Day 2: Auschwitz/Birkenau

 

 

I could write a book about visiting Auschwitz. I won't. I will try and keep it brief, but I could fill pages. I found the best article I have ever read about the place while researching it before I left and will leave most of the details about what happened to the article. I recommend you read it before reading my post. I will only speak of my experience.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Can-Auschwitz-Be-Saved.html?c=y&page=1

Why visit? Why would anyone want to come here and see it? The answer for anyone is quite personal and different according to who you ask. My answer is...because everyone should. Everyone should witness what happens when we are not tolerant of one another and feel we are far superior to anyone else. I wanted to see it for myself and not what people write in books. It truly stands as a testament to the loss of humanity. It is also a reminder to "never forget." Anne Frank wrote something about (and I am paraphrasing) being the example for the world. If she had to endure all the suffering to serve as an example to the world, then so be it and her suffering would not be in vain.
I also wanted to see what real heroes look like...what courage in the face of death looks like. The victims are true heroes. There were several parts of the extermination camp where, out of respect for the victims, we could not take pictures. The entire place gripped me to my soul, but two places had a huge impact on me. See, my perspective and view of the Holocaust is from a mother's point of view. I can't help but put myself in the mindset of one of the mother's of the Holocaust. Your children are your life. The total reason for existence. It is nature and I can't remove myself from it. I can't imagine having my child ripped out of my arms, not knowing if I would ever see them again. Not knowing where they were going or what kind of treatment they would endure. They may as well have killed me right then. In one room, I had to force myself to look at the face of a child walking hand in hand with his mother to board a train. It was very emotional.
The second place I will never forget is the room of hair. The hair was behind glass and towered over me. It was all the hair the Nazis cut off the prisoners and saved by the tons. When the camp was liberated, they found 7 tons of it in bound bundles. The average head only has a few grams of hair. This was evidence of the masses of people who were held at Auschwitz and most likely exterminated, though some survived. It was so eerie. All the artifacts we had viewed up to that point were belongings...just objects. This was them. There were all colors of hair and you could make out braids. It was completely visceral and I felt as if I was invading privacy. Almost disrespecting them by being there. The Nazis used the hair to make uniforms and netting for the German soldiers in the way you would make textiles from cotton. Horrific doesn't even come close to describe it.
Our tour guide spoke only Polish and her translator was a girl who rode on the bus with us from Krakow and made sure everyone was accounted for and in the right place. I believe they were short-handed at Auschwitz because it was so crowded and the poor girl was not prepared to serve as a translator. Unfortunately, the translator did not have a great command of the English language, so we did not get the best experience as far as guides. I told Sheila, "I think our guide is getting a great lesson and education about Auschwitz today." The Polish lady would talk and talk and then the translator would give us a few simple sentences. Thankfully, I was well-read and there was English translation on all the plaques. What we missed was the emotion from the guide, the stories within stories and all the details not put on the plaques.
In the end, it was a place I will never forget and by that, I have accomplished the lesson Jewish victims wanted from visitors. The moral to the tragedy....love one another.

Both sides are full of shoes. They count them by the ten thousands.

Combs, brushes, and shaving equipment

Room full of combs, brushes, and shaving equipment

Living conditions the first week

Conditions after it was open a while

I found this so appalling. It was on the wall of the mass wash basin room. Really?

Death by firing squad. Notice the bricked and boarded up windows. Hearing it was better than seeing it?

Public hangings to scare people into submission

Roll call area. There was a guard tower at each end and public executions were regular if the count was off.

At first prisoners were hung here, but this eventually was the site where Rudolf Hess, the camp commander, was hung.

Gas chamber and crematorium

gas chamber

Crematorium was to the right and shared a wall with the gas chamber. Prisoners did all the work.

A plaque was set for all the languages spoken of prisoners at the camp. This was the English one and was separate because there were no English speaking victims.

Gas chamber and crematorium at Birkenau. 2,000 prisoners at once were lead through those steps, gassed, and burned for a total of about 1.5  million killed total for Auschwitz and Birkenau combined. The Nazis burned and blew up the buildings in 1945 to hide the evidence.

Pond behind the crematorium where the ashes were dumped

Women's bunkhouse at Birkenau. Hundreds of women were cramped into one bunkhouse.

Ditch being dug by prisoners

The ditch today

Mass toilets



 

 

We made it to Krakow!

 

 

 

Our flight was long on the new Airbus (9 hours, 3 hour layover in Frankfurt, and another 1 1/2 flight), but was completely worth it. The Airbus is a double-decker plane (the largest existing passenger plane) that holds 500 people. It is a flying mammoth and a thought swirled in my brain, while lumbering down the runway, if we would even be able to lift off! We didn't get the best sleep on the plane and at one point in the middle of the flight, they called for a doctor or medical assistance, so needless to say, we started off quite tired. No worries, the person was fine. With adrenaline and espresso to fuel us, we put our luggage down in our hotel room on the main square and set out to get some grub and explore the city. We asked our driver, Voytek, where a great restaurant would be and he steered us to a place, tucked back in a building off the main square and underground, where locals eat. It has a Polish name, but in English translates to "Grandma Raspberry." It was so charming and had very hearty portions. You had to put your own dishes away! Just like home! I had traditional pork chops smothered in a tomato gravy with yummy mashed potatoes. Delish!
With our bellies full, we headed back to the main square and perused through the market. The architecture alone is worth 13 1/2 hours of travel to see. Here are a few pictures to better tell the story....


Looking out our window

Outside the market

I want to know the secret!

Inside the market

The Adventure Continues....

First and foremost, I need to thank Fund for Teachers once again! Sheila and I were awarded another fellowship through this wonderful organization and will be travelling to Europe this summer to study the Holocaust. We are leaving July 20th and returning August 6th. Our first stop will be Krakow, Poland to see Auschwitz/Birkenau  Concentration Camp and Oskar Schindler's Enamelware Factory. We will stay two nights in Krakow and then take a night train to Prague, Czech Republic. Sleeping on a train is an endeavor I am looking forward to experiencing. Going to sleep in one city and waking up in another sounds interesting! A friend of mine told me I could practice sleeping on a train by climbing in the back of a pick-up truck and trying to take a nap there! Ha!
We will stay in Prague for three nights and visit Terezin Concentration Camp and Prague Castle. Terezin was the "model concentration camp" Hitler created and allowed the Red Cross to visit in order to show the world Jews were being treated humanely by Nazis. He set it up to look like a Jewish community, instead of concentration camp and had the inmates pose and lie about the conditions. A school house was set up and an art teacher continued to teach art to children there during WWII before she and all her students were shipped off to Auschwitz to be exterminated. There is a children's gallery there displaying their artwork. I want to video and photograph this work to bring back to show my students.
Our plan is to take the 6 hour long, early morning train from Prague to Munich, Germany to explore the city where the Nazi party was founded. Some of the places we will visit are Dachau Concentration Camp, Hofbrauhaus, and the Neuschwanstein Castle (the model castle for Disney's Castle.) We will take a flight from Munich to Berlin and spend four days checking out the city where the Nazi Party Headquarters were established. Our tours will include Topography of Terror, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Hitler's bunker, and what is left of the Berlin Wall, as well as the Memorial for Murdered Jews of Europe. From Berlin, we will take another flight to Amsterdam to end our trip in The Netherlands and visit The Anne Frank House.
As of today, we have booked the flights from the U.S. to Krakow and from Amsterdam back to the U.S. and have also booked our hotel rooms and apartments. We are waiting on the train schedule to open up for July's dates. As soon as the train schedule opens, we will book our two flights to Berlin and Amsterdam and train trips to Prague and Munich.
To say I am excited is an understatement! Everyone is asking me how I am going to spend so much time away from my family. It will be hard, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime! A free trip for 18 days to Europe to learn about something I am interested in is completely worth it. I will Skype home!
My 22 year-old niece, Katie is also going to take this adventure with me and Sheila, so I am super excited about sharing this experience with her! She has been interested in and curious about the Holocaust since 3rd grade, so she is probably more excited than me!

New York Video

Here's a video of Sheila and I in NY set to my favorite song in elementary school. I just dated myself! I loved this song so much, I flew to New York to take some photos and set them to the music so my face would be in something like a KISS video. That's really the only reason I went to NYC.....just kidding, ya'll. It is a great song though!
KISS-New York Groove

No Reservations Needed....our own NYC food tour!

It was our last night in NYC and we still had not eaten a hot dog. We were stumped on where to eat and all the other tours we had purchased had left us broke so..........make your own! It's free and requires no reservations to get in. The first stop on the tour was a street vendor, hot dog stand for a tube steak. New Yorkers don't put mayo on their dogs....mustard and ketchup only. I was hungry and it tasted delicious! The second stop on the tour was Ray's Original Pizza on 7th. I had the canadian bacon, pepperoni, and pineapple slice of pie. I love salty and sweet together! In New York you don't eat a giant slice of pie with a fork. You fold it and you eat it. We wanted to hit Grimaldi's or Lombardi's, but food on the go was more appealing at the moment. For dessert, we headed out to find a cannoli. It was a toss up between cannoli or NY cheesecake. The cannoli won only because I had never had one. We ate all three items within a few blocks of each other and in about 30 minutes. Though the food did not compare to the $175 Bobby Flay restaurant meal, the adventure to find these foods, the urban atmosphere, and the company made it more fun and more my style!

World's Best! You finally did it! Congratulations!-Buddy the Elf

Grand Central Station and Parking in Manhattan

The main concourse of Grand Central Station looks just like it does in all the movies and commercials. Sheila and I kept waiting for a flash mob to break out!
Real Estate is such a limited premium in NYC, the only way to maximize the space is to go vertical. We thought this was a very unique way to take get the most out of a small parking lot!

Times Square...If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere!

What can I say....let the pics and video speak for itself!

 New Year's Eve Ball Drop...it's dropped!