Blogs from Auschwitz, Lesser Poland, Poland, Europe

Auschwitz. Just one word that conveys so much and evokes so many feelings. When planning my trip to Krakow, I knew that I coming here was something I had to do. Just before my trip, I was talking to a friend who'd been recently and she'd been telling me how horrific she'd found it. This helped me to try to mentally prepare for the trip. I was picked up pretty early and taken to a bigger bus to go to Auschwitz. The journey wasn't too long and we reached the town of Oświęcim, which is where Auschwitz is located. Seeing the train tracks as we drove towards the concentration camp was heartbreaking. To think of those that made the journey never to return. I had heard/read that Auschwitz is really busy with people coming to visit. ... read more

My feet hurt. It was a long, long day. We were up before 5:30am and we got into our new hotel room in Krakow at 7:05pm tonight. We were supposed to have a formalish dinner with the group here in the hotel – salad, pumpkin soup, duck confit and xander fish (whatever that is) but we just couldn’t do another 2-hour dinner. We told our tour guide we were going to McDs and left. It’s 8pm and we have ate (Burger King in the mall across from our hotel), we have our aching shoes and socks off, and we will probably both be asleep within an hour. I do know one thing… we hit over 10,000 steps today! A teeny old lady and old man in the seat in front of us on the bus today ... read more

On the bus to go to our first stop. We drove through the chocolate box village of Zbylitowska Gora to see the place that Israeli children have named The Children’s Forest. I am not sure that we were prepared for what we were going to see as the village was so pretty in the snow. We walked through an empty wasteland past a memorial to the Poles who were massacred by the Nazis. In June 1942 about 10,000 people were killed including some 6,000 Jews with 800 children. Then we saw an area enclosed by a blue barrier, decorated with balloons and blue and white Israeli flags and children’s toys. This was the mass grave of the 800 children. This was heartbreaking and it was here that Don broke down. The question we have been asking ... read more

Perhaps no single word has the power to invoke such strong emotions as Auschwitz. What happened there is beyond comprehension. Here I present photos and commentary from my trip to the camp sites last month.... read more

All we hear about Auschwitz is the horrifying statistics. An estimated 1.1 million men, women and children, Jews, Poles and homosexuals, were slaughtered here. It is unique because as well as being the largest camp, it is the only Nazi facility that doubled as both a death/extermination camp and a concentration/labour camp. I will try to describe my experience at this haunting place but it is difficult to put it into words. I was not aware before visiting that there are two completely different parts of the Auschwitz Concentration camp. Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau. These are about a kilometer apart from each other and present completely different styles of concentrations camps. Auschwitz I in filled will tall brick town houses, along straight lanes. Without any knowledge of where you were, you could be mistaken to ... read more