Started our day early to first lock our luggages in the bus station and set off for Auschwitz Concentration Camp tour. We took a coach-like bus out to Auschwitz. Oh, here's the thing, in Europe, people pretty much squeeze up the bus. I mean, you see that in Singapore and we will all go like... kiasu people. I will expect Europe to be very much different but sadly, no. Even for overnight buses, people don't care about the seat number and would sometimes take up to 2 seats. It's really very irritating, especially when the bus is full. SO better be a Kiasu Singaporean and try to squeeze in front to secure a seat. Anyway, the first bus out to Auschwitz were full so we had to stood like 1.5 hours to 2 hours to get there. At least, we managed to join one of the first English tours! The place is packed with tourists. The whole tour, if you go to both camps, takes a lot more time than the Salt Mine tour. So, be prepared to spend more than half a day there. It was late summer for us and it was scorching hot. Do put sunblock and bring along your shades and cap!
"The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again."
I snapped non-stop throughout the tour as my sister, who loves history, wants me to do that. She very much wants to visit Auschwitz one day! I have tried to shorten this post. So here it is...
I read Anne Frank when I was in Primary 3 and have heard so much about the concentration camp but I have never dreamt of visiting it in my life but here I am.
There there, at the right side of the photo is our guide in white tee wearing shades. She is quite defensive of Poland during the whole tour and kept saying things like, "In other camps or from Germany you may have heard.... but it's not true..." Haha. But I enjoy her tour thoroughly.
Some of the documents found after the war is over...
The people were told that they will be relocated to another area, they didn't expect to be brought to the concentration camp and death in the gas chambers and hence they packed all the valuables they can bring along with them. The soldiers will then take all the valuables after they were sent to the gas chambers.
Kids were considered to be a burden and were sent to the gas chambers straightaway. Young women, mums, were not selected to be taken directly to the gas chamber but they want to be with their children.
After the selection, the briefcases containing all their valuables will be searched and valuables will be taken away.
The Jewish women have to strip before going to the gas chamber, it serves as a form of humiliation.
A mock structure of the gas chambers, changing rooms and crematoriums.
Many of those who have survived to tell the stories of the concentration camps were those tasked to retrieve all the valuables from the belongings left behind by those sent to their death as they can often find food and other necessities.
Doctors and scholars were sent to the gas chambers as they were too smart? These are the spectacles frames left behind.
People with disabilities were amongst the first to be sent to the gas chambers as they could not work for the army and were considered a burden to the nation.
Utensils left behind.
Briefcases containing the names, birth dates and occupation of the owners.
Belongings left behind by little kids.
Shoes left behind by the victims. The better ones were resold to other countries.
Tools left behind by the shoemakers/ polishers
There were actually pictures of the hair left behind by the female victims but I didn't take any photos of that. It was... just too much. Some of the prisoners were actually tasked to shaved the heads of the corpses and the hair were actually sold in the market as raw materials to be woven into clothes. The people in the city may have unknowingly bought and wore the hair of the victims.
Prisoners were kept in these columns too.
Trials were actually held and if convicted, the victims are shot to death at the death wall
I forgot which block was that but there was one block which they kept all the ladies aged between 16 and 18 to do medical experiments on them. Our tour guide recommended one book accounting the experience of the medical assistant on that and so I bought it but I haven't get to read it after all my luggage drama.
The only standing crematorium as the others were bombed and destroyed when the war ends.
It was a gas chamber and crematorium. The gas cans are dropped from such holes on the roof.
After that, we make our way to the second camp! All you have to do is to take a minibus from the first camp. It was so hot as it was all outdoors!
Railway tracks that were built all the way inside the camp to transport people, a lot of people, and also raw materials I think.
Our tour group!
This was used to transport the people into the camp.
This stone was erected to commemorate the victims. It actually shows how the strongest are on top and the weakest, usually women and children, are below in the gas chambers as the strongest tried to climb above the weaker ones to get air from the holes on top of the roofs. All the remaining survivors in the chamber each time the gas was released were shot to death when found.
The German army tried to destroy as many chambers as they could when the war ends.
The camp is so huge and the victims were only allowed movements in their section of the camp. Many survivors tell different tales of their experience as they were located at different locations in the camp itself.
Some prisoners were tasked to write letters back home to those who have not yet been sent to the camp to tell them how good their lives are in the camp. These people were then killed in the gas chambers and the next batch of prisoners took over their jobs and continue to write letters.
Their toilets.
We were soooo tired and hungry, we had a late lunch in the first camp and waited almost an hour for the bus back to Krakow in the sun. I can even sit on the road and doze off while waiting for the bus. Really well trained by all the rugged night travels.
Back in the city centre!
Krakow is famous for sausages!
This is a very expensive dessert.
Had our little dinner here!
We chilled at a cafe near the cloth market hall at night to pass time before our night bus. There was this lady in pink umbrella hovering around the square targeting men. We didn't know what she was doing, just wondering why is she holding on to an umbrella when it was already turning dark and there was no rain? But later found out that she was targeting men. She didn't go away with any of the men she approached so it was probably some sleazy pub promotions I guess.
We had a little drama that night. We had supper at a Long John Silver-like fast-food place that was really cheap and we can pile sides on our plate like a little buffet and make our way to the bus station that was just next to the mall at 2210. When we got to the bus station we were shocked that the bus station was closed. All the doors were locked and our luggages are locked in the lockers inside the bus station! We didn't know that that side of the bus station closes at 2200. We didn't know how to speak Polish and were freaking out. We were lucky that one Polish auntie manning the toilet of the other side of the bus station try to help us speak to a security guard. The security guard didn't want to help us initially but after we try to beg him by using some hand signs (since he don't understand English), he budged! && so we got our luggages and washed up at the public toilet that the Polish auntie was manning and wait for our bus. We boarded the Polski bus to Warsaw at about 1am and it ended up to be full cos Krakow bus stop wasn't it's first stop and many passengers were occupying two seats-.- We had to sit at the first level just behind the drivers and I didn't dare to sleep the whole night as I feared for my belongings the whole night sitting just next to the door. It was just another horrible night.
Warsaw stopover next! :D
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