We arrive in Krakow in the morning, sleeping on the train was everything I expected – I loved it, and would love to do it again! We take our luggage to left luggage lockers (William is great to travel with, he has traveled overseas enough to have an innate understanding of navigation for train stations, and all forms of public transport), and figure out which train to take to get to the first stop on the Poland experience – Auschwitz-Birkenau, a must experience. When William and I were in Washington D.C. we ha the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum. That was a moving and profound experience. I know that William has been to Auschwitz, but I cannot be here and not go. So we find the train, get coffee as we wait, and get some local currency. Poland uses the złoty, 3-4 złoty to the dollar, not quite as confusing as the forint – but by now I just accept the currency that I need to use, and get on with it!
Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It consisted of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II–Birkenau, Auschwitz III–Monowitz, and 45 satellite camps.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/auschwitz
Our guide is a Polish woman who spoke of her grandparents who lived in a village near Auschwitz having their land and home taken and being deported to Germany. They were amongst the other villagers in seven surrounding villages who were either deported to Germany or arrested and placed in Auschwitz to die a slow an painful death as they labored, building the new camp at Birkenau, on roughly 200-300 calories a day. Many lasted months, but most died within weeks. Fortunately for the Nazis there were many Pole’s and other political enemies of the Reich to fill their places. The horrors that human beings experienced in all of these camps is represented here. As you walk through you see the board bunks where people slept three to a bunk, in layers of three bunks. Most had diarrhea, and other health problems, so the worse place to sleep was on the bottom bunk as everything from the top flowed down. There are a zillion books that you can read detailing the horrors of this experience, but I have a reading list that I currently recommend:
We were the Lucky Ones Georgia Hunter
A Train Near Magdenburg Matthew A. Rozell
Youth in Flames Aliza Vitis-Shomron
The Girl with No Name Diney Costeloe
I Wish it Were Fiction Aaron Starkman
While every book is written from the perspective of the writer, as with this blog, a well rounded understanding is needed to create an image that helps with understanding of the past. My great adult revelation and understanding was that we each live our own experience. My truth is the truth for me, and it may well be different from the lived experience of someone who experiences the same time and space – that has helped me understand my siblings and their experiences in our life. So I read of experiences and while they do not form the entirety of experience, they do help put some of the pieces into the experience.
He shared with us that he, and the other teachers were children of survivors. His mother arrived at Birkenau at age 15, accompanied by his grandmother (her mother), great-grandmother, and his aunt, age 13. He told us that when the train stopped and the door was opened, his aunt and mother jumped down together, happy to breathe fresh air after 10 days in the cattle car – his grandmother, who was also near the door stopped to assist her mother out of the cattle car as she was much older and had endured for 10 days as well. The consequence was that his aunt and mother were sent to the “live” line, and his grandmother and great-grandmother were sent to the showers. One moment, one pause – life or death.