Auschwitz

Our day today involves a visit to Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp. We take a train to the town of Oswiecim, one hour and forty minutes away. Than we walk the 1.25 miles to the camp. Getting there, we have about an hour wait until the 1130 tour time I booked on line.

Just Outside Auschwitz

There is an 1100 English tour that has space but the rigid ticket lady says no way, we must wait until 1130. In the mean time, I am disappointed to find that they charge for the toilets here ( only .26 cents) which defies my revolution of pee free in Europe. Maybe a guide book that lists all the free places to pee in popular cities would be fun. At any rate, .52 cents poorer, we wait around reading a few signs.
At 1050, I ask about a movie I read they have so they let us past security early to watch the 1100 showing. It turns out to be not very good, some old footage of the camp, of which I have seen better in documentaries. We then exit the theater and get our head sets for the tour and are soon on our way. We go through the gate to camp which has the familiar Arbeit Macht Frei common in most camp entrances, which translates to work will set you free. Did not exactly live up to the advertisement. The guide speaks good English and explains a bit about the buildings and rooms we walk through. This was a former Polish army garrison so the buildings look nice and look almost like a middle class neighborhood from the outside. It does not hint of the horror that took place here.

Wall of Prisoners Photos

One building has a hall filled with prisoners pictures with name, prisoner number ( which started at 1 and went into the hundred thousands), occupation, birth date, day sent here and the date of death. If you survived a year, it was a long time, many just made it a few months. The Nazi’s killed you through hard manual labor and slow starvation if they did not send you to the gas chambers. Most of the occupations are just normal people, listed as carpenter, bookbinder, student, farmer, and we’re only here because of their heritage or religion. One of the buildings was where in the beginning the SS would hold short trials for made up crimes and the sentence was always guilty and death by execution, carried out in the courtyard outside within an hour. They used a special material that they stood the prisoners in front of to prevent bullet damage to the walls and ricochets. A Memorial with a blue striped flag representing the prisoners uniforms stands there now. Other buildings depict items that were found in a warehouse that the nazi’s could not destroy in their hasty retreat.

Victims Suitcases

These include prosthetics, pots, pans, kids toys, shoes, suitcases, eyeglasses, and human hair. After the people were gassed, their hair was shaved and sent to Germany to make textiles such as blankets for horses. Gold teeth were extracted and melted down. Everything taken was reused or repurposed creating a big cash business for the Nazi Military and Industry. Prisoner labor was used in many surrounding farms and factories including the famous Schindler factory. We continue on through a gas chamber and crematorium. Everything was contained underground in one large building. The people went in and the bodies were hidden from outside from that point on. We saw empty Zirklon B canisters which is what the nazis threw down into the chambers from above. It is hard to imagine hundreds of people at a time clawing and gasping for their last breaths. We finish our tour here and then board a bus for Birkenau and the rest of the tour.
Auschwitz was made up of three camps with Auschwitz being the first but Auschwitz- Birkenau being the largest and worst. Birkenau is where the nazis built a train line to for better efficiency. That is where the selections were made when the prisoners got out of the rail transport cars.

Cattle Car for Deportees

There is one there and each car usually held 80 to 100 people for 2 to 10 days of travel. When they got off, officers and Nazi doctors determined randomly and with purpose who lived today and who died. If you looked healthy enough to work your chances of continued life were higher. To the left, you were marched to the gas chambers, and to the right into the work camp. There were 1.3 million documented deportees here of which 1.1 million were killed. Many of the people that came by rail to the camp and then sent directly to the gas chambers were never documented so no one really knows the total number murdered here. The mere size of this place is astounding and hard to fathom. 100,000 people were housed here at any given moment. Average life span was 2 to 4 months in miserable conditions. Food was given in very small amounts, bread made with sawdust mixed in, soup made with rotten vegetables and no meat. This was a death camp in more than one way.
Although we were glad we went here and learned some things we did not know, we both felt that the presentation of the camp could have been better.

Vast Place

When we went to Dachau, they had stories of some prisoners, guards, commandants, and history of the Nazis and concentration camps. We walked away feeling mentally fatigued from the whole experience. Here, we did not get that same feeling. They dwelled on the fact that this was a death camp and an efficient well thought out way to make money and kill the people that the nazis felt were below animals. What we felt was lacking is some stories of the commanders, Nazi’s who lived here, and a few survivor stories. Even People like Mengela, the SS doctor who performed torture and other physical experiments on prisoners we’re barely mentioned. In our opinion, it was not as informative or sobering as Dachau because they left out some of the more personal stories.
The train ride back is we believe on a train that somehow survived from WWI. It is slow and klickity klick loud. We do make it back to Kraków and our apartment. For dinner, we decide to check out the number 1 and number 3 restaurants in trip advisor. They are both back in Kazmierz near where we ate last night. We walk by the number one rated place and peruse the menu. Lots of duck, almost Monty python spam like with many meals of duck in different ways…duck, duck, duck, duck, wonderful duck.
We are not big on duck so move on to check out #3, a place called Starka. It has a nice looking menu and a homey pub type feel. We ask for a table and they seat us but tell us we must be done in an hour and a half for a reservation. We order a stuffed pork loin with potatoes, grilled cheese, cranberries and a celery slaw on the side. We also get a bottle of wine and decide to try some soup. Carol gets the non traditional potato soup while I go for the very Polish beet soup with mushroom filled dumplings. Both soups are really good but the beet soup is much better. Full of flavor, I am now a beet soup fan. I think it is loaded with iron too, which I am sure my body can somehow use. The pork loin is incredible, full of so much flavor and each side just compliments it.

Pork Loin Meal

This is one of the better dishes we have had on this trip. The food has been so good that we decide to order a walnut cake and a chocolate and Kailua cake. They have run out of the walnut cake so we try a Polish cheesecake instead. The chocolate cake is heavenly and the cheesecake is good but not as good as moms. But then what is? I have been practicing my Polish on the waiter, at least until he started talking Polish back to me, which was way above my linguistic ability. We learn that he lived for 2 years in Chicago and his father still lives there. He is a very nice guy and we tell Gabriel that we would like to reserve a table for tomorrow. We get two free shots of hazelnut vodka to finish off our meal. No need to go elsewhere, we want to come back here. Maybe we can help them move up to number one on trip advisor even though they did have one and only one duck item on the menu. The meal and of course my wife’s company has made this a great ending to our day.
Expenses
McDonald’s Breakfast 11 PLN
Round Trip Train to Oswiecim. 38 PLN
Auschwitz Tour 70 PLN
Toilets 2 PLN
Luggage Storage 3 PLN
Pretzel 3 PLN
Dinner, Bottle of Wine and Dessert at Starka 205 PLN
Happy Guest Apartment 250 PLN
Walked 11 Miles