Day 3 - Auschwitz, Birkenau and Wadowice

Lost Yet Again - July 3, 2015

Up early without the alarm.  Ready to go after a self-induced fright of losing my charge card, driver's license, and other important cards I brought with me so this delayed our 7am departure to 7:20.  BTW (by the way), it had fallen out of my wallet onto the back seat when I threw my money back there.

Yup. We did it again!

We made turns and followed roads that ended up with no where to go. A bridge being replaced made us turn around, the GPS bit..-in-the-box rerouted us by making us go around our "elbow to get to our nose" and we arrived at Auschwitz at 9:15!  Oh yes, we of course had to stop at yet another gas station and get directions from yet another cute guy who knew "a little English".  They know more English than I do POLISH, that's for sure!  Thank goodness!

Arrival and parking were wonderful and close to the entrance of the "camp". We paid our 1 zl. and used the restroom before inquiring of the Information Hostess which line to get into. She pulled out her piece of a-little-larger-than-8x10 paper and proceeded to tell me that my day bag was too big to take inside. Ugh! Back to the car to stow it and grab a few things that I could carry in my pockets. Melodie's bag was Goldilocks! We went through the metal scanner and laid our items on the conveyor belt to gain entrance. We couldn't print our tickets so Melodie flashed them on her phone to show. Even though the tickets (and all exhibits at the Muzeum) are free, they control numbers inside the compound by requiring tickets. There were 189 available tickets for the 8am entrance when we "purchased" ours last night.  The tour groups were gathering so we skipped the emotional intro movie and headed straight out to The Gate!

Take note of the upside-down B that the prisoners put up as a sign of warning/resistance.

There isn't much I can say about Auschwitz I or Birkenau - Auschwitz II that you don't already know but that you have to see this to believe it. I was very stoic during our visit. I approached things with a teacher point-of-view and kept it clinical as I thought through photos I was taking for teaching or allowing social studies' teachers to borrow.  That is, until I saw the Book!  Four million names out of the six million who perished are listed and they continue to research others to be able to add them to the book.

It starts A-L on this side, rounds the back of the stand and ends back up across from A with Zs on the other side.

The sights that you see here are those you've been able to view online, on TV, or in books and be separate and apart without emotion. To be IN THE PLACE brings new meaning and emotional understanding of what took place here and the inhumanity to man.  Everyone should visit and reflect. 

No documentation that the Frank suitcase was from Anne's family.

German efficiency required separating and stockpiling each person's personal belongings. The prisoners did this task and called the two warehouses where the items were kept Canada I and Canada II because Canada was the richest country in their eyes.

The gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Adjacent to the gas chamber, the crematoria.

As I left the gas chamber exhibit, I placed my hand on the wall and great sadness washed over me again. The tears flowed and the horrors of this place came flooding in.  And then there was

Auschwitz II - Birk

The washroom and latrine barracks where clandestine plans were made and prisoners plotted because the Germans wouldn't enter here due to the stink and disease.

Birkenau was created just minutes from Auschwitz because the gas chamber and crematoria were too small to enact The Final Solution efficiently. With Auschwitz having a housing capacity of only 14,000, the Germans took over a nearby farm field and began construction on Birkenau to house 100,000 prisoners. They ordered prefab horse stalls for quick construction and you can still see the horse rings on the crossbar. At the time of liberation in January 1945, construction at Birkenau was still underway to increase the capacity to 200,000!

The gravel crossing road to this detraining area was the Dividing location. Men, women and children were separated and doctors took one quick look and pointed either right or left. Right meant that you would go directly to the gas chamber and left would mean you would be able to work and suffer a while longer before being sent. An example of a rail car used for transportation is on the right.

These 3-level bunks measure 26" high and 64" wide. Each level housed 4 people who had to sleep on their sides in order to fit. The newcomers got the floor which was just dirt in the 1940s.

Although we had walked and been on our feet for 6.5 hours, it was now 4:30 when we thought we'd be home by 3! We decided to take a chance and go to Wadowice, the birthplace of Pope John Paul II (Jana Pawlus II).

Yup!  We got lost again and the GPS was crap.  She DID get us finally to the main square after Melodie Googled a physical address that we could use! Good thing HER phone works to save the day yet again.

So we ended the day on an up note! The large, imposing, and beautifully appointed Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin was where he was baptized and raised in a two-room apartment home around the corner.

Little boy going to confession while an elderly man sits nearby.

The confessional, unlike in the U.S., has the penitent kneeling outside the box within earshot of someone in the pew.

And, of course, we couldn't leave without having tasted Kremówka papieska or Papal Cake was John Paul's favorite cream cake.  Sorry, Val, but if I get all this rich food out of the way early, I have time to walk it off and be good later. ;-)

And, once again, on our drive home, the bi...-in-the-box let us down.  Melodie had figured our next exit was the one but Miss GPS had us exit too early.  So instead of just doing a U-Turn, she drove us 3-4 miles in a big circle through houses on a narrow two-lane (and sometimes dirt) road. We now began to question her methods and logic. After getting back on the motorway, we missed out exit because the name and S7 roadway was wanted was crossed out on the road sign! Bad move! We drove another 8 miles out of our way with 4 miles of that in a bumper-to-bumper backup from a 3-car accident. Exited and got back on in the correct direction and turned the B off to follow our paper map.  

In our defense, the roadway signs only list the road name/number with no direction except going "to" a certain city. If you don't know in which direction the cities are located, you have a hard time making a quick decision until you consult a map. It's like having I75 "to" Ft. Myers or Ocala but not knowing where these are in the first place. Then add the language barrier and we're primed to add many more miles of travel to our touristy excursions.

Got home around 8:30p, blogging, and off to bed at 1am after a nice soak in the tub.

Off to Krakow tomorrow to walk The Royal Way with Rick Steves' book of directions and little-known facts to guide with us.  Taking in Wawel Castle and Cathedral, one of the holiest places in Poland. Then to Kazimierz (keh-SHEE-metz), the Jewish District for a cemetery tour and music festival on Szeroka Street...and, of course, more delicious ethnic food.

We won't be lost tomorrow.  We KNOW how to do the tram there and back.