Friday, June 28, 2024

Day 9 - Auschwitz - Birkenau + Wieliczka Salt Mine

come here now, you better come fast
come here now, as long as we last
As Long as We Last - Daniel Norgren

Confession: I feel rather ... I don't know the right word to describe it. "Conflicted" would make me sound noble. "Embarrassed" would be closer. This whole entire trip was because I was curious to see Auschwitz, but if I'm going to be honest it's perhaps the same curiosity with the other things that I visited as a tourist, and to put Auschwitz in the same category as other touristy places is downright shameful. So perhaps "embarrassed" is the right word, but I think it's the same curiosity that brings many to Auschwitz too. Of course, there are those who went there to see what their ancestors went through and also there's the many students who went there for a field trip to learn history. Comparing their reasons to mine, my "curiosity" feels frivolous. Then there comes the defence, is it a bad curiosity though? I saw these concentration camps, saw their magnitudes, learned more about history and that is a good thing right? I don't know, I still have that embarrassement in me, also because I felt that perhaps I didn't give enough reverence to the horror that happened there. I guess the only way I could make my visit there not so useless is to share what I saw if people ask what it's like and they have doubt that the holocaust and such camps existed.

I only know of one other person who's been to Auschwitz. It was just a few years ago and I asked her what it's like. I told her I was curious, but I wasn't sure if I'd ever get there. Sometimes you just make things happen I guess, because I did. A realization came to me as I was preparing for this trip and reading on how to get to Dachau and Auschwitz; it's how far I've come that I was willingly going to these places. Me who had to sleep with my parents for a few nights after a field trip to Lubang Buaya. This is a well in Jakarta where several generals' bodies were thrown during the coup of September 1965. I think I was old enough for that field trip, like pass 12 years old and yet I got scared that I insisted on sleeping with parents for a few nights. I recall it was mostly because of the diorama or it could also be that I was scarred enough with the diorama that I blocked out any memory of seeing the well. Bottomline, when I was a child, I would get overly scared with scary things especially movies that I would end up knocking at my parents' room at night and sleeping with them. It's the reason why I don't watch horror movies, even now, because I have no door to knock to. Like, I still couldn't bring myself to watch the movie that used to be shown on every 30th September about that event in 1965. So me now in a stronger mental state that allows me to be able to plan and go to places like Dachau and Auschwitz shows that I guess there's some mental growth with age.

As the title of this post suggests, my day trip that day took me to Auschwitz - Birkenau concentration camp and Wieliczka Salt Mine. The day tour was rescheduled to 06:20 AM, so that's early. I asked the hotel during check-in if I could get my breakfast to go and they gave me a lot that I also had some of it for lunch. I was stunned at the big bag they gave me. Inside there's a small croissant, two small sandwiches, a big bowl of muesli, cereal, with yoghurt, a banana, a pear, and a water bottle (much appreciated). I myself already had a pączki before I left my room. The pick up point that I chose was called Kiss & Ride, a concept which I don't know if it's happening in all of Poland or just Krakow. It's basically a place to pick up or drop off people; as the name suggests you kiss your driver (obviously not your Uber driver) and ride on. Google Maps don't point you to the right place though, it's pointing to like some metres away. Luckily I had scouted the place the day before on my walk around that I managed to find what I think was the correct place and I was right.

Auschwitz is divided into I and II and we arrived at I first where the museum is. Our driver told us the plan for the day and got us our guide. There were many visitors. The first thing we needed to do was to pass security check like what you have in the airport. So that was unexpected. In my group, I was the only one with an actual camera, the rest just had their phones. I wasn't the one who took the most pictures though. I think an American lady in the group took more and I was also respectful of not taking any photo where I wasn't supposed to. I know there's people in my group who sneaked a video or photo in places we're not supposed to. Anyways, after the security check, the first thing we passed was something like a corridor outside where our guide said we'd be passing in silence because there's a reading of all the names of Auschwitz victims being played. I wonder how long that recording plays in full, is it a year? If I'm not mistaken it takes close to 3 hours to read the close to 3,000 names of the victims of the twin towers attack during 9/11, so does it take a full year or more to read the names of all the victims of Auschwitz? It felt really solemn hearing those names as we walked. Then we arrived at the gate with the same inscription as in Dachau, arbeit macht frei (work sets you free).

I'm not sure if you could visit Auschwitz on your own or you would need to be guided. I wouldn't say the guide we had was inadequate, but I think if you're on your own time you may be able to just take a minute to absorb things better, because I was a bit confused about the buildings we entered. Anyways, Auschwitz - Birkenau was the largest Nazi concentration camp and prisoners came from all over Europe (as the map shown below). I didn't take the picture in full, you could see there's line going further north and south. The picture below it also shows how many people died in Auschwitz. Really so few people survived.

The diorama below shows the model of the gas chamber and crematorium. It's horrifying how they packed people to die like that. There were photos that were taken secretly by the Sonderkommando (these were prisoners who were tasked to work at the crematorium) that showed people being marched to the gas chamber and the aftermath, the pile of bodies. The Sonderkommando had such horrible jobs, they literally had to get the prisoners into the gas chamber and cleared the bodies afterwards. It's such a risk taking the pictures and smuggling it out. There's an exhibit that shows the many gas canisters that were used in the gas chamber. There's also other sections where they exhibits the belongings of these prisoners, like their shoes and bags. A section even shows the hair of the prisoners, because everyone was forced to be shaved.

I was truly confused about the buildings we entered because they're really buildings, 3-story high (see below), that I had to ask the American dad in the group if he knew what these buildings were used as before. He said it was used to house the prisoners. I was still confused because it's so different compared to Dachau.

Then we entered the building where it shows what it was like when there were prisoners there. So there's indeed prisoners there. I learned Auschwitz I was previously an army camp so they already had these buildings and I guess they started with housing the prisoners here until they needed to expand and then they opened up Auschwitz II - Birkenau. There's also a wall with photos of the prisoners. Looking at the photos, I was thinking what they must be thinking at that time. I guess they didn't imagine the worst could happen to them? Many of them looked calm and stoic. Among these photographs there were 2 photos of twin girls and I felt sad seeing them there.

Behind the fence below is the SS commandant house. The guide was saying just like how it's featured in the movie, The Zone of Interest. Though there's a fence, the house is actually not very far from the site of the crematorium. The Zone of Interest showed what an idyllic life the commandant's family had and watching it I didn't register that it would be very near to the camp, but it's really so near that it's crazy that one could live happily near such horrible things. Now I actually could understand more the part where the commandant's mother in law in the movie chose to end her visit earlier.

After we're done with Auschwitz I, we were driven to Auschwitz II. Since we're driven, I actually can't figure out how far it really is, like how long it would take to walk there. Auschwitz II is way way bigger. The scale of it really puts one in despair :( When prisoners arrived, they would straight away be sorted out and the weak ones (including many children) would be sent to the gas chamber straightaway. One of the photos below shows the model of the train car they used to transport the prisoners.

On the far end of the camp now stands a memorial with many stones in different languages with messages of remembrance. Side note: here upon seeing one black person, I realized among the many many people visiting that day, I don't think I saw other Asian or other black people and I think there lies the issue. There's this big thing that happened in Europe, this big stain on the western world but for other parts of the world, this may not register as much. To be fair, in Indonesia at that time we're fighting for our own liberation and independence so we're so far removed from the holocaust. The way information travelled then was also not like how it is now. Like, I don't know what's the Nazi news coverage was in Indonesia back then. This big lack of knowledge of this history could be why many people in Indonesia do not think much of the suffering of the Jews during the holocaust because they do not know it and could right now be one-sidedly on the side of the Palestinians which to be fair is not necessarily a wrong stand to take. It's sad, what's happening then and now, all of it is sad. Even after all the suffering, we just can't seem to resolve issues better.

The site of the gas chamber and crematorium in Auschwitz II is now a ruin and nearby there's a memorial. A little pond was like forming behind the memorial and I think there's frogs in them and they were croaking quite loudly and that to me sounded like them voicing out the horrible things that happened there. Maybe it's just me who felt that way.

The last thing we saw were the barracks in Auschwitz II and of all the things we saw that day, this was the one that got me the most. It was worse than in Dachau. Truly heartbreaking. The guide was saying there's not enough space that some people had to resort to sleeping at the bottom on the ground where mice would bite them. Then there's story that during winter, one would wake up with their hair frozen. Can you imagine that? It's so horrible and it really broke my heart. The holocaust was terrible and I wish I could say we are better humans now, but there's still people doing really bad things to other people right now. It's depressing :( For photos from my visit, you can go here.

The second part of the day was lighter. We're going to Wieliczka Salt Mine and we had time before our time slot. So I went to sit down at a bench in a nearby park and ate the remaining of my breakfast as lunch - I did eat some of it in the van. You need to be guided to enter Wieliczka Salt Mine and trust me you would want to because you may get lost. I'm double checking the website as I'm writing this. The tour started with climbing down many many stairs down to level 1 which was 64 m deep. It was like never ending stairs, but luckily we're going down not up. Then throughout the tour we were going from level 1 to 3 which 135 m down. I was impressed by how they set this mine up for tourism. There are dioramas with light show and sound explaining the legend associated to the mine and also about the mining history, for example they had horses working underground. One would think that's animal abuse taking an animal down where the sun don't shine, but I think the guide said the horses were treated well.

One of the highlight, the one that I often see the most in photos, is the big chamber St Kinga’s Chapel (first picture below). There are salt carvings on the wall like the last supper and there's also a salt statue of Pope John Paul II (he's Polish by the way). The miners were really creative. It's also interesting to see that there's a lake. The last photo below is of St. John’s Chapel. The guide was saying that we could book the different chapels for wedding and all :D The salt mine is really an interesting place to visit. For pictures from the visit, you can go here. I didn't do a good job though, many pictures were blurry.

Going back up, we're split into smaller groups and took the lift up. I'm glad there's a lift, but as I said in the lift, if the lift were to break down, I would freak out. One of the girl with me said the same thing. It's because we're all squeezed into the lift, but luckily all went well. It was quite a day. I'm thankful for the opportunity to visit these different places and learn a thing or two.

:) eKa @ 8:25:00 PM •