Our breakfast was awesome but was rushed and we felt bad. We were supposed to meet Richard at 8:30 for the bus and we would be on a tight schedule since it took 90 minutes to get there and the tour began at 10:30. We went to the same place we went for lunch the first day (which was slow for lunch), Black Kale. We figured since we got there WHEN they opened it would be quicker. Not so….we finally got our chocolate peanut butter smoothie bowl at 8:25 and had to eat quickly. I had JUST asked about getting it to go and that didn’t go over very well. And we felt bad. But it was delicious. I got a ginger shot to start off … it was strong and burned my throat a little, as straight ginger does, but actually was pretty good at cleansing my mouth. It is supposed to be good for the throat, etc
The trip to Auschwitz was nice. I didn’t know what to expect more than what I knew from visiting Mauthausen the last couple years. But I did have a nice conversation with Richard about EVERYTHING. He is a neat guy.
But how do I adequately write about Auschwitz? It was HUGE, to say the very least. We had a personal guide, Lucas, that was very passionate and helpful. It looked MUCH different than Mauthausen — brick buildings and just a lot more area. I learned there were more than a million Jews that went through Auschwitz. As I re read the book by Frankl, I learned that Auschwitz was associated with being HORRIBLE — gas chambers, crematoriums, and massacres. All of those were also at Mauthausen. However, the video I came across where two survivors of Auschwitz said that Auschwitz was heaven compared to Mauthausen. I had no idea how to feel or how to relate, or compare, the two. So on I walked, often staying back and taking pics of my own. I did like that we had head sets so we didn’t HAVE TO be close to the guide to still hear all he was saying. That was nice.
To put into words Auschwitz would be difficult at least, an incomplete representation at most. And so I hesitate to even try, but I will lay out the tour and some of my feelings, knowing it will be lacking the depth of reality.
Upon entering, we passed under a sign - Arbeit macho frei (work sets you free). Chilling considering so many died at Auschwitz. Having been to Mauthausen a couple times, most rooms were no big deal ... similar in nature. However, we then began to see things and places that made it all real. Rooms with TONS of pots and pans, brushes and combs, luggage, etc. It made me sad that they brought their luggage filled with their most prized possessions, thinking they would be returning...only to have them stolen by the Nazis and then killed. Their small suitcases still bore their name and address. And then there were the shoes....huge masses of many many pair of shoes. But it was the room with hair got me most. It was a part of THEM, the people. It wasn’t an object, it was a piece of their being. The sheer amount left was enough to chill my bones. So many people murdered. And yet, the hair was only a fraction of the total. The Nazis found ways to sell it to make things. It was crazy and horrific!!!
The pics of the prisoners (they did that to regulate and do everything by the book) were difficult for me….I almost couldn’t look at those that had endured such inhuman conditions. And not even for me, for anyone. But to see would make it real, more real! Yet I looked.
Birkenau - WAS HUGE .... VAST to say the very least. The guide mentioned that 200,000 prisoners were set, yet only 2 of the 4 camps were finished, and thus only 90,000 prisoners. Those 4 sections that the prisoners built (I thought of Frankl and what ditched he had actually dug, what sick bay had actually been his duty)
Only 2 were competed before the end of the war …. yet 90,000 prisoners were there, MORE than Conway plus a half!!! Most housing units had been destroyed by the Soviets who took the timber only leaving chimneys, but the ones we entered were similar, yet smaller, than in Mauthausen.
To see the crumbled HUGE gas chambers was bone chilling...to hear HOW they got that many people into them was even worse (putting children in first, then youth, then the elderly, women, and last of all the strong men who could push them in and get the most amount of people there. We stood in the place that many many people undressed thinking they were going to the showers. The Nazi’s had even gone so far as to label it a water closet and put shower heads on the wall to fool them. All that planning in such a horrific mass murder scheme….where hundreds of thousands of Jews, and others were gassed then burned. They built more so they could get rid of the bodies faster. It was sickening.
But I think the sick bay struck me most — still with three layers of slats to be used a beds for the ill to lay there and wait to die. Had Frankl been here/there. This was a chilling sombre place, to be sure. I leaned an arm on the bed of someone that had lost his/her life at the very spot. This was heavy.
Lucas (our guide) was good. A few of his comments have left me pondering - a pondering that will not be short, but will return to my consciousness time and time again. A few include
Remembering
Nobody did anything — hardest of all - I think I will ponder and process this statement most of all!
Don’t believe everything you read, propaganda
Things haven’t changed that much
War is a lucrative business - Nestle, etc ….. still having much made in China for cheap labor. Is it that different?
Consider ourselves lucky and live so that this never happens again.
We took some time to process together as a group when we got back to Ostrava. This was a good time. We invited Matthew as well and he gave interesting comments and points of view also. How is it living in the shadow of such a place? He didn’t even know about it til 5th grade when they would study about it in school. I wonder how the older folks years ago felt. Let’s say in 1950 under communist rule? Or in the early 1990s when the revolution took place? To my comment of not believing we did NOTHING many comments were made….appalled type feelings, and yet Matthew’s struck me deepest….we didn’t get involved until Pearl Harbor (when we were actually attacked). This is still difficult for me to digest. Surely we thought about it, planned something, but maybe our initial aid didn’t come til later??? While talking to Natalie she remembers that some Americans signed up to fight with another country’s military so they COULD be involved with the good guys. I don’t know. A lot to process still for me.
The girls hung out with Matthew, which was wonderful, and Natalie and I walked around the city a little then went back to the same place for dinner from last night. Our potatoe pancake was spicier than the night before and HUGE. We both didn’t finish, probably could have shared one. But it was scrumptious — too spicy for Natalie, so she gave me her left overs! (Which I will gladly take :)
When we returned there was no stand up comedy, but no airflow either ;) We opened the window and it was actually cooler than the previous night. Because we were home earlier, it was pretty quiet outside our window, but along about the time we decided to lay down, a great Tom Cruise shoot ‘em up, blow ‘em up movie began. And it was LOUD….loud enough to shake our windows and bed. I couldn’t believe it….not just LOUD, it was horrible. But we managed somehow. The ear plugs Natalie got did NOTHING to block the sound, even less than my earbuds. I was able to upload another blog — I write them on a google doc, and when I have WiFi I add pics and post them. I’ll try to add pics today while on the train too (we are actually on our way back to Vienna now … a 3 hour train, ample time to write).
