Sunday, September 17, 2017
I walked through the square to the pretty Church of St Mary for 8am Mass. Could not understand a word, but knew the routine. The organ music was not inspiring and neither was the cantor. Maybe that is why there were so few people. After communion, I walked back to the hotel and met Mark and Marta and our previous driver, Magic.
Square in Jewish District. Green house belonged to Helen Rubinstein. She was born there.
First we drove to Krakow’s former Jewish District, Kazimierz. In the main square we saw the birthplace and home of Helen Rubinstein.
Old Synagogue in the square. Men enter through brick door on right, women through yellow door on left.
We visited the Old Synagogue from the 16th Century and the Remu’h Synagogue and the cemetery behind it. We saw Remu’h’s Tombstone and all the stones, prayers and messages left there by many worshipers. The cold dreary day was a perfect setting for our visit. We are both under the weather, but might as well keep going. We also visited a couple other synagogues. Did not get the names.
Remu’h Synagogue. Remu’h was reputed to be a miracle worker.
People praying inside Remu’h Synagogue.
Remu’h’s tombstone. Filled with stones, layers and messages from a devoted following.
Wall made from broken pieces of tombstones. Very symbolic and touching.
New synagogue has elements of Christian churches with Tablets near the top.
Unusual stained glass in new Synagogue.
Scene location in Old Jewish District seen in Schinders List.
Surface scene of gas chamber in Birkenau. Underground room for removing clothes is on right. Gas chamber is in right background. A group of visitors is praying under the umbrellas.
Then we drove 1 ½ hours to Birkenau, the place where most of the captives, both Jews and others, lived and died. It was raining, but we had umbrellas and the weather suited the dreary setting. Magic drove us to the back end of the camp, so we walked only one way through it. We started at the place where the Jews were made to take off their clothes, and walk into the gas chamber, where they thought they would be getting a shower. Once they were dead, camp prisoners moved the bodies up and into the cremation chambers.
Just beside gas chamber were crematoriums. In January 1945, the Germans blew them up to remove evidence.
Nearby was a memorial to the deceased with bronze plagues printed in all the languages spoken by the victims, including English…..23 I think. Many of the plaques had long stemmed white roses laying on them. From there we walked through the center of the camp with barbed wire fences and brick barracks on either side. Marta told us 600 people were assigned to each building, with bunks three levels high and 5 people to a bunk.
Memorial to the victims included bronze plaques in all the languages spoken by the deceased, including English.
In the early years, the RR tracks came just to the entrance to the camp. Later the tracks were brought inside the camp so people did not have to walk so far to the gas chambers. There were a couple of old box cars sitting on the track, like the ones used to haul 80 Jews at a time.
Birkenau barracks with high voltage fencing.
Not all the barracks were brick. Many were wooden. They had been stalls for 52 horses back in Germany and were disassembled and brought here for housing for 600 Jews each. We walked into two of them. One was a rebuilt latrine showing how hundreds of people could use the bathroom at the same time. We were told that the Jews were allowed to use the latrine only twice a day. In the middle of the night, they did what they had to do right in bed. Can’t imagine being on the bottom bunk.
The track inside Birkenau with proof that we were there.
Then we went into another barracks that had bunk beds for 600, with two fireplaces at either end of the building. Only problem was lack of fuel. So there was no heat anyway. The worst time of the year was summer because the stench was so bad. We passed through the Birkenau entrance and drove to a nearby restaurant for Polish lunch. I had mushroom soup. Not the best, but mushrooms are in season, so fresh….I hoped.
The people lined up to be sorted – young and old and pregnant women to gas chamber; healthy and strong to work camp.
What the barracks looked like on the inside.
A converted wooden barracks used for mass latrines.
A train load of prisoners arrive in Birkenau.
After the people have been sorted, their baggage is still waiting by the tracks.
Marching to and from work in step to the music. Sketched by an inmate.
Th band playing while the men return from work carrying the dead with them. Every body had to be accounted for at the end of the day.
Then on to our appointment to visit Auschwitz. It was intended for 3:15, but we got in early at 2:45, a blessing. Here we visited a series of barracks, which had originally been barracks for the Polish Army. Initially Poles (150,000) were imprisoned in the camp and died there, then they were joined by Soviet POWs (15,000), Gypsies (23,000), and other nationalities (10,000). Different barracks held luggage, shoes, glasses, brushes and hair – lots of hair that was made into rough fabric. That was the hardest for me to see…..thick blond hair still in braids.
Statistics about the number is prisoners in Auschwitz.
We saw rooms where prisoners had been made to stand 4 together in a tiny cell, so they could not even sit down. After 12 hours, many did not survive. Other rooms had no air and caused prisoners to die from suffocation. The first experimental gas chamber was started in one of the barracks here. It took awhile to learn how much Zyklon B was needed to kill people quickly. The first attempts caused some people to linger for days. How horrible was that?
“Work makes your free”. The sign above the Auschwitz I entrance.
Old Polish Barracks where several hundred women were held in 2 upstairs rooms and used as human guinea-pigs for sterilization experiments from 4/43 to 5/44. Some were murdered for autopsies to be performed. Those who survived were left with permanent injuries
Tattooed numbers started being given to camp workers during 1943 to identify people and later, bodies.
Another room was dedicated to Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest, who sacrificed his life for another prisoner. There were three Easter size candles given by each of the three popes who have been here, John Paul II, Benedict 16 and Francis. The priest has since been canonized. Between 2 of the barracks was a wall where prisoners were stood and shot – the death wall. The barracks windows were boarded up, but the sound was still evident. In another place,
The wall of Death. Notice boarded windows on left, so you could hear, but not see.
Public Hangings took place. One thing we did notice, was that Birkenou was out in the middle of empty fields, while Auschwitz was in the middle of the town. You could not have lived there without seeing, smelling and hearing what was going on. Anyway, none of this is news to most of you, but it is a painful and important reminder.
Memorial to Father Maximilian Kolbe, who volunteered to give his life to save another prisoner from forced starvation as a result of collective responsibility for escapes. The candles left by Popes John Paul II, Benedict 16 and Francis. Father Kolbe has since been canonized.
A special photo of these twin girls. Many survived because they had been used for experiments. About 237,000 children were deported to Auschwitz. Nearly all of the were Jewish and perished. On January 27, 1945, the Russians liberated 65o children, of which 450 were under the age of 15.
Thousands of pairs of shoes.
Dishes for cooking and eating.
Another long day and we are back at the hotel at 6:30. Still raining. We walked around the corner to another restaurant and had a Polish meal – piroghi for Mark and Poultry liver with apples and onions for me. I like liver, but could only eat half of the portion. Mark said I had a henhouse full of chicken livers.
Gas chamber in Auschwitz where 600 were killed at a time once they got the drug dosage worked out.
One of 4 holes where Zyklon B was dropped into the chamber and the holes then sealed.
It felt so good to go to sleep listening to the rain pounding on the skylights that cover our ceiling. We are, unfortunately, not recovering quickly from our colds.
Adventures with Julia 