Our most recent class trip took us just north of the Czech Republic to Krakow, Poland. This city had a ton of history in it surrounding World War II and the Shoah. After a few hours on the bus we arrived and got settled into our hostel. Our first stop on the excursion was to Schindler's Factory. Earlier that week we had finished watching Schindler's List so we could gain insight to some of the sites we would be visiting. I took a class solely based on the Shoah in high school so I was interested to see the place where these atrocities occurred. Schindler's Factory looked exactly as it did in the movie, almost untouched, the only thing missing was the sign above. In the window, there were pictures of the Schindler Jews as a tribute to those that he saved.
The factory overall was mostly a play by play of how the war began and the war efforts on both sides. However, there were sections depicting life in the ghettos for the Jews. I learned that the food allowances rationed out for each person was about 250-300 calories per person per day. This is clearly not adequate for a child, let alone a grown adult being exposed to harsh conditions and hard labor every day. The life in the ghettos was very crowded, and many times multiple families lived in the same room.
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The treatment of the Jews by the Nazi's in the ghettos was with unthinkable evil. Every day people were mistreated, tortured, humiliated and murdered for no reason. It is difficult to imagine the life these people endured when compared to my own today. It is hard to wrap my head around how human beings can be so cruel and heartless towards other human beings, and especially to innocent children.
"The horrible screams of the children come from the street, their cry for help to the disgusting guffaw of the amused Germans; they are throwing children out of the windows onto torries, sometimes they miss."
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This quote was made by Stella Müller, only 8 years old, who lived in the ghetto. It is sickening to think that this was everyday life for these people. I was at a loss of words.
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As the war raged onward, soon the ghetto would be liquidated, in efforts for the Nazi's to speed up the extermination process of the Jews. The exact number of those that were cleared from the Kraków ghetto is unknown, although in March of 1943, some 2,000 Jews arrived in Auschwitz. After the selection process, 75% of them were sent straight to the gas chambers.
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Through all the darkness of the war, there were those who were part of the resistance efforts. Oskar Schindler saved some 1,200 Jews from death by employing them in his factories. A small number in comparison to the immense number that was lost.
The rest of the day was ours to do whatever we pleased. A few of the girls and I stopped at a restaurant for dinner and spent the rest of the night here enjoying each other's company.
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The next day was much more light hearted compared to the day before and the day that would follow. We visited a salt mine! Going into this, I honestly did not expect it to be as cool as was, but the whole class really enjoyed this portion of the trip. The tour guide encouraged us to breathe deeply in the mines, as the salt purifies the air and helps with respiration. The salt mine was ginormous and had many different parts to it. There was even a chapel where they still hold church services. There is also a large ballroom area where you can rent it out for weddings and other special occasions! Pretty neat. This took most of our morning and some of our early afternoon. Afterwards we were free for lunch and shopping of course! Poland is known for their Polish Pottery, so we all purchased some mugs and I bought a teapot. Lauren, on the other hand, bought 9 pieces of pottery. I'm still interested to see how she packs all of that for our journey home in a couple weeks...
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The following day was our trip to Auschwitz-Burkaneau. To begin with, I did not realize that these were two separate camps that were actually some distance apart from each other. Our first trip was Auschwitz, which is the labor camp portion. Today this is where the museum is. There was an eerie feeling as I visited both portions of the camp, I attribute this to the knowledge that I am standing where many people were murdered. One interesting thing I learned was that prior to the war, Auschwitz was previously a military base. The Nazi's used this location after Poland was conquered because it was suitable to house many people, such as in the barracks below.
One of the most difficult things about this museum was seeing all of the remaining possessions the Nazi's took from the Jews. It was eye opening to think of every one of these shoes was once filled by a person, who was then disposed of as if they were nobody.
Another image that was burned in my mind as we walked through was the clumps of hair they had shaved off. We were not allowed to take pictures to honor the victims that were lost. Some hair was still perfectly in tact in braids. The color of the hair was shocking to me, as some of it was still grey and blonde, although much of it was brown or black. Another burning image is that of the children's belongings. It is amazing to me that the Nazi's can carry out such atrocities against innocent children.
The Nazi's strived to perfect the "ideal Aryan race", this did not include those with disabilities, Jews, Romas, and many other people. When a disabled person arrived at the camp, immediately they would be sent to the gas chambers. These are the prosthetic limbs left behind.
After touring the barracks, we visited the Death Wall which is where many people were executed in the camps for many different things. This was located right next to the women's dormitory, and as you can see by the black squares to the left of the picture, the windows were covered in order to disguise the murders. Today, flowers and other things are decorated to honor those who were shot here. There were also public hangings and shootings in order to once again, produce fear and therefore succeed in cooperation by the Jews.
This concluded our tour of the first section of the camp. We then took a bus to Birkenau, the death camp. This is where the iconic entrance is, and also where many people spent the final moments of their lives.
The Nazi's bombed the gas chambers where the majority of the Jews were exterminated. This was in efforts to cover up their crimes during the war. These are the remnants of those chambers.
There was less information during this portion of the tour, as most of it was processing the extreme scale of death that took place here. This concluded the end of our tour, but I left this place with a sense of grounding. This experience has reminded me that human life is delicate and something we should not take for granted. We need to use the past to shape the future and ensure that this type of human devastation never happens again. However, I feel as though we are not doing everything we can. Today, there are modern genocides taking place in regions all over the world, and yet, we sit by idly and do nothing to help. We even go as far as closing our national borders to make their escape even more difficult. These people are desperate, and we are lacking humanity by denying them the help they need to save their families. We reflect on the Shoah as a tragedy and comment on how it would never happen today, although it is. It turns out humanity has not changed much after all. We can do more, we need to do more.
Thanks for reading.