Aushwitz

Dad picked me up from Prague in the morning, we spent a nice day checking out the beautiful city and then in the arvo we drove to Poland! I was too tired to take a picture but if everyone could just imagine an eagle looking sideways and then Polish writing saying something like, ‘you are now entering Poland’ then that would be great! I had dinner at Ciocia and Mariola’s place and it was fantastic, fantastic, fantastic to see them! They had already eaten dinner so I was expected to eat the half a roast chicken, vegetables, bread, soup, three different types of cake and fruit. I’ve never let the team down and I wasn’t about to start now. There was also wine and fine conversation! After dinner I went back to Dad’s where we drank more wine and tea and ate delicious Polish chocolates. I love Poland already.

The next day, I got up at 5.30 in the morning as today Dad and I were beginning our week and a half journey around Poland. Needless to say, this was too early. Anyway, first stop was Aushwitz.

I took a couple of photos of the gate but that was all because I just didn’t feel right taking photos in Aushwitz. It wasn’t as sad as I thought it would be. I feel like I already knew a lot from history in school and so it wasn’t as shocking as when I heard it the first time. Also, they’ve made it into more of a museum, rather than a scary concentration camp sort of atmosphere. This is understandable as there were nine tourist buses lined up when we arrived and school groups as well.

Arbeit Macht Frei - Work sets one free

In the museum were eye glasses, toothbrushes, suitcases, pots and pans, all real from the people that thought they were coming there to start a new life. Even real hair which was sold by the Germans to make carpets and rugs. I had already heard all of this, so for me the most shocking part was the fake legs or prosthetics. I couldn’t look at that for very long, it was very sad. The other piece of information which I had never heard and which shocked me was that women survived in Aushwitz for an average of three months and men for six months.

 Aushwitz is made up of three camps. The first camp is the one with the gates. This used to be an old Polish army barracks so the buildings are made of brick and look like normal buildings. The third camp was for the working parties in the industrial centre and I think that is gone now because we didn’t see that. The second camp is called Aushwitz-Birkenau and it is the one most commonly portrayed in movies. Our tour guide said that when they film movies, they usually film the sign in Aushwitz and then the rest at Birkenau.

Birkenau is huge. It used to be rows upon rows of those wooden barracks. Now there are just a couple of rows as a lot was destroyed and so they have put what they have left together. Through the middle is the train track and a giant platform where people were organised. There are four crematoriums at the end of the track and the people were told showers and food were that way and so walked to the crematoriums calmly, hardly ever causing the Nazi’s problems. The prisoners blew up the crematoriums as soon as the Nazi’s fled at the end of the war, so what is left is just a rubble of bricks.