - Auschwitz.
Rather than try to describe Auschwitz - I am going to type out my "cleaned up" list of notes so that you can learn what I learned about this horrific place. Whereas, the notes may seem out of order, this is how they were presented based on our tour. What I will say is that it was a sobering and sad day. I barely spoke to anyone during the 6 hours (only once or twice to clarify my notes with the guide), nobody laughed and nobody smiled. Everybody looked stricken
1. The site of Auschwitz was selected for 3 reasons...
a. There were already buildings in place - barracks for the military.
b. There was a good train connection between the East and West.
c. It was in the true middle of Europe.
2. There are 2 periods of Auschwitz.
a. From 1940 - 1942, it was "only" a concentration camp - meaning a work camp to hold and isolate political prisoners.
b. 1942 onwards - a place of mass extermination.
3. The original gate that say "Arbeit mach Frei" - ironically, "Work sets you free" or "Works makes Freedom" that one sees in photos is no longer in place - it is a reproduction. The original was stolen in 2009. It was recovered but will go to a museum. 5 guys stole it and cut it into 3 pieces This infuriated me...especially after I had snapped a few pictures. Awful.
4. An orchestra played every night as the people returned from "work". There had to be the exact same number of people returning that had left 12 hours ago or there would be serious reprisals. Consequently, the workers had to carry the dead back to be counted.
5. Sept. 1941 is the first time cyanide gas was experimented with - they used people brought in from the transit camps all over Europe and from the Ghettos in the East.
6.March 1942 - the first mass transits begin from Slovakia. A general total of 1.3 million people are believed to have been transported there. At Birkenau (later established as an extermination center) - only 25% of people were selected to go "work" thereby guaranteeing they were registered. No children under 13, no cripples, nobody over the age of 55, no pregnant women and no one deemed "unfit" to work got registered....only killed.
7. 90+ people were crowded into cars designed to hold only 30 or so, with no food or water to suffer journeys ranging from 5 to 17 days. Ironically, Greek Jews had to pay for this journey.
8. At Birkenau - 800 were gassed at a time, between 340 and 2000 corpses were burned per day.
9. 5 pictures were smuggled out of Birkenau as a cry for help - only 3 are you able to discern anything. Help did not come. It was not believed that these atrocities were actually happening.
10. 5-7 Kilos of pellets would kill 1,500 people.
11. There was a room where no photography was allowed - there are 2000 kilograms of hair piled behind glass - this is believed to have come from 30,000 victims. The hair was used to produce clothes and socks for the German soldiers on the submarines.
12. Prisoners were allowed a weight limit of 25 Kilos to bring with them for their "re-settlement". Warehouses were established to house all the things brought - shaving kits, pots and pans, suitcases, sewing kits, cutlery, glasses, prayer shawls,prostheses, shoes, etc. One case was the size of s swimming pool and held only the pots and pans. People were told to write their names on their suitcases so they could easily find their bags after their "showers". You can see the suitcases today with their names still on them.
13. The warehouses were named "Canada" - b/c it "sounded like a nice place".
14. In the summer, new prisoners were blasted with scalding water and in the winter with freezing water. Then, in winter, they would have to stand outside in -25 degree Celsius for 30 minutes to 4 hours waiting for clothes.
15. Auschwitz is the only place prisoners were tattooed.
16. Instead of saying "Medical" experiment, the guide ALWAYS said "Pseudo-Medical" experiment. I think this is a good distinction to make.
17. Prisoners were called "Muslims" b/c after months of starvation, their heads became too heavy for the atrophied muscles in their necks to hold up, so they always looked like they were bowing. There was a very moving statue in one of the barracks to this.
18. Several hallways have hundreds of individual picture after picture of the prisoners staring out at you. You want to look at each and every one of them but there are too many. It did not seem appropriate to snap of picture of this hallway. Many of them had broken noses, split lips, disfigured faces due to beatings and all were shaved and gaunt.
19. Josef Mengele loved to do his "pseudo-medical" experiments on twins and triplets. At this point, I noticed that our guide was CONSTANTLY saying, "Please come closer" - he was doing this so we didn't get mixed up with other groups, but after a while, you just want to say, "NO! I don't want to come any closer. You are only going to show me or tell me horrible things!" Josef Mengele also experimented with radiation and X-rays...he would direct an X-ray at male and female genitals for 20-30 minutes at a time. If the person was badly burned, they were killed. He injected chemicals into women's genitals - sometimes 400 women at a time.
20. Building 11 is where prisoners were sentenced to torture cells or to the firing squad. The different torture cells were called the "Starvation Cell", the "Standing Cell" and the "Dark Cell". The "Standing Cell" measured 90 square centimeters and 4 people were forced into it. This is smaller than the smallest toilet stall you have ever been in. Most people did not last more than a couple days in this cell. They would have to stand all night, not sleep, go to work for 12 hours, get no food and go back to the Standing Cell for another night.
21. Buildings 19, 20, 21 and 28 were the "hospitals". But, they were not places of healing, just a place where people waited to be killed.
22. On a "bright" note, the commander of this place, Hesse, was executed here on April 16th, 1947. His date of death had to be changed because people were trying to lynch him. He, his wife and their 5 children (one of whom was born there) lived at Auschwitz. His wife said living there was "like Paradise" and they had anything and everything they could possibly want.
23. As you go to the first Gas Chamber, the guide told us that if we had any questions, we better ask them now because there is no talking in the Gas Chamber and there is a very plainly worded sign that begs for "respect in this sacred place where such atrocities were committed."
24. There is something about that place that I will never be able to describe - it is not the physical space, which is unremarkable - it is just stone. But as soon as you step into the space, tears just well up behind your eyes and your insides turn colder than they already are. You feel the weight of thousands of screams and pure agony pressing iun you....it is unreal. Everybody was crying. Everybody. As I mentioned in a FB post, there was an old man sobbing and beating his hands against the wall. If people weren't crying before they saw that, they certainly were afterwards. Horrific is the only word to describe the experience.
25. The Auschwitz tour ends here and you board the bus to go the short distance to Birkenau. However, because it was SO hot that day (in the high 90's), all the tour operators made an announcement that the tour would be cut short. Normally, there is more than 2 miles of walking but due to the extreme heat and the ages of many of the tourists, it was simply unsafe. However, we got to see some of it.
26. Auschwitz was never set up to be an extermination camp...but Birkenau was. It was constructed specifically for that purpose. Of the 300 buildings that used to exist, only 50 currently do b/c as the Soviets invaded, they took the bricks and lumber to build other things.
27. People were only allowed to wash their clothes every 4.5 months - so they worked, slept and defecated in these clothes. Because the water was so poor, most people had raging intestinal problems...and b/c they were not allowed to use the bathrooms, especially during the night, they simply had to go where they were. So, those on the top bunk fouled those below them...night after night after night.
28. Rats killed those who slept on the lowest levels.
29. It was sweltering during this tour, but I felt guilty fanning myself and decided to just suffer since I knew the poor prisoners didn't have the simple luxury of a fan.
30. Auschwitz and Birkenau have been museums since 1947 and were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sights in 1979.
31. The end of the tour was truly uplifting. After leaving the barracks and heading for the entrance/exit...I heard spontaneous yelling. It took me a moment to realize it was actually singing. About 30 ft. away from me, there was a big group of Hasidim waving their arms around as a VERY old man was wheeled across the gravel towards them. When the old man reached them, they picked him up out of the chair - and while continuing to sing - carried him the entire mile down the train tracks to where the gas chambers were. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I went up in the tower at the entrance so I could watch their journey down. I feel lucky to have witnessed this and can only surmise that the gentleman in the wheelchair was a survivor of that place.
So - upon leaving Birkenau and making the journey back to Krakow - I felt drained. Drained, drained, drained. I am so thankful that I got to see that place but came away only more horrified at the capacity for evil in this world. And anybody that thinks this kind of evil only existed with the Nazis and during WWII - is naive. These things are still happening today - in Bosnia, in North Korea and in Rwanda - just to name a couple.
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana
This quote was on a big poster in one of the buildings at Auschwitz
I had a quiet evening in Krakow, rinsed the sweat off myself and headed for the train station to board my overnight train to Budapest. Since I already wrote about Budapest, the next entry will be about my superb experience in Turkey!! More posts to catch up on....hope I haven't lost too many people along the way. Still up - Turkey, Italy and the beginning of Spain...San Sebastian!!
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