We slept in a little bit as we didn’t have any morning obligations. In fact, we went out for a proper breakfast at a nearby café which was big doings. Afterward, we walked around the old town, getting tchotchkes as we went. We also got more and more annoyed with the crowds the longer we were out, and eventually just went back to our apartment.
I’m beginning to think that Poland’s very low covid numbers are a lie. While stores and other establishments have signs asking for people to wear masks, it doesn’t appear that anyone actually cares. It’s a difficult transition especially when coming from nearby Slovakia, where we had to have masks on in all indoor establishments, or Austria where our vaccination cards were our literal ticket to fun.
We had reserved a 530pm slot at Auschwitz. These slots would normally disappear months in advance, but on account of aforementioned pandemic, they’re a little bit easier to come by. We elected to do a non-guided option since we already dislike a crowd and felt that the nature of the experience required more solitary reflection.
The tour groups end around the time we arrived, but there were still a good number of people at the camp. We began at Auschwitz I, the smaller of the two adjacent camps. It has essentially been converted into a museum with exhibits being housed within the barracks. I would honestly have preferred that the museum talk more about the specifics of the camp rather than cover the more general topics of the Poles during the war etc. That being said, there was no shortage of shocking information.
The atrocities of the holocaust are beyond comprehension, and I continue to find it difficult to quantify in my mind. The museum at Auschwitz attempted to give some context with rooms that were filled with the possessions of the victims. In one room, there was simply a massive pile of women’s hair. In another, a pile of used canisters of Zyklon-B, the chemical used in the gas chambers. Each canister was responsible for killing hundreds at a time. Another room was filled with unreturned suitcases, another with artificial limbs. Lastly a massive room filled with shoes, a staple of holocaust museums, and something that will always be eerie.
Other barracks were devoted to country-specific victims. I took the picture above in the Netherlands barrack. What appears to be just grey slabs on the wall are actually the names of just the Dutch victims written in very small font. Not all the panels fit in my shot, but it again gives some perspective on the massive scale of the atrocities.
We walked by the courtyard where the SS soldiers would execute prisoners. Thousands were shot at the far wall, and walking into the courtyard was unsettling for me. Nearby, various cruel experiments were conducted on prisoners. The amount of evil is just beyond comprehension.
Auschwitz I seemed large, but nothing really prepared us for our visit to Birkenau, or Auschwitz II. It was a massive sprawling complex. We entered next to the railroad tracks underneath the iconic tower that was often the last thing the victims would see before being herded away to their death. From exiting the train and being “sorted”, many would be dead within hours.
As self-guided visitors, the site wouldn’t admit anyone after a certain point, but we were allowed to stay until 830p. The sun was already behind some overcast clouds and it was creating a rather depressing mood over the site. While we allowed ourselves over an hour at Birkenau, we discovered it was not enough. We spent our time in only 1/4 of the camp, as we didn’t want to be locked in as everyone left. That would be something that nightmares are made of.
I always assumed that the barracks at these camps were burned to the ground due to concerns over typhoid or other diseases, and that anything standing was reconstructed. That assumption was incorrect. As it turns out, there are several original barracks. We went into one that housed mostly children and could still see their art on the walls. As it was getting dark, and Nicole and I were the only ones inside, an extra layer of discomfort was added to the experience.
As it approached 820p, we headed for the exit to make sure we were out in time. The sheer size of the complex prevented us from seeing everything even though we gave ourselves a fair amount of time. There’s no way the tour groups can see it all. It’s just too big.
It takes more than an hour to drive from Auschwitz to central Krakow, and it was quite late when we arrived. We found ourselves eating dinner at 10pm, but we weren’t the only ones. We found a Polish restaurant near our apartment that offered a nice setting in a back patio under strung lights. Nicole had some pierogis and I had a traditional Polish soup with kielbasa and egg served inside a bread bowl. We also had a side of potatoes because Polish people can’t get enough of potatoes.
Tomorrow is somewhat up in the air, but it will be our last full day in Poland. We have scheduled covid tests at the airport tomorrow around noon, and we will see where the day takes us from there.
passports & pepto bismol 