On Wednesday morning, I woke up early, got dressed and ate breakfast, and then walked 15 minutes to the main bus station to catch an 8:25 bus to Oświęcim, the original Polish name of the town before the Germans took over and gave it its German equivalent, Auschwitz. The drive there took us through a beautiful countryside dotted with small villages. One hour and 45 minutes later, we arrived at the concentration camp. After getting some information, I bought a ticket to join an English tour.
At 10:30 the tour began at Auschwitz-I, where the famous “Arbeit Macht Frei” (work sets you free) sign is located.
The tour guide, a native of Poland with fabulous English, told us about the history of the camp and took us through multiple barracks, where once the prisoners lived and now were museums. The museums used pictures, maps and original items owned by the prisoners themselves, to give greater light into the tragedy. Unlike most concentration camps, Auschwitz-I was a Polish military base before the war. Thus, this camp was made up of brick buildings. For me this was a surprise because most depictions of the concentration camps show them as have low-quality wood barns for buildings.
We also visited the single crematorium at Auschwitz-I and got a view of the prison within the camp where local resistance fighters, political prisoners, and troublemakers within the camp were killed without much reason.
After more than two hours, the group took a bus to the second, and more infamous, camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. When you see Auschwitz, it is this camp that is usually shown.
Walking through the notorious train station and onto the platform where thousands of Jews were separated from their families and where most were immediately sent to their deaths is an experience in itself. It was interesting to see the place and I heard and seen so much about. However, at the same time to walk the path of so many victims was heartbreaking. This camp is humongous. It is 400 acres and takes 15 or more minutes to walk from one side to the other. While there we also visited a reconstruction of the barns. Originally designed to hold 52 horses, here hundreds of people were crammed together to live in the rain and snow.
Finally we walked to the back of the camp to see the remains of two of the more active crematoriums. When the Russians were getting close, the SS soldiers who ran the camp burned most of the documents and demolished the crematoriums as a way to protect themselves.
When the tour was over, I took the bus back to Auschwitz-I and went to the bookstore and had some lunch. At 4 O’clock I caught the bus back to Krakow. When I arrived back in town I picked up some food and headed back to the hotel. It had been a very cold day and I was tired. I ate take-out Chinese food in bed and watched a movie before going to bed.
The next day I slept in. Once I got going, I headed to the Jewish Quarter and visited the two main Jewish cemeteries and the oldest Jewish synagogue in Europe.
I then walked another 10 minutes to reach what was the Jewish Ghetto during German occupation. Only two small segments of the wall remain and there is a memorial at the square where the Jewish community waited to be deported to concentration camps. I also visited a small museum located in a former pharmacy. This pharmacy is important because even when it was within the ghetto, the Catholic pharmacist kept the store open and gave away medication and medical supplies for free. The pharmacy was also a gathering place for Jewish intellectuals during their captivity. Finally, this museum is of note because it plays three original films, one showing the area before the war, one that depicts the forced movement of the Jewish community into the ghetto and the last one showing what the ghetto looked like immediately after the Jews were deported.
Afterwards I headed back to the center of Krakow for some lunch and a little shopping. For a souvenir, I bought myself a tea set in the traditional Polish pottery. I spent the rest of the afternoon going back to the different places where I wanted more time. When it got dark, I went back to the hotel and picked up my luggage. I would leave that night for Budapest, but had a few hours to kill. I eat some dinner and walked around a large mall connected to the train station. At nine pm I was on the train to Budapest. I lucked out and had a double sleeper by myself. The room was nicer than I expected and the bed, with a feather duvet blanket, was not too bad. I slept as well as could be expected. When I woke up, I was in a new country and had a new town to explore!
