Woolly says – Today was a very long awaited one and for Jo one that she has been waiting for since she was a mere child and had done a project at school on WWII. I had decided to miss the morning part of the activity and let the ladies head off on their own. It was an early start as we walked the streets of Krakow at 5.30am to find our pickup point but the bus arrived on time, and we settled in for the ride….over to Jo.
We were headed for the Death Camp known more commonly as Auschwitz concentration camp, a complex of one of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland and Europe during World War II and the Holocaust. Today we would get to see Auschwitz II and Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers. It seems unbelievable now that humans could inflict so much on other humans, and that so many years later people would still want to go there but for me it signified something that should be done to pay respect for those that had suffered so greatly.
Construction of Auschwitz I began in September 1941, and from 1942 until late 1944 freight trains delivered Jews from all over German occupied Europe to its gas chambers and camps. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million were murdered. The number of victims includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 non Jewish Poles, 21,000 Romani, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 others. Those not gassed were murdered via starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments.
Having met up with our guide Anna, we were led through a concreted area where a lone male voice gave the name of every person killed there that had been recorded, sadly hundreds of thousands were untraceable and had died with no records. Arriving at the main gates we could see the barracks set out in lines, it already felt chilling as we passed the barbed wire electrified fences which gave little if any hope of the prisoner’s chances of escape.
A picture caught my eye of the camps orchestra who would play at the gate so that all of the captured marched at a pace whether they could or not, those that couldn’t lasted mere minutes.
Row after row of buildings lined the roads.
We entered Block 4 with our guide explaining what had happened as prisoners took this route known as the death route. We entered a long room with a lone picture at the end showing some of the people who had passed through.
The next room had more photographs showing the guards using the selection process, if you were fit you might live otherwise you stood no chance. A model showed how the barracks had been laid out with the undressing areas and extermination rooms below ground and the areas for cremation above. Anna explained how the cyanide gas had been used being poured in through holes in the roof, so the murderers didn’t have to look anybody in the eye as they carried out the horrendous deeds. A pile of empty cyanide canisters was a mere fraction of those actually used.
The next room was by far the worst as my eyes tried to focus on the millions of pairs of glasses, suitcases, clothes, shoes and hair that the victims had left behind, not by choice, it was unbelievable and so heart wrenching.
A display cabinet contained crutches and aids for disability as the people who had once used them were of no use to the Germans.
A corridor lined with pictures some of the men and women, each picture gave the date of arrival and the date of death, some had lasted for a year or more in the horrific conditions whilst many had perished with months and sometimes days.
The guide told us about the tattoo’s that had been forced on them, mainly so that they could account for the bodies as the SS cared little that they had names. Each prisoner had received a banding to attach to the scant prison attire which showed if they were Jews, Roma, Homosexuals or political prisoners.
The next room was even worse as it detailed what the children had faced, some of the clothes were displayed never to be worn again and a name that I knew form school was prominent, Josef Rudolf Mengele (16th March 1911 to 7th February 1979) was a German SS officer and physician nicknamed the “Angel of Death” who performed deadly experiments on prisoners, especially twins. What made it worse was that Mengele had escaped all forms of prosecution having managed to escape prior to the allies arriving and lived out his days happily.
We passed more blocks, entering Block 11 known as the Death Block. Walking past the officers’ rooms and spacious bunks we went into the basement where prisoners had been starved to death or entombed in small brick built cells no bigger than a toilet cubicle where 9 or more men were kept until they all died (pictures weren’t allowed of those areas). We arrived at the death wall where victims had been dragged and shot wearing nothing at all.
Slightly further down the road was a huge gallows where on one day 12 men had been hung with the whole camp watching.
With trees now providing shade we entered a tunnel as the captives had done so many years before us, thinking that they were headed into the showers to been cleaned and deloused, they weren’t, no one came out alive. The gas chamber sent chills through me as I imaged the hundreds of naked bodies crammed inside as the doors closed and the vents in the top of the roof were opened and death became a reality.
Next door was the cremation area where the bodies were taken, burning hundreds each and every day.
I felt so lucky to arrive back outside and breathe in the fresh air that was denied to so many hundreds of thousands as we walked back to the bus and took the short journey to Birkenau the bigger of the two camps.
Built by the POWs over the winter of 1941/1942 and during the rest of 1942 it was divided into two sectors, BIa and BIb. containing 62 residential barracks in the final phase of its existence (30 brick and 32 wooden), along with 10 barracks containing washrooms and toilets, 2 kitchens, 2 bathhouses, and 2 storage barracks. It also added gas chamber 2 and 3 to the main site with chambers 4 and 5 a short distance away in the woodlands as the single chamber at Auschwitz couldn’t keep up with the number that needed to be killed in the eyes of the SS.
The iconic gatehouse and length of railway stood out against the stark surroundings.
Our guide led us along the rail tracks to a lone wagon which had been one of hundreds to transport the victims from across Europe to their fate. On each side of the fences are the now destroyed barracks that had been razed days before the allies had arrived leaving just the chimney stacks behind and watch towers where guards would have watched every single movement made by the captured.
At the end of the route lay a memorial and the remains of gas chambers 2 and 3 which the SS had bombed hours before liberation had arrived in an attempt to cover their tracks. Our guide explained how mere hundreds had been gassed in chamber 1 down the road here thousands could be done at once, it was nauseating to think about.
Next to the destroyed chamber 2 lay four black headstones marking one of the many areas where the ashes of so many had been thrown.
We walked towards the blocks where the female prisoners had been kept, single storey buildings which on entering showed us three tier bunks where four would have slept on each level squeezed in to together.
A washroom at one end would have provided a small amount of cold water if the guards had allowed it. Two of the walls held paintings that one of the women had done to cheer up the children who had been forced in there with their mothers, complete innocents and yet considered guilty without crime.
A wall was scratched with names and tiny pictures, the only reminder of those that had had to endure.
As we walked away, I felt so lucky to be able to do so, I had a choice to leave, millions hadn’t.
Woolly says – Jo and Zoe climbed back onto the bus, and we sat quietly on the trip through small villages and towns to the next destination. The Wieliczka Salt Mine is a mine in the town of Wieliczka, near Kraków. From Neolithic times, sodium chloride (table salt) was produced there from the upwelling brine. Excavated from the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world’s oldest operating salt mines. Throughout its history, the royal salt mine was operated by the Żupy Krakowskie (Kraków Salt Mines) company. Due to falling salt prices and mine flooding, commercial salt mining was discontinued in 1996 and it is now an official Polish Historic Monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We entered the building where the main shaft had once pulled miners and salt from the depths below and started our descent, all 324 steps of it. Off the hundreds of miles of mines and chambers we would only see a small amount on our tour. The first chamber told us something of the way in which the salt had been mined and taken to the surface. Wood lined corridors led us through a maze of passages to a winch system which had been mined since 1666. The salt crystals glistened in the roofs above us as we followed our guide.
A scene made entirely from salt told the mythical story of the Princess who had been given the mine, I stood admiring the workmanship which had taken years to carve.
The next chamber told us how dust and salt particles had been cleared to keep miners safe and held an incredible bust of one of Poland’s former kings.
We headed further into the depths of the mine looking at the huge barrel shaped blocks of salt and learning how water had been moved from the site being the deadly enemy of salt there is still a system working to date to keep everything liquid free although it doesn’t require a man to keep turning a wheel now.
A fabulous scene of dwarves greeted my eyes which must have taken decades to create.
We arrived in a much larger chamber which contained a church, the statues were of wood although before the cross of Jesus two salt figures stood eroded over the years to make them undistinguishable as to what they might have been.
Even better was to come as we came to a balcony which gave us an incredible view of the grand chamber words failed us all as we peered over the rails.
I raced down the next set of steps and into the hall to stare in amazement at the wall carvings and sculptures that had been the life works of just three men. My eyes took in a nativity scene before turning to admire the work that showed the final feast that Jesus had taken, it was incredible.
Even the chandeliers had salt in the crystals. A large statue of Pope John Paul II stood at the exit area, the pope had visited the mine many times as a child and schooler.
A short distance away was an underground lake glowing a greeny blue in the lights, more salty than the dead sea you certainly wouldn’t drown if you fell in there.
Moving into the next chamber I craned my neck to try and see the top of the mine which seemed to be miles above us before turning my attention to the displays of crystals and a couple of interesting sculptures that hadn’t long been completed.
As we headed for the exit, we passed through a concert room which must have brilliant acoustics as well as two miners who had been beautifully carved.
Taking the former miners lift back to the surface I was sad to leave the wonders of the deep mine but with the bus waiting to return us to town I raced ahead before the driver set off without us.