Monday,
I like Krakow, and a bit sad we’ve lost the day - but I won’t let it upset me. After dinner last night we did bump into a concert in the main square with a choir and orchestra and a tenor/baritone. Sort of nice way to finish off the evening, lots of people out in the balmy evening weather and some music (not sure if it was all that nice - but it was music). They have a bugler how plays a short bugle on the hour and it's quite nice, a bit of a change from the usual bell ringing...
Today it was off to Auschwitz-Birkenau the infamous concentration camps. Caught a mini-bus out and decided to visit Birkenau (Auschwitz II) first. The place is a few minutes away on a free bus and it’s huge, they had nearly 100,000 thousand people there at times. A lot of it is in ruins and the SS blew up the gas chambers as the Soviets advanced. It was very hot in the sun and felt a little weird to try and imagine what it might have been like during the winter. Had a walk amongst the barracks made of either brick or timber (can’t imagine that had so many people in them lying down on three levels - the bottom concrete and then two wooden ones) and through the latrines and wash houses. At the opposite end of the entry gate (down the length of the railway track) was the ruins of the chambers and an amazing monument (can’t explain it in words).
What a business it all was, weeding out the women children and sick (murdering them in the gas chambers immediately) and keeping the fit to work (slave labour). An evil business and difficult to understand - millions of Jews killed and also political prisoners from Poland and Hungary.
Back to Auschwitz (I) and more of the same. Watched a 15 minute film that explained some of the processes and then wandered around the barracks learning more about how it all worked. Some amazing exhibitions and memorials to many European countries. Learnt that out of the 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands, 107,000 were deported and only 5,000 of them survived. It’s all very sad and many people have their own particular stories on the them. Towards the end of the tour (we did a self-guided one), more gas chambers and crematoriums and that was it for me - enough said - time to reflect...
I like Krakow, and a bit sad we’ve lost the day - but I won’t let it upset me. After dinner last night we did bump into a concert in the main square with a choir and orchestra and a tenor/baritone. Sort of nice way to finish off the evening, lots of people out in the balmy evening weather and some music (not sure if it was all that nice - but it was music). They have a bugler how plays a short bugle on the hour and it's quite nice, a bit of a change from the usual bell ringing...
Today it was off to Auschwitz-Birkenau the infamous concentration camps. Caught a mini-bus out and decided to visit Birkenau (Auschwitz II) first. The place is a few minutes away on a free bus and it’s huge, they had nearly 100,000 thousand people there at times. A lot of it is in ruins and the SS blew up the gas chambers as the Soviets advanced. It was very hot in the sun and felt a little weird to try and imagine what it might have been like during the winter. Had a walk amongst the barracks made of either brick or timber (can’t imagine that had so many people in them lying down on three levels - the bottom concrete and then two wooden ones) and through the latrines and wash houses. At the opposite end of the entry gate (down the length of the railway track) was the ruins of the chambers and an amazing monument (can’t explain it in words).
What a business it all was, weeding out the women children and sick (murdering them in the gas chambers immediately) and keeping the fit to work (slave labour). An evil business and difficult to understand - millions of Jews killed and also political prisoners from Poland and Hungary.
Back to Auschwitz (I) and more of the same. Watched a 15 minute film that explained some of the processes and then wandered around the barracks learning more about how it all worked. Some amazing exhibitions and memorials to many European countries. Learnt that out of the 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands, 107,000 were deported and only 5,000 of them survived. It’s all very sad and many people have their own particular stories on the them. Towards the end of the tour (we did a self-guided one), more gas chambers and crematoriums and that was it for me - enough said - time to reflect...
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