My trip to Poland , Part 1 - Auschwitz
I'm back from my trip ! Actually returned Monday night but have been way too lazy yesterday to make a post so now that I've organized my photos a little bit I figured I might as well write a post about my trip.
I'll post pictures from Krakow in another post,still sorting those out, so this first post is all about Auschwitz.
You probably all know about the concentration camp at Auschwitz . It's in fact not one camp but 3 camps ,with Auschwitz I being the initial one and the others built a little later on. So ,we have Auschwitz I , Auschwitz II - Birkenau and Auschwitz III - Monowitz (which you don't visit and which was in fact an I.G Farben factory that used prisoners and had barracks for them on site).
The 2 sites that you can visit are Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, build about 3 km's apart . You need to know this : Auschwitz I is the one with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at the gate, red brick,multiple story buildings and relatively small while Auschwitz II - Birkenau is the one with the famous train tracks and wooden barracks (in fact those were prefabricated horse stables and were used as barracks for the inmates cause they were easy to build and cheap and no one gave a fuck about comfort or anything). Birkenau is the image of the death camp, built specifically for holding prisoners and killing them as efficiently and quietly as possible ,
First I went to Birkenau since it's really big so I needed more time and also because during the high season (summer) they don't allow people to wander around as they please until 3pm so you needed to take a guided tour and I didn't want that. Also, btw, both sites are free to visit, no tickets needed,no nothing.
I want to say that visiting Birkenau was one of the most fascinating,amazing things I've ever experienced , it's one of the most extraordinary places one can visit in this world,especially if you're a history enthusiast.
Yes, it's not a happy place, most people who got sent there died either in the gas chambers or due to the harsh conditions, lack of food or due to illness or by being worked to death. Yes, when you're there, unless you have no soul or no knowledge of history, it's very emotionally impacting.
I'll tell you about my experience as a WWII/Nazi history enthusiast and just a normal human being who doesn't take things lightly but also doesn't treat things melodramatically .
To me ,walking around there was emotionally impacting but the place as it is now, aesthetically didn't repulse me or anything. Yes, I was very well aware of the murders there and that moved me but I didn't feel bad about just being there. During summer it's a very green place, birds are chirping, the place is full of life ,clean air,it's otherwise quiet,etc. It's a massive place so you can easily avoid the crowds ,the groups of tourists and just walk by yourself with no one or few people around and I'd say that's the best because that's how u get a feel of the place. There are a few buildings you can get into and see them almost in their original state or in their original state, a few of the wooden barracks that remained (the brick ones are still there but the wooden ones are mostly gone, only the chimney and the heating stove thingy remain because the people around took the wood after the war to make fire with it) , the pillars and the barbed wire that used to make up the electric fence is all there as well. I spent about 4 hours walking around with almost no break .
Auschwitz I is all there with the massive red brick buildings ,all very well preserved and in some of the buildings there are exhibitions of original objects, pictures and some of the cells with the bunk beds as they were ,some bathrooms,washrooms, etc. There you can also find the re-converted crematorium (the SS turned it into something else before the end of the war so the authorities had it re-converted as it was ,with the stoves and all that) . The rest of the crematoriums were blown up by the SS before they left Auschwitz, they were at Birkenau and you can see their ruins. Also at Auschwitz I there's the original gallows where Rudolf Hoss (the first and most important Commandant of the camp) was hanged in 1946.
I was so impressed by Birkenau that I went there again on the last day in Krakow. It's a place everyone should visit . Also, as horrible as the crimes were, as horrible as life was for those prisoners, I think , for me, Auschwitz is also a place where one can celebrate life and being alive because so many people lost their lives there and also fought for it, fought to survive no matter how hard it was and for the ones who did survive it was an amazing achievement . Being there gave me a sense of sadness but also ,strangely enough, peace.
It's also important not to go to extremes. I feel that many people forget that it wasn't just Jewish people that died there but also Russians,Poles,Gypsies,etc which is unfair, they have to all be remembered. Also, one must not throw blame at every German alive at that time. Fact is that most Germans ,members of the Nazi Party or not, had nothing to do with this and most of them had very little idea of what was really happening and it was hard to believe anyway or they just couldn't possibly do anything about it. Himmler's SS and Hitler are to blame most of all, all those people involved in designing the camps and who were actively involved in the whole concentration camp business are to blame and should be blamed and some didn't get their punishment . There is no need to hate on every single person during that time although that's how people see it and I hate that Hitler destroyed not only the lives of those who he saw as his enemies but also the lives and reputation of people who were working at higher levels in his Regime and who were in fact very skilled ,very respectable individuals ,very good officers of the Wehrmacht or Navy or Aviation, etc.
Anyway, here's pictures
Entry to Auschwitz I with the famous sign
Rudolf Hoss was hanged there
Entry at Birkenau(taken from inside the camp), the famous railway tracks
brick barracks at Birkenau
wooden barracks on the other side
here there used to be loads of wooden barracks, only the brick chimneys remain, the place is HUGE
in that building people selected for work not immediate death ,were taken to be registered ,disinfected and have their clothes disinfected as well
ruins of one of the several crematoriums. This pictures shows the entry. The prisoners would be taken through there down to the room where they were told to take their clothes off and then go into the "shower" room where Zyklon B was used to gas them before their bodies were taken above ,to the other end of the building, where the cremation ovens were.
inside the wooden barracks at Birkenau, these are the famous ones usually portrayed in movies
huge place
I'll post pictures from Krakow in another post,still sorting those out, so this first post is all about Auschwitz.
You probably all know about the concentration camp at Auschwitz . It's in fact not one camp but 3 camps ,with Auschwitz I being the initial one and the others built a little later on. So ,we have Auschwitz I , Auschwitz II - Birkenau and Auschwitz III - Monowitz (which you don't visit and which was in fact an I.G Farben factory that used prisoners and had barracks for them on site).
The 2 sites that you can visit are Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, build about 3 km's apart . You need to know this : Auschwitz I is the one with the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at the gate, red brick,multiple story buildings and relatively small while Auschwitz II - Birkenau is the one with the famous train tracks and wooden barracks (in fact those were prefabricated horse stables and were used as barracks for the inmates cause they were easy to build and cheap and no one gave a fuck about comfort or anything). Birkenau is the image of the death camp, built specifically for holding prisoners and killing them as efficiently and quietly as possible ,
First I went to Birkenau since it's really big so I needed more time and also because during the high season (summer) they don't allow people to wander around as they please until 3pm so you needed to take a guided tour and I didn't want that. Also, btw, both sites are free to visit, no tickets needed,no nothing.
I want to say that visiting Birkenau was one of the most fascinating,amazing things I've ever experienced , it's one of the most extraordinary places one can visit in this world,especially if you're a history enthusiast.
Yes, it's not a happy place, most people who got sent there died either in the gas chambers or due to the harsh conditions, lack of food or due to illness or by being worked to death. Yes, when you're there, unless you have no soul or no knowledge of history, it's very emotionally impacting.
I'll tell you about my experience as a WWII/Nazi history enthusiast and just a normal human being who doesn't take things lightly but also doesn't treat things melodramatically .
To me ,walking around there was emotionally impacting but the place as it is now, aesthetically didn't repulse me or anything. Yes, I was very well aware of the murders there and that moved me but I didn't feel bad about just being there. During summer it's a very green place, birds are chirping, the place is full of life ,clean air,it's otherwise quiet,etc. It's a massive place so you can easily avoid the crowds ,the groups of tourists and just walk by yourself with no one or few people around and I'd say that's the best because that's how u get a feel of the place. There are a few buildings you can get into and see them almost in their original state or in their original state, a few of the wooden barracks that remained (the brick ones are still there but the wooden ones are mostly gone, only the chimney and the heating stove thingy remain because the people around took the wood after the war to make fire with it) , the pillars and the barbed wire that used to make up the electric fence is all there as well. I spent about 4 hours walking around with almost no break .
Auschwitz I is all there with the massive red brick buildings ,all very well preserved and in some of the buildings there are exhibitions of original objects, pictures and some of the cells with the bunk beds as they were ,some bathrooms,washrooms, etc. There you can also find the re-converted crematorium (the SS turned it into something else before the end of the war so the authorities had it re-converted as it was ,with the stoves and all that) . The rest of the crematoriums were blown up by the SS before they left Auschwitz, they were at Birkenau and you can see their ruins. Also at Auschwitz I there's the original gallows where Rudolf Hoss (the first and most important Commandant of the camp) was hanged in 1946.
I was so impressed by Birkenau that I went there again on the last day in Krakow. It's a place everyone should visit . Also, as horrible as the crimes were, as horrible as life was for those prisoners, I think , for me, Auschwitz is also a place where one can celebrate life and being alive because so many people lost their lives there and also fought for it, fought to survive no matter how hard it was and for the ones who did survive it was an amazing achievement . Being there gave me a sense of sadness but also ,strangely enough, peace.
It's also important not to go to extremes. I feel that many people forget that it wasn't just Jewish people that died there but also Russians,Poles,Gypsies,etc which is unfair, they have to all be remembered. Also, one must not throw blame at every German alive at that time. Fact is that most Germans ,members of the Nazi Party or not, had nothing to do with this and most of them had very little idea of what was really happening and it was hard to believe anyway or they just couldn't possibly do anything about it. Himmler's SS and Hitler are to blame most of all, all those people involved in designing the camps and who were actively involved in the whole concentration camp business are to blame and should be blamed and some didn't get their punishment . There is no need to hate on every single person during that time although that's how people see it and I hate that Hitler destroyed not only the lives of those who he saw as his enemies but also the lives and reputation of people who were working at higher levels in his Regime and who were in fact very skilled ,very respectable individuals ,very good officers of the Wehrmacht or Navy or Aviation, etc.
Anyway, here's pictures
Entry to Auschwitz I with the famous sign
Rudolf Hoss was hanged there
Entry at Birkenau(taken from inside the camp), the famous railway tracks
brick barracks at Birkenau
wooden barracks on the other side
here there used to be loads of wooden barracks, only the brick chimneys remain, the place is HUGE
in that building people selected for work not immediate death ,were taken to be registered ,disinfected and have their clothes disinfected as well
ruins of one of the several crematoriums. This pictures shows the entry. The prisoners would be taken through there down to the room where they were told to take their clothes off and then go into the "shower" room where Zyklon B was used to gas them before their bodies were taken above ,to the other end of the building, where the cremation ovens were.
inside the wooden barracks at Birkenau, these are the famous ones usually portrayed in movies
huge place