Krakow, Poland: (19 pictures) – Day 23


Auschwitz - I mainly wanted to visit Poland to see Auschwitz.  I rode a bus for 40 miles from the train station in Krakow to get to the isolated concentration camp.  Auschwitz is actually divided into two concentration camps, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau.  This is the first one.



Main Gate at Auschwitz -  The sign above this gate is very ironic because it translates to "Work Makes You Free".  And of course that wasn't true for the thousands of prisoners who were marched through this gate after 12 hours or more of slave labor each day.


Human Hair from Auschwitz - This is the most disturbing picture from my whole trip.  The quality isn't very good, but what you can see is 100,000 pounds of human hair that was remaining when everybody left Auschwitz.  This is only a tiny percent of what they originally had though because the Germans usually sold all the hair they gathered.  Besides this exhibit, Auschwitz had rooms totally filled with shoes, hairbrushes, suitcases, and eyeglasses, all left over from people in the concentration camps.


The Execution Wall - The "Wall of Death" in this courtyard marks the location where thousands of prisoners were shot to death for crimes ranging from working too slowly to pulling out their own gold teeth to exchange for bread.  The building on the right is the prison within a prison where those people who had commited crimes and were not shot right away were locked up.


Crematorium -  Auschwitz I only had one crematorium, but it could process 350 bodies per day.  The building is original, but the ovens were rebuilt using the same original German elements.


Auschwitz - Auschwitz I still has most of the original buildings remaining.  They are all open now and part of the museum.  Most of them are dedicated to individual countries who lost a great number of their people to concentration camps, but the museum is very moving and powerful.


Birkenau Watch Tower - Birkenau is the larger of the two concentration camps.  It's about two miles away from the Auschwitz I and was built in 1942 when the original was being overwhelmed by prisoners.  The Nazis developed a much more efficient means of mass extermination at Birkenau by building four crematoriums and gas chambers.  Sometimes this still wasn't enough though as they would have to hold huge outdoor bonfires to get rid of all the extra bodies.  Altogether about one and a half million people are estimated to have died at the two Auschwitz concentration camps.


Birkenau from Watch Tower - Birkenau was much larger than Auschwitz I.  It contained over 300 buildings and the total number of prisoners reached a maximum of about 100,000 at a time.  Most of the buildings are now destroyed, but you can still see the chimneys from each in the background, giving an idea of just how big the camp was.  The buildings in the front are some of the remaining barracks where up to 1,000 people would be crammed into horrible living conditions.


Birkenau from Watch Tower - This picture shows the unloading docks at Birkenau (where the train tracks are separated).  This is where the prisoners were sorted out into the 25 percent who were fit to work, and the 75 percent who were sent directly to the gas chambers to be murdered.


Latrines at Birkenau - These are the toilets at Birkenau.  Prisoners would only be allowed to come here twice a day and could be killed for relieving themselves during working hours, making it difficult, especially for those people who were very sick.


Ruins of Birkenau Gas Chamber and Crematorium - All four of the crematoriums and gas chambers at Birkenau were blown up by the retreating Germans in an attempt to hide their crimes.  This is just one of them.


Auschwitz Memorial - This was built in Birkenau in 1967.  It's not really that special of a memorial considering how many people died here.  Near this monument there is a pond that is still gray from the ashes deposited there fifty years ago.


Wawel Castle Grounds - On a much lighter note, after visiting Auschwitz, I returned by bus to Krakow and walked around the city for a while.  This is a pretty building and garden area built inside the Wawel castle grounds.


Wawel Castle -  This is the actual castle itself.  It was closed by the time I got there, but I was still able to walk all around the grounds.  Most of the castle is over 1,000 years old.


Krakow from Wawel Castle - This view must have looked better when I was standing there, but this is part of modern Krakow.


Wawel Castle - Here is another picture of the castle as I was walking across a bridge over the river.


Rynek Glowny (Old Town) - This is supposedly the largest square in Europe.  The building on the left is actually right in the middle of the square and it continues on the other side.  The building on the right is St. Mary's Church.


Torture Museum - At the beginning of my day in Krakow I exchanged only twenty US dollars.  I seriously had trouble spending it all in one day because everything was so cheap in Poland.  I wasn't hungry anymore and I had already bought my postcards, so I used up my last remaining dollar and a half to visit this incredibly lame torture museum.


Barbakan and Florianska Gate - This area was near the train station and is the only remnants of the the city's medieval fortifications.  It was the old entrance to the city and still has a small section of the original city walls.

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