Halloween in Norway & Poland Part I: Gorgeous Kraków & Saddening Auschwitz-Birkenau

It's so strange to think that it's November 8th. Time has gone by pretty quick. It seems like every year once Halloween hits, the rest of the year just blows by. Well Halloween here in Norway was alright. They don't really celebrate it here, rather they go door to door at Christmas and do kind of a caroling tradition then. And since the only good nights to go out are Wednesdays and Fridays, there was a big party at Samfunnet on Friday night even though Halloween was on Saturday. So after hanging out with the gang, laughing and chatting, we all walked down to Samfunnet just after midnight to dance into the early morning hours. The party was alright, same as always, but with many more zombies than normal. And the highlight of the night (or rather morning) was getting sandwiched between two amazingly cute guys that each wrapped an arm around me and said, "Hello you, Happy Halloween"...one of which was in a red shirt and was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. And of course my response was full of blushing, a school girl smile, and something like "uh, umm, hmm, it's uh...good." And Destinee and I spent the rest of the night smiling whenever "red-shirt guy" was near us. Ah, Norwegian guys. They are quite the charmers once they get over their shyness.

Well the next day was beautiful and sunny and later that night, the sky was blanketed with stars and a full moon cast its glow over Høglimyra. And when I made a phone call to my mother, I just enjoyed the fresh air, the stars, and the feeling of excitement that was to ensue given that I was leaving for Poland Monday morning. Unfortunately, after about 35 minutes outside on the stone stairs, a Spider completely freaked me out as it lingered on my hood. I of course didn't notice it until I got back to my prison cell...oh uh I mean my room on the 3rd floor. And upon discovering it, I threw my coat, grabbed my shoe, and beat it about 20 times. I'm sure once would have been enough but...well, I am insanely arachnophobic. I was definitely awake then. And I spent the rest of the night constantly checking every part of me for 8-legged creatures. And a sunny Sunday passed very quickly with me doing my fellowship application which I have VERY little chance of getting, but it will give me full funding for my first three years of graduate school.

And then the big event...Monday morning. Of course it came way too early. And at 6:30am, I was up and straightening my hair and finishing the little bit of packing. And when I looked outside, it was still pitch black. At around 7:45, D and I took off with our packs and headed to Norwegian language class. And after a fun class with some friends and our awesome professor, Kit, we had lunch with our friends and got a nice send off as we went to catch the bus. And around 12:15pm, we were off on our adventure to Poland which sadly included an 18 hour train ride to Oslo. It was funny to be back in Trondheim again, felt like déjà vu since I had been there almost a week and a half before. And by 6am the next morning, after a brutal night with very little sleep, D and I were headed upstairs to check in for our 10am flight to Kraków, Poland. Since we had some time, I tried to sleep some more but just laid there, spacing in and out.

Around 10am, our flight got a little delayed but we were off the ground by 11am. And just before 1pm, we had landed in a foreign land, a country with a very disrupted history and devastation from World War II. Once we got off the plane, we ventured through customs and were in pursuit of an ATM to get some local currency, the ZŁOTY. Next was a very interesting and free 2-minutes (literally) bus ride to the train stop. We were so confused and could actually see the airport from the train platform. I guess that's why it was free. Not long after, the train came and took us on the 15-minute ride to the city center, an 8.00zlotych charge. And we arrived at Kraków Glówny and made our way to Rynek Glówny, the Market Square where our hostel was. Kraków was absolutely gorgeous: the architecture, the sun, and whole feel. It was very tourist friendly and exciting as we made our way to the square.

Our hostel, the Hostel 7 Rynek had an entrance that was kind of in a sketchy alleyway but we soon learned the best shops were in the hidden alleyways. And our hostel was very clean. We were in a dorm that was actually part of a huge room with a wall dividing them so there were 8 bunk beds in the whole room, 4 on our side. After ditching our stuff, we went shopping and went to eat some awesome food. I got this huge plate of local and nearby cuisine for about $13 that included Hungarian goulash, a beef chop, a rib roasted in honey, dumplings, Polish cabbage rolls, baked potato, Bigos, and pickled cucumber. It was amazing and so good to have real food again. After more shopping and booking our tour for the next morning, D and I ventured out and got something sweet, some amazing Polish desserts and I had my cup of tea. Europe is really turning me into a tea fanatic...I haven't had coffee in forever and prefer my amazing cup of tea every day. It was kind an early night that included a nice shower and chatting with our one other roommate on our side, a Canadian guy (we shall call Alberta since we never got his name) that we talked with about Alaska, politics, travel, and just life. And after I wrote in my journal, I got all snuggled into my bunk as Alberta headed out to hit up the bar. And sleep came quickly until the construction started from about 11:30pm until early into the morning hour.

The next day (Wednesday) started off with the tour we had been looking forward to: Auschwitz-Birkenau. We got up and were ready by 8:30am but our tour guide showed up around 9am. And we hopped in a van with a bunch of other people, mostly English speaking and headed the 60km to Oświęcim, Poland, the town that the Germans named the camp Auschwitz after. It was an eerie feel as we got there to the museum. The trees were changing into their fall colors, large groups of people were everywhere, and the grounds had this strange quietness but were also pleasant. It was almost as if you could hear the screams and yet their was an overwhelming calm also.

In America, we are all taught about Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp where the most people died during WWII. There are two camps, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, where the prisoners were forced to build the camp and the vast majority were murdered in the gas chambers using Zyklon B. Another small camp was located nearby but apparently it was bombed early and was centered more towards nuclear work. We arrived at Auschwitz I and were ushered towards the back to get our headsets. A Polish tour guide dressed very conservatively and with a sensitive approach to her job, talked softly into the microphone as were we lead among the grounds, listening closely to the voice on our headsets painting the picture for us of what life had been like in the 1940s. I won't lie when I say that it was hard. It was probably one of the hardest tours I have ever taken and it was extremely quiet. I almost thought of not posting the pictures here, but it is still there for a good reason...to keep it from happening again.

We were first taken to the iron gate where the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work brings freedom) peered down at us. And as you entered, you could see the double row of barbed wire electric fences surrounding the camp, the watchtowers where the SS monitored the prisoners, and the HALT signs. There was no escape out of this place. And even beneath the fences were 1m vertical walls of cement making it impossible to dig your way out also. We walked along, along the many rows of brick prisoners barracks, wandering in some of them to see the displays, hearing the stories echo from the walls, the screams reverberating across the rooms, the scratches on the wall wondering if they were from old age or human hands, and feeling utter disgust at the propaganda the Germans used to lure people to the concentration camp walls. It was devastating...impossible to smile, to speak, or to even think. All you wanted to do was cry as you heard of the selection process, all of the children that were killed and subjected to experiments by Mengele (an evil doctor never tried for his crimes even though he did crazy work on twins including sewing them together just to see how it worked), you saw some of the prisoners hair, saw some of their belongings that they had left on the platform when they arrived, saw some of their pictures in their black and white uniforms, heard about how they traded bread for better shoes, how few people survived for more than 3-4 months, how they were tortured in Block 11 where no one came out alive, the death wall where many pray and cry for those that have passed, the storing building that the prisoners called Canada because it was like heaven with its luxuries and was a promise for a better life, the fact that many people every day would throw themselves at the electrical fences to end their suffering, and many other things that I hope not to remember. We even saw the site where Rudolf Höss, the camp founder, was hung by the guards. And the last spot at Auschwitz I was the gas chamber where you went in and saw the holes in the ceiling where they dropped the poison and the room next door where the evidence was destroyed in the crematorium, the ashes of the victims being spread out on the grass as fertilizer by fellow prisoners later. It was just appalling. The worst part was that the camp was in an area with a lot of other people around now. Who would want to live near such a horrible place? And the second worse thing was that the Allies knew about it -- Roosevelt, Churchill, etc...But no one ever stopped in, never knew how or did anything even though they knew what was going on.

After the first tour, my group was very quiet. We didn't talk as we had a break and got in the van and were driven over to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. This camp was so much larger with hundreds of prison barracks and a giant entrance they called The Death Gate where the train went through and dropped the prisoners off on the platform where they went through the selection process. Many more people were killed here, led directly to the crematorium and gas chambers where they were told they were going to shower and get hot coffee after their journey. We only went in two buildings, one with bunks where 6 people slept together and the other where the bathroom was. And at the end of our tour, after hearing about the 1.1 million people that died at Auschwitz, 90% of whom were Jews, either from the gas chambers, starvation, forced labor, disease, execution, or medical experiments, our tour guide left us with some departing words: Look around at what prejudice can bring and know that we haven't learned our lesson yet or from our mistakes (aka Israel). And to think of this place, the people that we've heard about, and never forget what happened here so that it won't happen again.

It was a solemn ending to the 4-hour tour and it left us all with something to think about. And we watched as the local high schoolers carried flags and wore shirts saying "Israel" with the Star of David on it. And as we had a short break before our drive back, I thought of how important this tour was. The guide said all students in the area are required to visit the grounds and learn about it. And during one of her tours, she met an Auschwitz prisoner whose picture was on the wall and hanging beside him was the only picture of his mother who died at the camp. And he asked for a copy as that was his only picture, his only memory. And most Polish families have no memory of their family, don't know what really happened, and are still searching, hoping for some answers. And it was a quiet ride back to Kraków, a ride where I thought of how life-changing this experience had been. How everything else feels so small and how cruel human nature can be. I only hope that the guide was right, that by memorializing the grounds that nothing as severe as this prisoner camp will ever happen again. One can only hope...

*Rest of the Polish trip to be continued in the next entry*

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