After breakfast I rode with a group of strangers to Auschwitz. The trip took about an hour and 15 minutes. On the way we watched a documentary about the Soviet filmmaker Soldier tasked with recording the events of liberating the Auschwitz concentration camp. At times the documentary was disturbing. I found myself looking out the window imagining brighter things outside. There are no Interstate or Autobahn highways to Auschwitz. Instead the trip took us through many small towns and villages with roundabouts. Also we got to see a large portion of farmland and forested areas. at times I forgot that I was in Poland and instead thought I might have been in America.

Auschwitz is a very busy place. There Are Tour groups going in and out at all times seemingly. And this isn’t even the busy season. We met our tour guide who reminded me of an old co-worker in looks and in dress. I was unable to take my backpack so I struggled with keeping all of my cameras ready and able to take photographs. We had to put our accessories through a metal detector before we entered. I can understand this as there are some Holocaust deniers there who might cause harm to the park.

We saw the famous gate with “Arbeit Macht Frei” that is “work makes free” over the top of the entrance. As it turns out Auschwitz was a former military base which was turned into a death camp. I had been to Dachau Concentration Camp before in 2010 so I sort of knew what to expect. How were the buildings at Auschwitz were more permanent than at Dachau. I would have to assume that the bricked military base buildings for built to stand much longer than the Dachau Concentration Camp buildings which were basically wooden barns.

Throughout the tour I kept thinking to myself how did the German leadership convince thousands of Germans to believe that the Jews were evil in must be exterminated. A typical German military official probably would not be concerned with the Jews. Was he just following orders? Did he have some type of brainwashing that made him think that Exterminating people in such a flippant manner was okay? Somehow I’ve got to believe that these people became numb to the killing around them. Someone doesn’t just wake up and hate people. Instead they are taught to hate through indoctrination. So in a sense if you believe a lie long enough then you will do extraordinarily terrible things to human beings.

Large-scale killings by governments have been done before. We read about it in the Bible. What makes this situation different is that it happened on such a large scale and in Fairly modern times. These times we thought were supposed to be in a sense more humane. But the Holocaust proved everyone wrong. It proved how cruel we can be to a fellow human being, an entire race.

I found that the Germans would cut the hair from corpses and use them to make socks for soldiers. How creepy is this? I for one would not be wearing any socks from hair from a human being.

I also found out that the Germans would have the prisoners write to their next of kin on postcards describing how beautiful Auschwitz was and how they should come to Auschwitz. This seems like a cruel joke but somehow the Nazis thought it was okay.

Throughout the tour I was wondering how are tour guide could emotionally do this all the time. She described death in a very blunt manner without sugar coating it. She used words and phrases that I would look for in a very blunt documentary about Auschwitz. It didn’t necessarily seem like a canned speech. Honestly I couldn’t tell if she ever verred off topic. I told her later on that I felt that she did a good job and appreciated her leading the tour even though it is a very difficult subject, but a subject that needed to be heard.

I told myself I would take a photo of anyone trying to shoot a selfie within Auschwitz. But none could be found. Sure you would have an occasional person go and stand beside a Memorial to get there spouse or friend to take a photo of them. Those types of photos are okay I guess but I’m not so sure I would necessarily want to be posing beside a crematorium.
They’re actually two camps to Auschwitz, that is Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II. The latter of the camps is mostly outside with decaying ruins. Seems the Germans tried to extinguish any trace of the crematorium before the Red Army arrived. The whole time we were in the second camp it looked like that it might rain at any moment and yet the sun was out. This is kind of been a theme to my Polish trip. Ever since I got to Warsaw the weather has been cloudy or even rainy. This dreariness has reminded me of Poland’s Troublesome past, with being partitioned in World War II, hosting a concentration camp, and being under the subjection of communism. I’m hoping for brighter days for Poland both meteorologically and figuratively.

Auschwitz was a difficult pill to swallow. It’s one of those places that you should visit once but you don’t really have a reason to go back. It’s terrible, mind-blowing, and disgusting. But the story must be told so that we do not repeat it. In other words treat those who are different than yourself with a sense of respect.

I made it back to Krakow at around 5 p.m. I had supper at cyclop pizza place which was recommended by Rick Steves. However as most pizza places go in Europe it turns out it’s just cheese on a cracker with very little tomato sauce. I was disappointed.

As luck would have it they were having a classic car show in the Market Square. I love taking photos of old cars in unusual settings. I managed to get several pictures of race cars and classic cars in front of Krakow landmarks like st. Mary’s Church and the old City Hall Tower. I could have spent all day taking photos of old cars but unfortunately people kept on getting in the way of the photos.

Tomorrow fly back to the United States. In some ways I think I spent a couple of days too long in Europe as I’ve been longing to get back. Walking around for so many days can be difficult and tiring. So tomorrow I will pack up all my stuff and head toward the airport probably via train. It’ll be a long day and I’ll be glad to get to my own bed tomorrow night.