Our second stop on our super amazing spring break was Krakow, Poland. Like Warsaw, we spent three days here. The weather was amazing again, with the highs being in the high 60's to mid 70's each day. I personally liked Warsaw better, because of its beautiful buildings and all the green space and parks it had. However, I am so glad we came to Krakow.
On our first full day here, we actually left Krakow on a tour of Auschwitz. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning so that we could meet our tour bus at 6:00AM. At the time, it seemed a bit ridiculous for us to leave so early for a seven hour tour, but it turns out early was the best choice.
When we arrived at Auschwitz one (there were three Auschwitz's), it was PACKED! The line of individual tickets was over a quarter mile long! I think we were all pretty thankful that we came with a group and were let in only 15 minutes after our ticket time of 8:00AM.
A bit about Auschwitz before I go into our experience there. Obviously, it is the most synonymous place in Europe with the Nazis' "final solution for the Jewish problem". Auschwitz is about 30 miles west of Krakow and split into three separate camps: Auschwitz one, Auschwitz two (better known as Birkenau), and Auschwitz three (there is no tour of this as nothing remains of this portion of the camp). An incomprehensible 1.1 million human beings were killed at this set of concentration camps (mainly Poles, Jews, Roma, Hungarians, and Soviet war prisoners).
Auschwitz one is where we began our tour. It has been turned into a memorial museum. The extermination camp was already created prewar, because it was a Polish army barracks on the outskirts of the small town of Oswiecim. Nazi Germany took over the camp in April of 1940 and turned it into a work camp (no turning needed because it was set up basically perfectly). It was originally intended to be used for Polish political prisoners (basically anyone who upset the Nazis), but later it was adapted to become an extermination site for the Jews of Europe. To aid in that, Birkenau was built to help with mass extermination (but I'll talk about that more later when our tour gets there).
Despite the fleeing Nazis destroying part of the camp in 1945, most of the original buildings still stand at Auschwitz one, including the original brick buildings, the gas chamber, and the crematorium. About 13 of the 28 prison blocks that survived are now the museum exhibitions. Each one has a particular exhibition dedicated to the building, such as Jews, Poles, Hungarians, life in Auschwitz one, etc.
We had an amazing tour guide for this trip that didn't show us all 13 exhibitions (we only had 1.5 hours at the site), but did make sure we saw a lot and learned a lot. Here is a bit of what I learned:
- When they cut off the hair of the prisoners, they sold it to Germany. The hair was then used to make textiles and stuff furniture and beds. Tons of hair still remains at the camp and is out on exhibition to see. It took up an entire room almost completely full. My continuous thought throughout this entire trip was: how can people be so cruel and inhuman?
- Most people who arrived at Auschwitz one lived no longer than six months. Their rationing of food was so small they slowly starved to death. Most people died within the first three months.
- The Nazis took all the belongings away from the prisoners. They were housed in warehouses called Canadas (because Polish people at the time aspired to move to Canada because it was so rich and have the "Canadian Dream"). The Nazis burned these down at the end of the war to hide what they had done, but so much still survived. We saw rooms stuffed with suitcases, shoes, glasses, pots, pans, and the artificial limbs of those who were disabled and sent to the camp.
- Auschwitz one was a labor camp (it had "work will set you free" above the entrance). However, the purpose of the camp was to work the prisoners to death. If the people who entered the camp were under 14, too old, disabled, or too sick, they were immediately sent to the gas chambers to die.
- The camp jail had truly inhumane cells including suffocation cells where 40-50 prisoners would be crammed in all night unable to sit. They would often suffocate because it was too many people in one small room with no window and there wasn't enough air to get in. There was also a tiny cell four prisoners would be crammed in and forced to stand all night. The next morning, they would go work. Sometimes they would face this punishment for an entire month.
- In one of the jail cells, the original test of Zyklon B gas on humans took place. They took 20 sick prisoners from the "hospital" and made them get into the cell. They threw in Zyklon B and came back the next day. Only half the prisoners were dead. So, they doubled the amount of Zyklon B and tried again. That time everyone died and they knew how much to use in the gas chambers. This was particularly horrifying to me. Death by Zyklon B is incredibly painful and unimaginable.
- One of the "doctors" at the camp was trying to find a way to sterilize Jewish men and women. He subjected them to immense amounts of x-ray radiation. Most died from his experiments.
- Only in the three Auschwitz's did prisoners have a number tattooed on their arm. No other concentration camp did this.
- Poland's Wawel Castle has not been used that much by Poland. Because Poland has been taken over so many times, Austrians, Nazis, the Soviets, and more used the castle more than Poles.
- Poles love their country and have been extremely resilient despite having their homeland invaded so many times. They have done an amazing job preserving their history and keeping their precious pieces of history safe.
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