"The destruction of Poland is of upmost importance..Danzig is not the object of question. The object is the expansion of Lebensraum for Germans in the East. There can be no question of sparing Poland, and that is why we stand on our decision to attack Poland at the first opportunity"
- Adolf Hitler
As tourists from all over the world traipsed through these haunted grounds, sullen and shocked faces emerged from each place of memorial. I've never seen so many depressed travellers in one place!
On arrival, a grainy documentary is shown in a tiny cinema. This footage was the most disturbing I had ever seen from the Holocaust, so many testimonials, so many deaths, so much sadistic crap that went on in such a short space of time. It was horrifying!
Whilst wandering the grounds, you are absolutely bombarded by hundreds of photographs of the dead, or who are just about to die, room upon room full of shoes, old luggage and baby's clothes, quotations, newspaper clippings, how other countries were involved and places where multiple deaths occurred in the sickest manner.
It's utterly relentless.
I felt like I had been kicked in the guts, numbed and unable to comprehend the absolute magnitude of what happened, and how it happened only half a decade ago..
All four of my grandparents were Poles trying to survive the holocaust and just managed. My mother's mum was only 14, oldest of eight, when she was sent to a German labour camp for four gruelling years, only to return to find most of her family gone. This is the only information I've been able to squeeze out, as she has completely blocked it out, understandably. Due to this family history, I've always wanted to visit this place.
Most of the inside of the building's have been converted into shrines of rememberence, one after the other..
The welcome sign reading 'Arbeit Macht Frei' translated: 'Work liberates, sets you free'. If the prisoners had no capability to work, they were immediately sent to their deaths.
The door where the prisoners were ushered to be gassed.
The wall where mass executions took place. When my other Grandma saw these photo's she exclaimed "Oh, I went to Auschwitz a year after it all happened, and in this place, the whole floor was covered in blood!" She was only 16.
Birkenau, the place where the barracks were and prisoners kept, housed like chickens in extremely cramped and brutal conditions. It goes on for ages.
Truly disgusting. I'll never forget this day.
After we finished (4 or so hours later!!), we headed to Krakow for a much needed stiff drink.
I love Krakowia, I could live here. It reminds me a little of Melbourne (They have trams!) and it has so many nooks, hidden bars and beautiful architecture.
There's even a dragon! Smoke usually bellows out of him, but we got no love..
We stayed at the Tutti Frutti hostel in the centre of it all. The 'party planner' was an Aussie guy who has been living and working in Poland illegally for 6 months and had the cops after him, court summons and everything! He's probably been deported and banned from the country as I write this, silly, silly boy..He took us out anyway!
We went to all these fantastic bars, sampled copious shots and I managed to lose my jumper but, miraculously, not my camera, even though it was stuffed in my jeans pocket for the entire night. Of course some other Aussie's came along on the pub crawl, you can't escape 'em really..
By the wee hours, I was hammered and giddy and passed out in my top bunk with a drunken smile on my face.
Aaaah, Krakow! I shall visit thee again!
As soon as I jolted out of bed in the morn, we had to make a move to our next destination, with seven long hours of driving ahead. We didn't make it very far when I yelled "Stop! I'm gonna vomit!" and there, on the Polish highway, I had my first O.S spew. Lovely.
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