“Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart” -Anne Frank

 

 

First off I’d like to say that my classmates and I are ok and we are all safe following the terrorist attacks this morning in Brussels, Belgium.  Also, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and family members of those that lost their lives today in a senseless act of terror.

In a weekend marked with extreme highs and extreme lows we returned today to Salzburg on a rollercoaster of emotions…  Looking back on the weekend it’s tough to describe my feelings on the trip.  I can’t seem to decide whether or not it was a fun trip, an informative trip, or a sad trip.  Krakow and those that have called the city home have gone through so much in the past 100 years, yet the city exuded joy and beauty around every corner, and as Easter is coming up the city was full of color and festivities.  Yet, we left quietly and deep in thought.  We spent 2 full days in Krakow, making sure to explore the old city as much as possible, and 1 day touring the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau.

Discovering Main Market Square and the Easter Market

Waking up on Saturday morning we saw the rain had stopped and Krakow had a beautiful day in store for us.  We were all starving so we headed out in search of some traditional Polish foods, like some pierogi or kielbasa.  We wandered without much care letting our noses sniff out the incredible smells wafting through the city.  Our noses took us to Main Market Square in the middle of Krakow.  The market was beautiful, the architecture was amazing with St. Mary’s Basilica towering over us and a market that must have been the best smelling Easter market in the universe.  We were like kids in a candy shop and all ran off in different directions to get lunch.  Most of the group wanted pierogis but I found a great stand selling szaszlyk.  What is a szaszlyk you ask? The best shish kebab you will ever taste that’s what…

Szaszlyk among other meats cooking

I wanted to buy the entire thing but that would have cost me about 100 Polish zloty (25 euros) and I wasn’t in the mood to splash that amount of cash in my first hour in Krakow.  So instead I bough about a fifth of it and a beer and returned to our picnic table excited to show off my prize to the group.  Instead I ended up jealous of what they returned with, from pierogis to kielbasas on sweet onions, crepes, polish stew on sauerkraut and chocolate waffles I was left wishing I explored more before I settled on my szaszlyk.  One bite later I was again convinced I picked the right dish, then I tried a pierogi and loved it, then the kielbasa and then the stew… Where has this food been all my life… We could have stayed at that picnic table all day just running back and forth between all of the different stands.  We almost did but our stomaches wouldn’t allow us.  We shopped for some Easter souvenirs and tried tasty Easter candies.  Some food we found out was meant for decoration and wasn’t exactly supposed to be eaten… cough cough Haley.. Gingerbread Easter eggs sitting out in the cold apparently turn to rock.

Indoor Market

Beautiful St. Mary’s Basilica

From there we finally went to explore the rest of the square.  We wanted to get an up close look at St. Mary’s, so we paid the 5 zloty fee and went in.  I have my mom to thank for dragging Alicia and I through cathedrals from England to Italy for my appreciation of the beauty of these incredible buildings.  Il Duomo was amazing, St. Pauls was great but St. Mary’s in Krakow may have stolen my heart.

Inside of St. Mary’s (photo cred to Lucy Kirby)

After saying a prayer and lighting a candle we left to get a tour of the ancient Jewish quarter of Krakow which is known as Kazimierz.  Originally King Casimir III the Great welcomed the Jews to Krakow in the 1300’s and built a wall around their very own section of the city.  He was welcoming and as long as they paid their taxes they were welcome in Krakow regardless of what religion they followed.  Krakow’s jewish population grew exponentially and by the 20th century there was an estimated 70,000 jews calling Krakow their home.

Store fronts in Kazimierz written in Hebrew

Today Kazimierz is open for all sorts and isn’t just strictly for Jews but there still is a very strong Jewish culture to the quarter, hence the name “the jewish quarter.”  We were able to see the 2nd oldest synagogue in Europe and the old walls of Kazimierz.  We also saw many of the filming locations of Steven Spielberg’s 7 time Academy Award winning film Schindler’s List.  On one site there was a memorial to the city’s former Jewish residents.  A city that held 65,000-70,000 Jewish citizens prior to WWII was reduced to a little over 2,000.  In 5 years the Nazis were able to destroy over 600 years of Jewish culture in Krakow.  Again, I noticed the small stones placed on Jewish memorials, like the one the nice lady told me about in Budapest at the “Shoes on the Danube” memorial.  Our tour guide pointed out that because stones don’t wilt and die like flowers they have become popular forms of remembrance.  I didn’t have one on me but I made a mental note to pick one up before our trip the next day to Auschwitz.

Memorial to Krakow’s former 65,000 Jewish Residents

After Nazi occupation in the 40’s many of the city’s jewish areas were destroyed but a few survived.  One such place is an old Jewish cemetery.  During WWII it was used as a dump by the Nazis.  This may have saved the graveyard honestly, as most of the other Jewish cemeteries in Krakow were destroyed during this time.  Following the war, Christians cleaned it up, replaced the headstones and attempted to restore as much dignity to the cemetery as possible so the residents could once again rest in peace.

Jewish Cemetery in Kazimierz (photo cred to Lucy Kirby)

We woke up early Sunday morning ready for our tour of Auschwitz knowing deep down that today was going to be a very emotionally exhausting day for us all.  We walked outside to find that the sky seemed to be in the same mood as us, dreary and grey.  We met our tour guide and hopped in our small bus and attempted to mentally prepare for the day ahead.  We were shown a small documentary on Auschwitz filmed by a Soviet soldier upon their discovery and liberation of the camp.  It was graphic and woke us up pretty quickly to the horrors committed by the Nazis at Auschwitz.  Little did we know we had no idea what was ahead of us.

“Arbeit Macht Frei” (work sets you free)

We arrived and followed our tour guide through the gates of Auschwitz I, the labor camp. Here lived political prisoners and Poles.  The gate we walked under read in german, “arbeit macht frei” which translates to “work sets you free.”  This was the smaller and first of the 2 main Auschwitz concentration camps.  The prisoners here worked at plant about a 4.5 mile walk away.  6 days a week they had to wake up, walk 4.5 miles, work for 10 hours and walk back home.  Most prisoners didn’t live past 5 months.  Eventually, the Nazi’s realized they needed to move their camp closer to the plant so they made the prisoners build Auschwitz II Birkenau.  Upon completion Auschwitz II Birkenau became the largest and bloodiest concentration camp in Nazi Germany.

Yet, in Auschwitz I we were able to walk through the barracks, previously built for Polish soldiers and learn the awful stories of the camps.  The barracks are now a museum documenting the horror story that is the history of the camps.  I can barely remember what our tour guide told us, as the atrocities seem to all run together but I took photos of what we were allowed to take photos of.

Electrified barbed wire fence around Auschwitz I

Some prisoners would throw themselves onto the fence in order to commit suicide just to escape the horrors of the camp.

Map of where most prisoners came from

Luggage taken from the Jews upon arrival

Shoes taken from the dead

In another room, there was a pile about this size of nothing but human hair.  Upon arrival, their heads were shaved and the hair was intended to be woven into rugs to be sold.  We weren’t allowed to take photos of the hair out of respect to those it used to belong to.  That room was the worst thing I’ve ever had to witness in my life.  It’s tough to describe the emotions that run through your mind upon seeing 2 tons of human hair just sitting in a pile, still in braids and buns…  How can such evil have ever risen to power?  How could people hate each other like this?  We walked out to a hallway lined with photos of some of the dead.  We just stood there drowning in disbelief and sadness.  Tears on our faces as we stared at portraits of victims with shaved heads.. Did we see just see their hair in the other room?

Used containers that contained zyklon B pellets

“Death Wall” Execution by firing squad was carried out here on thousands.

Chimney of crematorium and gas chamber at Auschwitz I

Gas chamber of Auschwitz I

The ovens in Auschwitz I

I was shocked we were allowed to walk into the gas chamber and again we found ourselves overcome with emotion as we saw the chambers and the ovens.  Again, how can people have been this evil to each other?  In the gas chamber there were openings in the ceiling where the poisonous zyklon B pellets could be dropped in on the unsuspecting victims, who were under the impression that they were just there to take a shower.

Original sign and walls

After a short break, we got back on our bus for the quick trip to Auschwitz II Birkenau, the death camp of the complex.  We arrived with the infamous brick archway looming over us.

Entrance to Auschwitz II Birkenau

Here the train tracks split and the occupants of the cattle cars were gathered in between the trains so that they couldn’t see the rest of the camp.  Here they went through selection, the fit men were separated from the women and children.  Those deemed able to work were sent to the camp those deemed unable were sent to another area of the camp.  They were under the impression that after 24+ hours in a cattle car without a toilet amongst 70-80 others that they were going to be allowed to shower and clean up.  They entered an underground facility where they were allowed to strip out of their clothes.  From there, they entered another room complete with shower heads and hooks on the walls for their towels.  They were sealed in, gassed, and then cremated before ever setting foot in the rest of the camp.  This was the fate that met over 60% of Jews arriving at Auschwitz II Birkenau.

Cattle car for carrying 70-80 Jews, (24+ hour journey, no restroom, 1 grate for air)

(Remains of massive Auschwitz II Birkenau gas chamber)

Auschwitz II Birkenau had I believe 4 gas chambers/ crematoriums.  As the Soviets were closing in on the facilities, the Nazis attempted to destroy as much evidence of their crimes as possible.  The final gas chamber (above) was blown up as the Soviets were just 5 miles away from the camp.

Memorial behind crematorium

The memorial reads “To the memory of the men, women, and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide.  Here lie their ashes.  May their souls rest in peace.”

Beds for the prisoners

The sleeping quarters were more than just awful they were dehumanizing.  Three levels, separated by stone and wood planks.  The prisoners fought to not sleep on the bottom level as rats as large as cats would feast on the dead and living that were too weak to fight them off.

“To forget a holocaust, is to kill twice” -Elie Wiesel (Auschwitz survivor/ Nobel Peace Prize Winner)

I laid my pebble here in the sleeping quarters amongst some flowers in other bunks.  We stayed in this hut for about 5 minutes comforting each other as a group as we listened to our tour guide listing the atrocities that took place in the sleeping quarters.  Again we couldn’t believe that some people were able to survive this horrible place.

This is where our tour ended, upon exiting the sleeping quarters we were led back to the front and out the gate.  We walked silently back to our bus and rode silently back to Krakow.  It wasn’t until we got off the bus with our stomaches growling that we opened up a bit.

We woke up Monday morning determined to make the day a great day.  We grabbed lunch in the Market again and took a walk around and fought off the cold as much as possible.  I tried this sandwich creation that consisted of a thick piece of bread covered in onions, sliced sausage and ground pork with corn, peas, and diced carrots.  It was so delicious that I had to show it off.

Pure joy

From there we went and wandered along the old castle walls.  We found some great statues and the Barbican.  The Barbican was the old entrance to the once fortified city center.  Today the city center is surrounded by a circular park that was once used as a moat to protect the city.

Krakow Barbican

We goofed around a bit imitating statues, until the weather got so cold that we had to retreat back to our airbnb condo, but not before we found a familiar flag!

THE US CONSULATE!

We returned this morning, our first train out of Krakow to Katowice must have been built in 1960 but it still seemed to work properly… kinda.  It was slow and rickety but it got us to Katowice on time for us to catch our connection to Vienna.  It was on my way to Vienna that news of the bombings in Belgium reached us.  From here I had about 6 hours to think back on the weekend and the events at hand.  It is incredible that humanity constantly puts itself through evil over and over.  From the Nazi’s in the 40’s to ISIS today.  What can possibly lead people to be so truly evil to the core.  But even amongst the evil there is beauty in the world, and thankfully for every truly evil individual willing to blow himself up there are millions willing to stand up and help others.  I was left looking through my photos and a few really stuck with me, we need to cherish these beautiful moments, hold friends and family close, try and be the best versions of ourselves possible every single day, and make sure to live every second of our lives to the fullest.  Auf Wiedersehen.

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” -Anne Frank