Niemodlin - Auschwitz - Kraków (day 4)

After a pretty good night's sleep, it was time to have breakfast and prepare a packed lunch. Besides, to prepare for a mentally tough day, because today we will visit the most infamous concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

With breakfast behind us and the packed lunches ready, we loaded the suitcases into the car and drove to the city of Auschwitz. On the way, we stopped at a gas station for coffee. After the coffee break we continued our way to Auschwitz (or Oświęcim in Polish), once we arrived we were actually a bit early (we had bought tickets for the 12:30 time slot online in advance, where you have to be there half an hour in advance). Once it was time to go inside, we first had to show our ID, have the tickets scanned and then go through a security check like at an airport. When everything was in order we ended up in a large waiting room where you could (with a bit of luck, given the crowds) sit and wait until it was time for the tour to start, eventually the guide came who brought the group together and after checking the tickets one more time we could actually go in. Here we walked down a flight of stairs where we were given headphones and an audio device so that we could hear the guide (so the guides do not have to shout to make themselves understood to their own group, also out of respect for the victims. The terrain is a silence area). We continued our way through a long corridor where all the names of the victims were announced from the speakers, so it immediately started in a melancholy manner. Then we walked to a barrack where a film of about 10 minutes was shown about the history of Auschwitz and the background story. After this the tour continued over the Auschwitz site where we walked through the well-known gate with the text "arbeit macht frei" (work sets you free) above it and went from barrack to barrack, each barrack had its own story / function. So we were led through death rows in the women's section of the camp (the death penalty was carried out by fusillade against a wall in the open air). In another barrack piles of personal belongings were exhibited (glasses, suitcases, shoes, leg prostheses and crutches and pots and pans in various displays, but also women's hair). The Nazis used this hair to use it as cotton from which textile products were made or as stuffing for pillows. However, by the time the camp was liberated by the Soviets, the Nazis had left behind 7,000 kilos of hair (in bags). 2,000 kilos of this was exhibited in a display. In another barrack the living conditions in such a barrack were depicted, for example prisoners slept on a thin layer of straw on the floor in the first period, in a later phase they slept in a kind of jute sleeping bag, still on the floor. In a number of other barracks (which we only got to see from the outside) medical experiments were carried out on women, for example in the womb. Many women did not survive the experiments, those who did were mutilated for the rest of their lives. There was also a sick barrack, where pregnant women were injected with some kind of poison right in the heart so that they (and their unborn child) would die. After this round of barracks we arrived at the part of the camp where the camp commanders had their quarters, here was also a concept version of a gas chamber where thousands of people died. This gas chamber was small in design and only served the first few years, until the camp became too big and more and larger gas chambers were built. Then this gas chamber became out of use, after which it was converted into a bomb shelter for the Nazis. Just outside this gas chamber, at the entrance, there was also a gallows. This is where Rudolf Höss was hanged after the war. With this gas chamber, the audio tour in Auschwitz ended, and we walked back to the entrance where we had to hand in the headphones and the audio device. At the entrance, we were picked up by a shuttle bus and driven to Auschwitz-Birkenau (the extermination camp). This was a 5 to 10 minute bus ride, once you get off you are immediately at the well-known elongated building where the trains passed through the gates and has a large tower on the roof (I noticed that this building is actually smaller than what you see in all those documentaries and other images). However, this camp is immense, and you see an innumerable number of barracks where all the prisoners were moated. We walked straight to the back, where there is now a memorial for all the victims, to the left and right are the ruins of two gas chambers (these are larger and built more like a factory, with a crematorium where the countless corpses were burned immediately. On the adjacent field, the ashes of all the dead were scattered). These two gas chambers are in ruins because at some point the Nazis realized that the Soviets were coming and for that reason wanted to destroy as much evidence as possible, so they blew up the gas chambers and crematoria with explosives. On the way back to the entrance, we also walked into a few barracks that were still intact. Here you could clearly see how people slept on wooden planks in cubicles, three floors high. After having seen all these horrors (hours later I still can't comprehend it) we took the shuttle bus back to Auschwitz, where our car was parked and drove on to Kraków, where we were staying for the next three nights. Once we brought in the suitcases, we did some groceries for dinner. Once back at the apartment I laid down on the bed for a while to relieve my back, in the meantime they were busy cooking in the kitchen (of the beautiful apartment), after which we sat down to eat. During dinner, we discussed our impressions of Auschwitz with each other. After dinner, we had a quiet evening. Tomorrow we will stay somewhat in the horrible theme of Auschwitz, because we will go to the enamel factory of Oskar Schindler (known from the film classic Schindler's List, with Liam Neeson).

Day 3

Travel overview

Day 5