Poland & Auschwitz

I've been putting this blog off for a while. Auschwitz wasn't something that I was looking forward to blogging about. As I am leaving for Berlin tomorrow however, I figured I had better finish this as not to get behind.

I really enjoyed Poland, and I'm sad that I didn't take more pictures of the city. The people were very nice and most spoke English. The food was similar to Czech food, and was not expensive. At the moment, their currency is about two Polish Zloty to the Dollar. They also had Pizza Hut and Mountain Dew - neither of which can be found in the Czech Republic. I think out of all the places I've visited so far, I would live in Poland.

Krakow Castle and Gardens

One of the Tombs of a King. These reminded me of Lord of the Rings!

The only place pictures were allowed was in the tombs. The rest of the castle was very beautiful, but no pictures were allowed. In 1596, the capital was moved to Warsaw, so this Castle was only used for special occasions and burials.

This is duck - Polish style. It was goooood.

In every city we've visited thus far, a large demonstration has taken place. In Krakow, it was Skinheads vs. Homosexuals. Over 75% of Polish people are Catholic and against gay rights. Some friends and I were walking to the Jewish Quarter when we encountered the Gay parade. They marched to the town square, where a large group of Skinheads had gathered. Police were everywhere. Another guy in my group got a video of the meeting of the two groups, plus some Skinheads getting dragged from the fight by police. I'll see if I can't add it. Stay tuned.

This is the Krakow Jewish Quarter. It was part of the original Jewish Ghetto from WWII. I believe this building was used in the filming of Schindler's List. I would like to watch that movie when I return, just to put my experience into perspective.

Part of the original wall of the Ghetto. In the Jewish Quarter, we also visited the Synagogue which had been transformed into a museum. No pictures were allowed. Boo.

This is the entrance to Auschwitz 1. There were actually 3 camps. We visited Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau. Birkenau being where the barracks for Jews and Gypsies were located.

These brick buildings were originally home to the women's camp and then to the political prisoners. Enemies of the Third Reich including but not limited to intellectuals, Soviet prisoners of war and homosexuals were confined here until either murdered or sent to Birkenau.

These buildings have been converted to make up the Auschwitz museum. We saw pictures and heard information regarding the crimes of the Nazis. One of the buildings housed evidence of these crimes. This evidence included an entire room of human hair, collections of hair brushes, shoes, suit cases, glasses, nail polish, false limbs and crutches. These items were collected before victims were sent to the gas chamber by Kanada (Canada) Jews. They were given this nickname because they viewed Canada as a place of great wealth.

This was called the 'Wall of Death' by the prisoners. Political prisoners were shot here. The windows to the left were boarded up, so that other prisoners would not know what took place here. The building to the right held prisoners awaiting 'trial' and special prison cells. There were three types of special prison cells. First, the starvation cells, where victims were starved to death. The second, was a dark cell. Prisoners were given food, but forced to live in a completely dark cement cell with only a 5 by 5 INCH air hole. Finally, there were the exhaustion cells. These cells held 4 prisoners at once. The victims were forced to crawl through a small space and then stand through the night. They were then marched out each day to hard labor jobs. Many died from exhaustion.

The first attempts to gas victims took place in this building as well. Pellets were placed on the floor during the night. The next morning, not all the victims had died. The basement was too well ventilated. The Nazis also had trouble removing the dead, so they created the gas chambers to increase efficiency.

Electric fences

Door to the gas chambers/crematorium.

This picture was taken after we departed Auschwitz 1 and arrived at Birkenau. This is from outside the camp. The tower on the right is part of the train depot.

The entrance to Birkenau by train.

The entrance to one of the barracks.

The "beds" inside the barracks. We asked why the heads of the beds were on wooden planks, but our guide was unsure.

The latrines near the barracks.

There is a lot more information on this subject, and I'm sure most of you have an idea about the conditions in the camps. The information posted here are facts that I was not aware of prior to visiting Auschwitz. For more information, I would recommend doing an Internet search.