(Things kept reminding me this place should not be forgotten: A week ago, the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the camp; A week before the Christmas, the infamous “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” sign was stolen and Poland declared state of emergency.)
Auschwitz - a name I came across so many times from history books, television, and movies; a place so dark that many people still cannot bear to go back for a visit; a symbol that will remind us forever of a page human beings try to forget. It was a destination I had to include in my itinerary. So there I went, for a special day-visit, to a place I heard so much, but knew so little...
I was woken up a couple of time by the train conductor and polices for tickets and passport, and it was a bit chilly early in the morning, so it wasn’t quite a good sleep. I arrived in Krakow at around 7 in the morning, got some information for the tourist information office, stored my luggage at the train station, and went to the bus station right by the train station to catch the bus to Auschwitz. Poland was a real Eastern Europe feeling, the prices were low on most of the merchandises, cities were less modern, rules are less obeyed on the streets. I was trying to have a small breakfast and got a cake/bread like muffin. Unfortunately, it proved to be a wrong idea to buy the things you didn’t know - I threw out right away after the first bite. The trip from Krakow to Auschwitz was about an hour and a half on the highway in a bus van. The highway was more of a two line traffic with alternating passing part and frequent slowdowns by farm vehicles. It suddenly somehow felt like back in the rural side in China. The bus dropped us tourists off at the backdoor of the concentration camp museum. From there, there was nothing to be identified differently than another normal city park with beautiful trees and lawns. But once you entered the museum, it wasn’t hard to be reminded of where you were. The solemness was deafening. Several sculptures stood in the hallway. Historical photographs hung on the walls. Notification board told you this was not a place for any lightness. Almost immediately, my emotion turned horrific, my breathing became harder, and my heart started to feel it - like a time machine switched back to 65 years ago.
I joined an English guided tour because I wanted to learn as much as possible in the only day I had there. And I was lucky to have a guide of a middle-aged woman who was a school teacher hometown of Auschwitz. The entire day, she gave us a memorable lesson in a tone of a teacher telling an emotional hometown story to her students. The story was so vivid as she constantly used first-person tone and told us: “Remember, this is my hometown, only less than 2 kilometers from here...” The tour started with a documentary film as a general guideline to tell people what had happened there, seemed that people didn’t know about it. Then, we were led into the blocks of the concentration camp. First in sight, of course, was to pass through the notorious metal gate with the sign of “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” (“Work Makes You Free”). It was a symbol of the biggest political propaganda and the biggest lie in human history. Millions of victims were led to this gate in the hope of working hard for a better life. What they didn’t know was it was the gate to hell. It was only a gate of no more than 5 meters tall and 10 meters wide, but once you stepped in, it was a different world. You were surrounded by two rows of barracks with electric barbs on top. You were under the watch from every corner of security tower. You were into a process of not only to death, but of stripping of your dignity and humanity. That was probably what genocide and holocaust was about: death was only the way, extinction was the destination.
The well-known Auschwitz concentration camp was divided into several sections because of the expansion. The mostly known Auschwitz was more about Auschwitz I. The main camp was the much larger Auschwitz II-Birkenau a few kilometers away. Comparing to others, the original Auschwitz I was more of a “luxury hotel”. When the Nazis realized the complex in Auschwitz I was soon not big enough to host the rapid-growing numbers of prisoners, they started expanding the camp to other bigger properties. In order to accommodate all the prisoners they received, they had to shovel the maximum amount of people into the minimum amount of space; and they meant that. It became worse in the later camps they built. We were led into different blocks of buildings with different stories behind them. But the theme of the stories was the same: horrific. From the chemical/medical experiment the Nazis did using prisoners, to the little washroom where hundreds of people used at the same time, to the little corner of less than a square meter where 4 or 5 people had been kept in, to the “shower rooms”, to the crematorium facilities, to the death/execution wall, to the bunker beds (if you can call those beds), to ... ... It was suffocating to listen to the stories behind. Sad, anger, unbelievable, heart-breaking, soul-pulling, nightmare, ...... I could not think of a word, or any combination of words to describe my feeling. I could only watch, listen, and take. Digest would be a miracle. How could one human being treat another like that?! HOW? We went through different blocks, saw those photos of prisoners with their birth date, checked in dates and death dates on - some of them were months, some of them were days, some of them were elderlies, some of them were only teenagers. We saw those belongs stripped off right away when they entered the camp, including shoes, clothes, bags, personal gadgets, tools, so on, and... their hair, loads of it. It was no longer a history lesson, it became a gruesome life experience, a living nightmare. We spent about two and a half hours in Auschwitz I, learned so much about it, but knowing there were still a lot to learn. If the “luxury Auschwitz I” was that, what would be the real Birkenau like? After a brief lunch break, we rode a bus to Auschwitz II-Birkenau site. The area of the site was massive. Most of the buildings where prisoners stayed were already destroyed, but not the railway that brought so many Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and others. The towers of the main gate was still there, and the office/residence building for the Nazis camp officers. The way that railway line was built was ever fitting for the story that happened there: There was only one way in, not alternative ways out. The long straight lines of two iron tracks dragged my mind from the victims’ hometowns all the way to this one destination. It must have been a long journey filled with hopes and anticipation. Who knew where the end would be. By the time they got here in that crowded train, a few of them had already lost their lives. Maybe the alive should’ve wished they were dead before stepping down into the hell awaiting ahead of them. The pre-selection happened onsite immediately when they were unloaded from the train. The unusable ones would be sent to “shower” soon. The capable ones would enter the small cleaning facilities to be recorded into the camp. The living (if you can call that “live”) was to the extremes: usually 3 levels of bunker beds with straws as cushions, the people who lived on the top level would be the lucky ones because no proper sanitation facilities still existed in Birkenau buildings, so the ones staying in the bottom would have to survive the human feces from the folks above them. We walked along the train tracks all the way into the end where the memorial was established. Sometimes, when things cannot be explained, art is a way to express them. Our guide finished her duty with the story of her fellow town people from Auschwitz came out at the end of the war and learned what happened inside those walls (Yes, the people less than 2km away didn’t know the camp for a long time), then started to help free the victims with whatever they had and could offer. That was where our tour ended. I believe it was a proper ending as hope always exists: “When it’s dark enough, you can see the stars.” As I said at the beginning, we were very grateful to have a guide who had the passion so powerful to give us an unforgettable experience. We all thanked her with our most sincere applaud. My tour in the camp didn’t end there. With the time I had, I set on a journey around Birkenau by myself, trying to see more of it. I saw the destroyed crematorium facilities. I took pictures of the memorials around. I leaned against the fences and barb wires. I tried to put myself into what it was like there. Then, I went into the small building where the cleaning process happened when the prisoners entered the camp. There, I walked through the process of how the prisoners were “cleaned”. In the end, when there was nobody else in that building, I sat down, put myself into those pictures of victims and survivors.
It was a muggy day, but as a person who cannot stand heat, I didn’t realize how thirsty and how sweaty I was until I got back to Auschwitz I museum again. With a few last surveys on those striking photographies on the walls, I stepped onto the bus going back to Krakow. Since I still had plenty of time before my train, I had the opportunity to walk around the town. It was a beautiful city with a long history and well worth a stay. The Main Market Square was the largest medieval town square in Europe. Since it was already late afternoon and most of the places were closed, I decided to have a tourist style walking tour around the town. I entered from the Barbican and Florian Gate, took the Royal Route, through the town square, all the way up to the Wawel hill, where the Royal Castle was located. Obviously, the Polish Royals still reside there and the coronation happens inside as well. The Main Market Square was indeed large. There were a lot of churches, cathedrals, sculptures, historical sites around the Town Hall. I enjoyed some artists work and birds hovering above the towers of the churches. After coming down from the Wawel hill, I went on to the University Route. Krakow is known for its history, and academics of course played a big part in that. It has one of the oldest universities in Central Europe, second only to the Charles University in Prague. The most famous story had to be that Pope John Paul II graduated from there. The academic atmosphere was tremendous along the road. Old university buildings were surrounded by trees and parks everywhere. Pubs were right next by where students gathered and shared their ideas about dreams. A long detailed exhibition of Pope John Paul II legacy was in display along the route when I was there, so I had the chance to learn more about the noble man.
It was a long day and I finally realized I was tired when I sat down at the square in front the train station. At around 22:00, I finally boarded the return train to Prague. I found exactly the same cell I stayed in the night before coming to here, settled down, and trying to digest what just happened in that day.
first book author I had from; the only other time was from Bayern players. In the picture I took with him, I felt he was a giant looking down at me. Hopefully, one day I'll stand on his shoulder to follow some of his legacy. Also, he wrote to me in one of the notes he signed to me: "Shane, when your heart speaks, take good notes." That was one of the reasons I remembered I was not doing anything here again. Thanks, "Dr. Greg", I'll keep that in mind.