DISCLAIMER: NO DISRESPECT INTENDED. I just document what I’ve witnessed visiting the site.
I have to be sensitive in writing about Auschwitz Birkenau, its history is of horror, still remembered as the biggest murder in modern world history. I, also, have to be honest, it’s the saddest one…
So after Krakow, the next stop is Oświęcim- the triangle tourist route in Southeastern Poland is Krakow- Auschwitz- Wieliczka, all three are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
I woke up early morning to catch the early bus going to Oświęcim from Krakow on a bus station near the Galeria Krakowska Mall about 8AM. I had my coffee and breakfast at the station cafe and the woman at the counter said that the bus going to Auschwitz is at the terminal just right outside the waiting area, in full view.
It was almost 8AM and there’s still no bus not personnel, so I had asked the lady at the cashier again to confirm the bus terminal and, again, she pointed at the same spot. I started to worry.
I went down on the lower ground level going to the mall as other bus terminals are located in that area to inquire and, to my surprise, its already busy! I’ve asked one of the bus drivers of later trips about the first trip and he said that the first bus is temporarily stationed under the overpass as it’s on a detour. I got confused and he pointed out the bus that’s at the far end side opposite the highway. It was about 8:15AM.
I literally ran to get to the bus and when I get there, it’s a bus going to a different place, not Oświęcim!!! I was told by the driver the bus heading for Oświęcim already left!- One of my very rare boo- boos in traveling!!! 😦
But good thing that there are taxis waiting near the bus station area and I hired one to go to Oświęcim. I paid him 200 zloty!- that’s more than twentyfold from 8zl that I paid for my bus ticket. I arrived to the Auschwitz museum still on time after the 21/2 travel time it took.
It was a very gray and hazy day that I went to Auschwitz. It was also drizzling a bit. Nothing could be more gloomy…
I paid for the 6 hour study, tour to have an in depth knowledge and understanding of the Auschwitz Birkenau sites. And it was a shocking and sad revelation…
Auschwitz, to my surprise, is touristy with visitors from many different countries but, as far as I know, I’m the only Filipino at that time.
I have seen, for the very first time, the infamous Auschwitz 1 main gate that says “Arbeit macht frei”– work makes you free…
The infamous Auschwitz 1 main gate that says “Arbeit macht frei”- work makes you free…
Inside Auschwitz 1, we went to several blocks and discovered how it started as a concentration camp then became death camp and why Auschwitz was chosen (strategic German power location of choice, middle of nowhere that it’s virtually impossible to escape and the coal business by the Germans). And we went to see Block 10, the most infamous block- the place where men, women and twins were used as experimental subjects for German doctors. Near at the entrance, to the right is Josef Mengele’s clinic. Block 11, on the other hand, was built and intended solely to punish prisoners through torture. At the entrance, to the left, is the interrogation room by SS officers to Jews which usually involved extreme torture. It is also at Block 11 that the first attempt to kill people of Zyklon B were implemented. As we walk deeper inside Block 11 we’ve seen beds, shower areas, even some kind of dungeon labyrinth downstairs with numerous “standing cells” chambers. Between Blocks 10 and 11 is the “Death Wall”, a place where prisoners were executed through firing squad, also note that, these executions are visible through peepholes from the “standing torture rooms” underground Block 10. Just imagine the macabre sight, human torture and hate that the European Jews have suffered…
Prostitution and rape were also prevalent, to “entertain” SS officers on those times of loneliness and wanton abuse. Looting was widespread. There were many showrooms with belongings of the victims on display- from shoes, to bags, to eyeglasses, even a roomful of human hair!
I went passed public gallows, barbed wires with warning sign that says “Halt! Stoj!” and gas chambers. It started to rain as we visit from block to block. Everybody had their black umbrellas open, the mist was also unlikely to appear on that hour, everybody had shock and sadness painted on their faces, the occasional gasps- it was a very gloomy day…
I cannot put out off my head the words I’ve heard though my headphone from our tour guide: “…the Jews were lied to by the Nazi at the very end…”. It keeps on reverberating inside my head that I was already exhausted when we reached the Birkenau Camp…
Auschwitz 1
Tin cans of Zyklon B
These belonged to handicapped victims.
The “Death Wall”.
Gloomy Auschwitz 1
The public gallows at Auschwitz 1.
Auschwitz 1
At Birkenau Camp, which is much bigger, I’ve seen, for the first time, the infamous “Death Gate”, the “death train”, the “death quarters”… it’s all about death, death, death…
It was as gloomy as ever and, suddenly I was haunted by what I’ve learned about Auschwitz during 1945… SS high- ranking officers, after the war, escaped to South America to hide through fake Italian passport/ Visa with fake identities by someone in the Vatican, or maybe, by the Vatican… Vatican’s gold deposits, majority of it, purportedly came from the Jews…
According to historical investigations, 1.5 million people, among them a great number of Jews, were systematically starved, tortured and murdered in this camp, the symbol of humanity’s cruelty to its fellow human beings in the 20th century.
What happened in the world during that time? I know that goodness and evil is in us, humans are capable of both, but this evil proportion that made Auschwitz Birkenau and the Holocaust, as a whole, in the history is unimaginable. What’s even more unimaginable is the utter indifference or even cool acceptance by the non- Jews…
Visiting Auschwitz is unlike any my other travels- no fun here, far from that! But it was an important one. It is a place of our collective memory of that dark chapter in history and a sign of warning of the many threats and tragic consequences of extreme ideologies and denial of human dignity.
When I got back to The Netherlands, while I was seeing all these chimneys and blocks while I was walking with my partner visiting Weert, I broke down…
The “Death Gate” Birkenau Camp
Birkenau
At Birkenau
mountaingorillaboy 