"Arbeit macht frei"- to be experienced in silence

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We woke up at 4.00am and left at 4.15am towards Stansted Airport for our 6.10am Ryan Air flight to Krakow- Poland. At this time of the morning I am not the most pleasant person and Cristina is unbelievably chirpy.

Her chirpiness and my early morning moodiness turned to frustration when Ryan Air decided to leave us at an airport which was more than 3.5 hours away by bus from Krakow. The diverted flight was made due to the plane being unable to land in fog !!! Now if a plane can fly 10,000 km through high cloud and rain- why can it not land through fog- better known as lower clouds??

We arrived in Krakow at 2pm and not at 10am as expected- we picked up our car and sped off to our hotel ready to pound the pavement in Krakow- Auschwitz had to be postponed to the next day.

Krakow is a beautiful city by day, well at lest the two hours of sunlight we had to look at it definitely impressed us. It contains the biggest medieval square in Europe- main market square. It is an impressive area dating back to the 13th century. The square contains St Mary’s Basilica the Cloth and the St Adalberts Church.
St Mary’s Basilica is particularly impressive. Dating from the 14th Century it contains a massive Gothic altar piece, made from wood, which is breath taking!

After more meandering, eating and drinking we decided to go to bed ready for an early day the next day to Auschwitz about 80km away.

Auschwitz is definitely a place everybody should go to- it will assist in solving a lot of the bullshit problems that are occurring in the world today.

The day was cloudy, rainy and miserable- exactly how you want to see Auschwitz! Auschwitz in actual fact is a ‘campus’ of concentration camps- Auschwitz 1, Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz).

(Un)naturally enough Auschwitz I came first and was actually a Polish Army camp, Oœwiêcim, prior to the Germans taking over it after they won a battle and changed its name to its more infamous version. The Germans decided to turn it into a mass killing machine, however, that was a process achieved through trial and error and calculated changes to make the camp more efficient to carry out the 'final solution'. This was led by Heinrich Himmler and Rudolf Hess. They introduced the gas chambers, they discovered that the gas Zyklon B was an efficient killer and also built a crematorium to dispose of the dead. The inefficiency of the crematorium was ultimately what led the Germans to build Birkenau. Birkenau was twice as big!

The irony of the "Arbeit macht frei" phrase over the entry, a German phrase meaning "work brings freedom" was not lost on anyone because if you were not gassed as soon as you arrived then you were killed slowly and painfully by over bearing work conditions and lack of food! This sign was erected over all their camps- the torture was also mental!!!

The figures tell it all- historians estimate that among the people sent to Auschwitz there were at least 1,100,000 Jews from all the countries of occupied Europe, over 140,000 Poles (mostly political prisoners), approximately 20,000 Gypsies from several European countries, over 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and over ten thousand prisoners of other nationalities. The majority of the Jewish deportees died in the gas chambers immediately after arrival.

Ultimately Rudolf Hess was hung at Auschwitz I and just meters from his family home which was also there! He was one of the few high ranking Nazi's who were made to pay for their crimes.

It was cold, it was wet, it was eerie, it was frightening, very sad and very moving. You could almost hear the walls murmurring what they had seen.

The experienced was in puresilence and was well worthwhile!

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Photos

Kraków Market Square
St Mary's Basilica in the background under fog

Kraków Market Square
Flower stalls

St. Mary's Basilica
wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss.

inside St Mary
Stone Jesus on the cross sculpture!!

St Mary's Basilica
wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss.

Cathedral
Brick Gothic church built in the 14th century,

Arbeit Macht Frei
Very Ironic

Auschwitz concentration camp
entrance "work brings freedom"

Auschwitz concentration camp
where they lined up prisoners before the Nazis fired their guns

Comments

[Claudia]

How depressing and sad (but worthwhile). I'm glad you got to visit a place that is historically so important. Can't wait to see you! xox

[cristina]

So sad...
It look very sad and cold, but a very important place to visit. The square in the city look nice but dark. Is only 17 days more... love you.

[Karina]

Speechless
This must have been one of the most amazing and terrible experiences of your time over in Europe. Thanks for writing the blogs- they have been wonderful. Can't wait to see you both. K xx

[Elizabeth Harding]

I believed that Rudolph Hess was imprisoned until 1986 in spandau prison, I was told this when I visited Berlin, and went on a tour. Rudolph Hoess was hung outside Auschwitz.