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Published: December 30th 2008
Upon arrival in Warsaw, I immediately noticed that the weather was markedly cooler than in Belgium, therefore raising my hopes of experiencing a white Christmas for the first time in my life. For our first full day in the Polish capital, we decided to visit the museum of the Warsaw Uprising which took place during the latter part of WWII. This was an excellent museum and I left there with an awareness of the spirit of the Polish people of which I was previously unaware. Despite their woefully outnumbered underground army, the people of Warsaw fought bravely in an effort to free their city of the occupying Germans. I was so swept up by their efforts that I truly believed they must have won the battle; however, this was not to be. After two months of spirited resistence, the Warsaw uprising was quelled and those involved were sent to Auschwitz.
From this museum, we decided to make our way to the old town, which is essentially a faithful reconstruction of the original buildings which was completed during the 1950s after the previous buildings had been destroyed during the war. On our way, we walked through the part of the city which formed the Jewish ghetto during WWII. I felt rather sad whilst moving through this district, knowing the suffering which had taken place there. At one point, we came across a section of the original ghetto wall which had been recently erected as a memorial, which brought the realisation of where we were standing to the very forefront of my consciousness.
After having lunch at a restaurant in the square of the old town, we slowly made our way back to our hostel, taking in the view of all the beautiful buildings and the Christmas fairy lights. Upon returning to our hostel, we discovered the hostel owner preparing a traditional Polish Christmas Eve Dinner for all of the guests staying at the hostel. I was amazed at the lengths he went to in an effort to ensure that we all had a special Christmas, as Christmas Eve is the most important part of the Christmas celebrations in Poland (which would explain the deserted streets we had been walking through all day). After we had eaten the delicious food, we phoned our family members back in Australia to wish them a Merry Christmas, as it was Christmas morning there. It was wonderful to hear their voices and it was with some sadness that each call had to end.
CHRISTMAS DAY! After not having seen any snow during our travels through Belgium and Poland, my hopes had been fading of experiencing a white Christmas...but my wish came true! We hurriedly put on our warm jackets and went outside and, to my sheer delight, snowflakes were casually drifting down onto the ground, with the occasional one briefly creating a cold sensation upon my face. Growing up in Australia, I never thought I would actually experience snow on Christmas Day, so this was a real thrill for me - I guess I'm still a kid underneath this hairy adult exterior.
Our next stop was Krakow and I was surprised by how many people were catching the train on Christmas Day. We found our hostel easily enough, but were then confronted with the problem of everything being closed on Christmas night, which meant that we may not be able to eat a Christmas Dinner! We decided to head into the Old Town, hoping to find a hotel along the way that still had its kitchen open. After walking for some time and with our hopes of eating rapidly fading, a five star hotel was spotted and we raced inside to see if they had a restaurant which was still serving meals. To our delight, they did! We ignored the budget for this meal and I'm so glad we did, as it was one of the best meals I have eaten throughout our travels this year and it made sure that Christmas was a special occasion, even though we were so far away from our families.
Moving right along and onto more sombre scenes, the main reason we had come to Poland was to visit Auschwitz. We caught a bus from Krakow and it was with a general feeling of unease that I watched the world go by outside the window, as I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to react whilst being in a place where such abominable atrocities had taken place. Seeing as I have documented my visit to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp earlier this year, I won't go into too much detail here. It's the sort of place you really need to experience being in yourself to even begin to comprehend what it was like for the poor souls who were sent here. The first impression I got was the sheer size of the complex. Auschwitz itself is only one part of the camp, with Birkenau being by far the largest of the three sites. Sachsenhausen seemed like Tasmania compared to the rest of Australia in terms of the scale of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Standing on the train tracks where the prisoners lined up for selection at Birkenau, the buildings of the camp stretch out as far as the eye can see to the left and the right, and the only reason there are no buildings in the far distance directly in front of where you stand is because that is where the two largest furnaces were located, where 2000 people at a time were murdered - in each one! Even after seeing it with my own eyes, I still cannot believe the methodical manner in which this genocide was organised. One of the most haunting aspects of the visit which will remain with me was seeing a display of two tonnes of human hair piled up. The hair was such a vivid representation of all those people who had met their untimely end at the hands of this evil regime. This was only a small portion of the seven tonnes of 'leftover' hair that was found after the camp was liberated. I was also horrified by the tiny standing cells which would hold four prisoners at a time in a space that was smaller than 1m X 1m and devoid of light. They would endure this treatment night after night and then be forced to perform hard manual labour during the day before returning to these confined cells. Many people died of either suffocation or exhaustion due to this inhumane treatment. The place where I felt most sick to my stomach was when I was standing in a gas chamber which had claimed the lives of untold numbers of people. I could see where the gas was released from and I could not get out of that chamber fast enough when my mind conjured up the image of all the naked lifeless bodies collapsed on top of one another in there. I cannot understand how anyone could treat another human being the way the people in these camps were treated. I have completely lost my appetite as I type this and recall my experience of visiting Auschwitz.
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zeeshan
non-member comment
Hmmm
Can you add some pics too? My blogs: http://www.blogger.com/profile/10302084782616940942