The weekend of May 8, 9, and 10 we took a class field trip to Kraków, Poland and Auschwitz. On Friday and Saturday we were in Kraków and toured things like the castle, treasury and armory, and the salt mine Wieliczka. We got to explore the city center and were able to buy lots of really cool souvenirs right there, as there's a huge market in the middle! Poland is known for its The square is surrounded by some really historical churches and buildings, and some fantastic places to eat. My favorite activity in Kraków was touring the salt mine. It was so cool to see something that had started in the 13th century! The tour guide told us some interesting and funny facts along our 2 hour tour. On Sunday, we drove an hour and toured two of the three camps at Auschwitz: Auschwitz 1 (concentration camp) and Auschwtiz: Birkenau (extermination camp). After touring that, we drove back home to Olomouc.
I could give you all of the statistics in the world about Auschwitz and all that happened there, but it just won't compare to actually standing in the place where over a million people lost their lives under the hand of the Nazi Regime. These people included Jews, Poles, Gypsies, and other nationalities not otherwise considered "the perfect Aryan race". We saw places where prisoners were supposed to sleep (5 to 6 people per bed), places where they were supposed to go to the bathroom (3 latrine buildings for 8,000 people), and places where they were specifically moved to be killed (1 gas chamber that could kill 1,000 people in 20 minutes at one time), amongst many other "living conditions" there. Some of the worst things I heard were how the Nazi's would smash children's heads into a wall to save a bullet, so they didn't have to shoot them; and how they collected the golden molars, glasses, shoes, and hair (7 tons of it bagged and shipped off) of those they killed and imprisoned. The statistics go on, and you start feeling even more and more sick to your stomach.
I stood there on Sunday, in the exact places where all these events took place. And the worst part, was the quote and reminder in one of the buildings that went something like this: we have to remember the past, because if we don't, it will repeat itself. And that is what shook me the most. We have discussed in class and I have thought about it a lot, that our history is repetitive and that something like the Holocaust could happen again, especially with all of the religious and racial hate going on now-a-days. I hope the world learned and is still learning from the Holocaust, so we never have to relive the horrors of WWII and the events leading up to it. The concentration camp Auschwitz and Birkenau were two places that have shaped me and the way I think about humanity, our pasts, and our futures.
Wieliczka Salt Mine
Panorama of the Castle in Kraków, Poland
Cart in which prisoners rode in, Birkenau extermination camp
One of the only gas chambers in Auschwitz still standing
Where they cremated the dead bodies, next to the gas chamber
"Work Makes You Free"
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