Tried drafting this entry once... and felt that I can't help trivializing this entry of gravity with the small details I can't resist including... so... I shall do away with the smaller events or impressions first:
Sth worth mentioning is that the person who runs AQQ hostel is really nice... he helped us check out all possible means of getting to Auschwitz camp (which is located in Oświęcim - read: ors-vien-chim - sth like that...) on the internet when we asked. He even called up PKP railway to check out train timings and prices...
[Oh! He sleeps in a room with a working desk equipped with a PC, a printer, a NETS reader etc, a sink in the corner and a half sized single bed mattress in a corner. Minimalist living? =P I wanted so much to get a picture of his room... but guess that's kind of rude.. hm?]
After some amount of research and a little enquiry on our part from our really nice room mate, we decided on the 9.15am train to Oświęcim. =)
She fears the heat and the chill... and frequently underestimates the weather - here's twin. haha e same one who wore a spag strap and just a jacket and then started shivering last night on the streets... (Mutual friend A (u know who u are...), pls talk 2 her abt this... I'm tired of nagging) and in e warmth of the train, the layers won't stay on her.
Counter @ Oświęcim station - vacated some few minutes ago, the lady in there left after we confused her with our enquiries about train tickets back to Krakow Główny. Oh yeah, lesson from previous trips: always secure your return tix 1st thing... if you dont want to risk having to stay at wherever you are and don't want to be at overnight =)
(The railway station)
We werent lost for long - pretty soon, someone else sold us the train tix... Return tix: 3.45pm, next train was at 8pm! We weren't going to risk that... even if Carlin had recommended the restaurant opposite the station for cheap and good food and beer. =P
Before we get a little more serious... we spotted chickens or sth around... twin was hopeful for an egg to be laid... but she should now know there's no such thing as a free lunch - or egg for that matter.. so her dream continues =)
p/s. yeah i know it's highly inappropriate to keep punctuating e entry w sidetracks - but we both got hungry at this point and went 2 e kitchen to get tuna & bread. Marked.
Wry humor in the form of grafitti outside a military camp enroute to Auschwitz I.
Soaked and dishevelled.
All right... entry starts proper here...
Our itinerary for the day, as have been previous revealed, is the site that might well be the largest cemetry in the world, home to countless dead in the brutal genocide that was somehow allowed to take place unchecked, just a little more than 50 years ago.
Did I forget to mention that it's a cold, gloomy and rainy day out there... Yeah so that was how the weather was... and I guess, given the destination, the weather is perhaps appropriate... but as we suffered in the cold, we can't help thinking the gloomy weather was totally uncalled for... Not that we could do much about it.
We stumbled upon the way to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) while looking for Auschwitz I. FYI, Auschwitz wasn't a single camp. It was further divided into Auschwitz I - the nucleus of sorts, Auschwitz II (Birkenau - Extermination camp) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz - Labor camp).
I'm gonna get the pictures out of the way before delving into detail...
From this point onwards, I shall refer to the victims of this atrocity as 'prisoners' of the camps; but this word shall only mean that they were imprisoned against their will and were robbed of their freedom, dignity and anything that meant anything to them.
Aerial map of the camps - taken by the Allies
An appropriately bleak picture of the camp with its fences that had high electricity voltages running through them. It was said that when prisoners got desperate enough, some of them ran up against the fences to commit suicide..
A ditch in the camp. Countless bodies were found in each of the ditches - revealing what killed the prisoners when the cold, the lack of hygiene, illness, torture, gassing, sadistic medical experiments etc did not: hunger. Many died, famished, too tired to move.. piled up against others sharing the same fates, dying and dead...
One of the 'cells'. There were metal rings along the bars running along the thin walls of the place; undoubtedly to secure the shackles of some prisoners to.
One of the famous incinerators within the camp, used to cremate millions who died in the camp. These, along with the gas chambers (in which many were killed with the cyanide gas - Zyklon B) were hastily destroyed by the Nazis as they saw the end of the war nearing.
The tracks leading up to the camp. The Death Railway ran along these tracks - on which, some, deported, knew nothing of the fate that awaits them... all of them were tumbled out of the trains that took them here... at that point, they were stripped of their identities as they were made to stand in lines and then got separated into classifications that went along the lines of "ill, too young or old to be of any use to the captors", "able to work", "jews" etc. Those able to work, will be utilized beyond humanity, others, recognized to be of no economic value, are exterminated promptly.
A memorial for those who died in the camp...
The plague reads:
"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe"
I think it speaks for itself.
This sculpture was found in the information centre at Auschwitz I - which happens to be the camp with more information in the form of photos and captions exhibited in the bunkers.
The sculpture is called "Before the Sun Rose". Recognizing the taller structure as the post to which prisoners are tied to as a normal sort of punishment for the smallest thing - or even nothing at all... I think interpretation of the sculpture should be left open..
The entrance to Auschwitz I - the sign reads “Arbeit Macht Frei”, or “work (will) make (you) free.” Irony at its best really. Each day, the prisoners would be marched to the beat of the orchestra, out of the camp, where they will be set to work in the worst of conditions... till death claims them.
Dark pictures above. This is from the exhibition in just one of the bunkers that we barely had time for. The invasion of Poland for the expansion of German territory marks the beginning of the second world war. To achieve a legitimate start of sorts, Hitler was quoted to have engineered the war - by creating a cause for it.
The Polish army put up a good fight, but was sadly outnumbered in almost every aspect that determines the victory or defeat of an army in a war.
Picture Left, Bottom shows a panel for each camp set up by the Nazis to house their Prisoners of War.
Picture Right, Bottom shows an example of Germanization where street names are altered along with signs.
The Nazis wanted to clear a space for their countrymen whom they believe to be the only Aryan species. To do that, they had to invade others and clear the space of the unwanted inhabitants... immediate death would seem like a waste... so they found ways to recycle the lives they didn't want; experiments on sterilization, on diseases, on bacteria, work etc. They even shaved the heads of all the females and collected those hair in sacks where they are used in the manufacturing of products in Germany.
Schools are closed. Education only taught submission to the superiority of the Nazis. Everything that had to do with Polish roots and origins is obliterated. In the words of the Nazis, "The Polish Nation can no longer be allowed to wear the name of a cultural nation in the community of Europe. Its existence is cancelled."
A 15 min long documentary shown in the theatre in the information centre of Auschwitz I recounted tales of inhumane experiments - sacrificing many in order to further medical knowledge for the Aryan race, the few who saw liberation, many more who didn't, and the irreparable damage done to those who lived to tell their stories... of frostbitten feet and dreadful scars...
Having visited the site, seen the evidence, watched the documentaries, heard the horror stories, read the recounts of those who suffered and trampled on the grounds that the victims did walk on, it is still difficult to imagine that mankind is capable of such acts against another human being. I half wish - with more than a little grim sadism, that the Nazi doctors cut open the brains of Hitler & other main engineers of this dreadful crime against humanity, and see if they are rotten from the core.
It was in deep thought we left the place that evening. Some lessons in history should never be forgotten. Never again, should lives be allowed to be trivialized in such a manner.
I'd leave the events of the rest of the evening to another entry.
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