9/5/19-9/6/19 Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau Poland

The weather was changing when we left lovely Warsaw for our five hour drive to Krakow or Crakow as the Poles spell it.

The drive was easy, new four lane highways then, two lane roads running through a city. Welcome to Poland. We checked into our Airbnb, very basic, but clean and functional with safe secure parking underground for the trusty Peugeot. The Airbnb in Warsaw was awesome, one of the best, so far!

After moving in, we went for a walk around the neighborhood, lots of high rise apartments with young families and lots of little kids. Very safe and surprisingly quiet at night. We found the Tram stop about 1/2 mile away, so we are ready to explore Krakow, one of Rick Steves favorite city’s.

But first we get up bright and early on Friday and drive one and a half hours to the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

We reserved tickets for the English speaking tour in June as they offer very few English guided tours. Had a little trouble finding the parking lot, but a nice polish police officer drove up and guided us to the parking lot, even giving us a map. I told ya the police officers love Cindy 😜

The check in was a little disorganized, but we overcame and watched a short movie while we waited. Then our tour started. A very nice polish woman was our guide and her English was excellent, however, her passion about the camps was even higher.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures. I wanted to respect the over one million people who were murdered in this area. However, I again would like to share some facts about Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Entry into Auschwitz

Auschwitz 1 was established in 1940 as a political prison. It grew to over 40 camps and factories before it was liberated by the Russians in 1945. The exact number of people killed at the 40 camps and factories is unknown, but estimates range from 1.3 million to over 2 million in these camps alone! The prisoner’s worked 11 hour days and stood at roll call for hours on less than 300 calories a day. It was hell on earth. They were beaten, hanged, shot and starved to death before the Nazis came up with the idea of killing by poison gas.

Birkenau

In 1942, the Nazis began what they called “the final solution to the Jewish question” and the death camp Birkenau was opened. It was truly only a camp to kill people. The trains delivered Jews from across Europe directly to Birkenau and they were gassed and killed less than one hour after arrival. Thousands were killed daily, families were torn apart on arrival, some killed, some sent to work until they died. It makes you numb to hear the truth. People who were too sick to work were sent to building to die as the Nazis didn’t want to waste gas on them. They suffered horribly until they died.

The Soviet army liberated the camps in 1945. The main group of prisoners had been forced marched West as the Red Army approached and the majority died on the Death Marches. The few remaining prisoners in the camps mostly died when the Red Army liberated the camp as they were to weak to survive.

90% of all prisoners who entered Auschwitz camps died! It’s that mind numbing.

The tour is heart wrenching and disgusting at the same time. It’s a very hard 4 hours but we must remember the past. Hundreds of high school age kids were taking the tour, we must never forget that these monstrosity’s happened. It’s hard to believe, but there are people in the world and country’s in the world who deny that the Holocaust happened. We can’t let this happen, please read history and don’t let sick people try and change the past.

We must remember what happened in the past, so it will never happen again!