German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945)
I took a guided tour through Auschwitz I & II and while it was informative, I think I may have preferred to go at my own pace. There was a film we watched on the bus on the way to Auschwitz that said so much of what the guide did, so it seemed a little repetitive and I would have liked to have time to explore and read exhibits in many of the buildings we didn't get to see. But if you are unfamiliar with the region, history, or the camps, I do suggest the guided tour.
It wasn't exactly what I expected, having only seen the camps through archival photos, documentaries, and Hollywood movies. It is much nicer than it would have been then, and in the absence of the victims or the conditions of the prisoners, it seems sanitized. The pushing of large groups through, one after another, also takes some of the power away.
Luckily, I found moments of quiet and peace to reflect on the grounds away from the crowds.
I found some of the exhibits very moving, and others fell a little flat in the way they were so distanced and organized.
One of the scariest and most emotional was within one of the Auschwitz I buildings that had recordings of the Nazis blaring through speakers, along with archival video of these speeches. It was eerie and the closest an immersive experience I had during the tour. It made me cry, especially right after the previous exhibits which were about life before Nazi occupation, and the terrifying similarities of those speeches to what we hear again now, in many cultures all over the world.
The real photos plastered all over the walls was another very affecting part of the tour.
The sheer scope of Auschwitz II-Birkenau was humbling and horrifying all at once.
Another experience was that when you're standing within the fences in Auschwitz I, looking at all the security measures, you realise how impossible and futile it feels to think about escape. I've seen modern prisons, but something about these felt even more confining even if the technology was far less advanced.
When you're standing there, it's almost unbelievable and unimaginable what actually occurred on that very ground.
"Auschwitz concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Auschwitz, pronounced [kɔntsɛntʁaˈtsi̯oːnsˌlaːɡɐ ˈʔaʊʃvɪts]; also KL Auschwitz or KZ Auschwitz) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939)[3] during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (Stammlager) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labour camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps.[4] The camps became a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish question.
After Germany initiated World War II by invading Poland in September 1939, the Schutzstaffel (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a prisoner-of-war camp.[5] The initial transport of political detainees to Auschwitz consisted almost solely of Poles (for whom the camp was initially established). For the first two years, the majority of inmates were Polish.[6] In May 1940, German criminals brought to the camp as functionaries established the camp's reputation for sadism. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, and executed for the most trivial of reasons. The first gassings—of Soviet and Polish prisoners—took place in block 11 of Auschwitz I around August 1941.
Construction of Auschwitz II began the following month, and from 1942 until late 1944 freight trains delivered Jews from all over German-occupied Europe to its gas chambers. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million were murdered. The number of victims includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Romani, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 others.[7] Those not gassed were murdered via starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments.
At least 802 prisoners tried to escape, 144 successfully, and on 7 October 1944, two Sonderkommando units, consisting of prisoners who operated the gas chambers, launched an unsuccessful uprising. After the Holocaust ended, only 789 Schutzstaffel personnel (no more than 15 percent) ever stood trial.[8] Several were executed, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss. The Allies' failure to act on early reports of mass murder by bombing the camp or its railways remains controversial.
As the Soviet Red Army approached Auschwitz in January 1945, toward the end of the war, the SS sent most of the camp's population west on a death march to camps inside Germany and Austria. Soviet troops entered the camp on 27 January 1945, a day commemorated since 2005 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the decades after the war, survivors such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel wrote memoirs of their experiences, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. In 1947, Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Auschwitz is the site of the largest mass murder in a single location in history."
Tags: poland europe krakow kraków cracow eurotrip tourism tourist travel travel photography eastern europe pl eu history Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp museum nazism nazi world war ii jewish extermination camp world heritage site war genocide spring springtime architecture
Absolutely stunning cathedral. The detail is overwhelming.
Saint Mary's Basilica (Polish: Kościół Mariacki) is a Brick Gothic church adjacent to the Main Market Square in Kraków, Poland. Built in the 14th century, its foundations date back to the early 13th century and serve as one of the best examples of Polish Gothic architecture. Standing 80 m (262 ft) tall, it is particularly famous for its wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss (Wit Stwosz). Some of its monumental polychrome murals were designed by Poland's leading history painter, Jan Matejko (1838–1893). In 1978 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Historic Centre of Kraków.
Tags: poland europe krakow kraków cracow eurotrip tourism tourist travel travel photography eastern europe pl eu church cathedral basilica architecture religion worship art sculpture catholic spring springtime
These Ukrainian activists and protestors would be in Poland's main plaza day and night, begging for people to pay attention to the devastation occurring in their home country.
As it seems to have faded from mainstream media's radar, it is a reminder that nothing is over and Ukraine is still suffering.
Tags: poland europe krakow kraków cracow eurotrip tourism tourist travel travel photography eastern europe pl eu ukraine war protest anti-war russian occupation refugees people candid strangers street photography lifestyle spring springtime
Tags: poland europe krakow kraków cracow eurotrip tourism tourist travel travel photography eastern europe pl eu people candid strangers street photography lifestyle mother child playing market spring springtime
Tags: poland europe krakow kraków cracow eurotrip tourism tourist travel travel photography eastern europe pl eu night night photography low light spring springtime architecture