Blogs from Auschwitz, Lesser Poland, Poland, Europe - page 7

Breakfast today was a quicker affair as today we were heading to Oswiecim and Birkenau, more commonly known as Auschwitz. We got to the ticket office and before I could say where we wanted to go, a bored looking sales girl informed me about the buses to Auschwitz. We caught a minibus for 28pln return for both of us. (£5 approx) the journey took just over the hour. Once at the museum centre we each bought a guidebook as we'd been told it was better to read that as we go around rather than pay for a guided tour. We looked around the first exhibit room and then headed back to the centre to watch an English documentary. From there we caught a shuttle bus up to Birkenau, looked around and then caught a bus back ... read more

After working out how to leave Zagan, and managing it successfully with a picturesque train ride across the beautiful lush green Polish countryside, we arrived in lovely Krakow, where we have stayed for the last few nights. It has been quite a full few days, and a confronting chaser to our intense experience at Zagan. Initially we had not planned to visit Auschwitz because we didn’t really feel as though we needed to go. We both kind of felt that going might be an unnecessary horror, like it would be an experience that would just 'preach to the converted'... you know, we felt as though we were already aware of the dangers of xenophobia through our studies, our discussions, our social networks etc… So we thought that going there would just sadden us further about something ... read more

A Day of Remembrance Europe » Poland » Oswiecim By KozalJuly 15th 2007Today evoked a lot of emotion for us. We visited Auschwitz (Oswieciem) and Birkenau. We were asked not to speak while on our tour. We were asked to simply remain quiet and hear the voices of those who cried out in pain and sadness, agony and despair. We leave you with a pictorial and ask you to do the same.... read more

Our day started off with a city tour of Krakow. We went first to Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter (and also the location where some scenes of 'Schindler's List' were filmed). There is a memorial in the center of the street commemorating the lives of the 65,000 Jews from Krakow who lost their lives during the Holocaust. To my surprise, there are currently only 150 registered Jews still living in the city. I guess it was too hard for many of the survivors to stay after the horrors that occured there and many relocated to other areas to start new lives, which is completely understandable. There are several Jewish synagogues still remaining in the quarter but only one is currently in use. After Kazimierz we headed to Wawel Hill to tour the Royal Castle. This was ... read more

We woke up this morning at around 6:45, ate breakfast, and left the house by 7:30 a.m. We drove for almost two and half hours, to a town called Oswiecim. This town is a very popular place for tourists because it is home to the concentration camps. The camp that we visited today is called Auschwitz I. The reason why it’s called Auschwitz I is because there’s another camp called Auschwitz-Berkenau. But we’re going to that camp tomorrow. For those of you who don’t know what kind of concentration camps I’m talking about, they’re camps that were established during WWII. They were used to punish and kill those who were not wanted. Around the buildings are double-electric fences, gas chambers, and crematoriums. If everyone found out what these people went through at these camps, they’d rather ... read more