After a usual start to the day, with a delectable breakfast, the majority of the group boarded the bus headed for Oswiecim. Our destination in Oswiecim was The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. We had a guided tour through the buildings of the Auschwitz blocks. This being a place where such horrendous history has taken place made it a serious several hour tour. Here seeing and knowing that the tens of thousands of shoes, thousands of suit cases, thousands of eyeglasses, and tons of hair all belonged to someone’s family and friends, deeply moved me. Hearing how a role call once lasted 19 hrs, seeing the extremely small chamber where four people were forced to stand for the night, the chamber of darkness, and of starvation, the wall of death, the hanging polls, the gallows where groups of people were hung in punishment for trying to escape, then entering the gas chamber where hundreds of thousands died within 20 min of entering. This brought some of us to tears, caused others to be angry at all the injustices and left others pondering how desperately wicked man is without God. We then rode the couple miles over to the Birkenau camp which is 23 times the size of Auschwitz. Many thousands of people were separated from there families upon arrival to this camp. Some sent to toil under German authorities but many were sent directly to the gas chamber of death. Those that were permitted to work lived in squalid conditions crammed into wooden or brick barracks where sleeping platforms were made of 2 wooden shelves with the brick floor as the third level. Many who labored for the Germans struggled to survive to later be beaten, worked, starved, shot, or gassed to death. To see the evidence of such major atrocity that happen just over 70 years ago, was so hard to fathom. Yet as George Santayana has said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Thus we were grateful for the informative and emotional tour our guide presented of these places of remembrance today. This evening we had a time of debriefing of our day while sipping Pepsi or orange floats. Talking about our time at Auschwitz and also hearing about the salt mine that a few others visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine, is an enormous 9 stories of which only 3 were visited (2% of the whole). Among the passages they saw only a few of the many chapels with salt crystal chandeliers as part of the lighting. The vast underground salt deposit has been mined since the 12th century till the mid nineteen-nineties. They learned how salt was once used as the currency, of which the word salary is derived, and that these stores of wealth were used to build Wawel castle in Krakow. Most of the small group also experienced the salt with there sense of taste too by licking the walls. After the big encounters of the day we had free time to browse Krakow again. Many purchasing souvenirs and food which in this city never gets old.
After a usual start to the day, a delectable breakfast, the majority of the group boarded the bus headed for Oswiecim.
Our destinatation was The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. We had a guided tour through the buildings of the Auschwitz blocks. It being a place where such horrendous history has taken place made it a serious several hour tour. Seeing and knowing that the tens of thousands of shoes, thousands of suitcases, thousands of eyeglasses, and tons of hair all belonged to someone’s family and friends, deeply moved me. Hearing how a role call once lasted 19 hrs, seeing the extremely small chamber where four people were forced to stand for the night, the chamber of darkness, and of starvation, the wall of death, the hanging polls, the gallows where groups of people were hung in punishment for trying to escape, then entering the gas chamber where hundreds of thousands died within 20 min of entering, brought some of us to tears, caused others to be angry at all the injustices, and left others pondering how desperately wicked man is without God.
We rode the couple miles over to the Birkenau camp which is 23 times the size of Auschwitz. Many thousands of people were separated from their families upon arrival. Some were sent to toil under German authorities but many were sent directly to the gas chamber. Those that were permitted to work lived in squalid conditions crammed into wooden or brick barracks where sleeping platforms were made of two wooden shelves with the brick floor as the third level. Many who labored for the Germans struggled to survive to later be beaten, worked, starved, shot, or gassed to death.
The evidence of such major atrocity that happen just over 70 years ago, was so hard to fathom, yet as George Santayana has said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We were grateful for the informative and emotional tour our guide presented of these places of remembrance today.
This evening we had a debriefing while sipping Pepsi or orange floats, talking about our time at Auschwitz and hearing about the salt mine that a few others visited.
The Wieliczka Salt Mine, is an enormous 9 stories of which only 3 were visited (2% of the whole). Among the passages they saw only a few of the many chapels with salt crystal chandeliers as part of the lighting. The vast underground salt deposit has been mined since the 12th century till the mid nineteen-nineties. Salt was once used as the currency, of which the word salary is derived, and that these stores of wealth were used to build Wawel castle in Krakow. Most of the small group also experienced the salt with their sense of taste too by licking the walls.
After the big encounters of the day we had free time to browse Krakow again. Many purchasing souvenirs and food which in this city never gets old.
–Janeen Histand