Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps, Poland

I don't think I can do this post justice, but I'm going to try my best.

I've known since before we moved here that I wanted to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau.  But when we first moved here, the kids were entirely to young to understand the gravity of what happened here.  They have visited Dachau and Flossenberg, but neither of those were death camps.  Yes, people died there, but they were both work camps.  (Not that death is better in that situation.)  But people weren't put in gas chambers by the hundreds and murdered within minutes.  That's what happened at Auschwitz.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is a series of three camps about an hour west of Krakow.  Most people simply know it as Auschwitz, but the real atrocities happened at the Birkenau camp.  We started the day pretty early with a van picking us up at 7 am at our apartment.  We picked a few more people up and continued on to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  

The camps are located in the city of Oświęcim, Poland.  As we entered the first camp, Auschwitz I, you see this.  Everyone knows this famous sign, "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work will set you free."  But everyone also knows that was a lie.  

People say it's best to enter Auschwitz with a guide, and you'll find almost everyone there was with one.  You first visit Auschwitz I, which consisted of 22 buildings built before the war. It was originally designed to be a quarantine camp, which never actually happened.  Instead, it became a death camp, where initially most people died from starvation and sickness. The extermination of mostly Jews - along with Poles, Gypsies and the LGBTQ community began in early 1942, although most of that did not happen here at Auschwitz I.  Auschwitz I was mainly used as a labor camp - but they did have one gas chamber here, and I'll talk more about that below.

Halt!  Stop! Trying to escape will get you killed.  Staying here might, also.

Today, Auschwitz I serves as a history museum to the entire Auschwitz Birkenau camp. Block 4 is now a museum to the extermination of the residents of this camp. This was originally housing for male prisoners, but in March 1942, it became one of the many housing blocks for women. Between March and August of 1942, several thousand women were either sent to the gas chamber or they died of unsanitary conditions or slave labor. If you survived until August 1942, you were sent over to Birkenau.

Our guide gave us a great overview of the atrocities that happened at Auschwitz.  Here, she tells us about the arrival of the Jews from Hungary.  Upon arrival, the men were separated from the women and children.  The women and children were immediately sent to the gas chambers (particularly at Birkenau).  The men were then subdivided between those who could work and those who could not.  Those who could work, lived (for now.)  Those who could not were sent to the gas chambers.

The mementos that were saved are an incredible reminder of what happened here.  This is a pile of glasses, of which the owners were sent to the gas chambers. Some of them were reused or recycled.

As I mentioned, if you could not perform manual labor, you were immediately sent to the gas chambers.  Those with physical disabilities were among those who did not get a chance to live.

When those who were taken to Auschwitz were captured by the SS and put on the slow trains to Poland, they had been told that they were going to a wonderful camp where they would stay with their families.  They were told to bring their valuables.  They were told to bring the comforts of home. They were told to do all of this so that they didn't fear what was coming to them. "Oh it will all be fine.  You will be with your family.  Bring your things.  Bring your kitchen supplies."  Of course, all of their pots and pans were taken from them upon their arrival with the promise that they would be returned.  And then they never were returned.

"How will I know which bag is mine after I come out of the showers?"  "Just put your name on it and some identifying marker, like your birthday or where you are from."

This woman was born on Todd's birthday in 1918.

43,000 pair of shoes were found at Auschwitz at its liberation by the Soviets in January 1945.  The shoes are not in the best condition and appear to be disintegrating.  

Most people who first arrived at Auschwitz did not get to sleep on beds.  They slept on crowded hay.

On the walls of the washrooms, some of the inmates painted pictures on the wall.  Just a small thing to look at to bring up the morale.

We learned a bit about the Capo's when we were in Flossenburg, but they had them at Auschwitz, too.  They slept in much better and much more private conditions.  They were all German criminal prisoners, and they received this role because it wasn't an easy one to do.  I spoke to  our guide (and the guy who walked around with us to answer any questions) and they said you only got that role if you were a tough guy without a soul (basically.) People would try to convince the SS that they were tough enough to be a Capo but in reality, very few were able to do this job.  You had to be pretty ruthless to do it.

Eventually, triple stacked bunk beds were introduced to Auschwitz I.  But they were incredibly crowded and often held way more than the three prisoners they were originally designed to sleep on each level.

Inmates could only go to the bathroom twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening and they only had a VERY short amount of time to go.  And you couldn't just pop a squat somewhere on the grounds and go - if you were caught doing this, you were punished.  Toilets and washrooms were only installed inside of the buildings in 1944.  Prior to that, inmates had to walk to the outdoor facilities.  When they had to take a shower, they had to walk naked to the washrooms, which were  also outside.  There was no electricity in the beginning, and there was only a very small heating system (a ceramic fireplace) which was insufficient for heating the entire floor.

Nowadays, the camp is very clean and peaceful and it's hard to  imagine the atrocities that went on here.

There are 28 two story buildings that mostly housed inmates in Auschwitz I.  They were designed to hold 700 people each, but in reality held about 1200. 

From 1941 to 1943, there was a "Death Wall" near cell block 11.  Cell block 11 was the very worst.  You could be housed in a regular cell where you slept on the floor, perhaps awaiting your death, or the following could happen (from the Auschwitz website):  "From the beginning of 1942, prisoners were also punished by confinement in standing cells. These were four spaces measuring less than 1 sq. m. each. The only source of air was a 5 x 5 cm. opening covered with a metal grille. Entry to the standing cell was through a small opening at floor level, closed with bars and a wooden hatch. Four prisoners were confined in each of these spaces for the night. They had to go to work in the morning. The punishment was applied for periods from several nights up to several weeks in a row."

People were also shot here at this wall.  Perhaps this was a more benevolent way of dying at Auschwitz.  There isn't a lot of information about how many people died here but it's estimated to be around 1,000. More people were shot here at Auschwitz, but not necessarily here.

We continued on the tour and our guide told us more about what humans were used for at Auschwitz.  There were quite a few doctors who performed medical experiments on humans, such as sterilization, experiments on twins, the effects of starvation, the effects of toxic substances on the skin, and the effects of new drugs on the human body.

It was nearly impossible to escape from Auschwitz as you needed to get through two layers of barbed wire and past the guards in the towers who kept watch over these areas 24/7/365.  A total of 928 people attempted to escape (about half of which were Polish) and only 196 people were ever successful. The first person to escape from Auschwitz coincidentally caused the first death at Auschwitz.  It was June of 1940 when Tadeusz Wiejowski arrived at Auschwitz.  He was a Polish cobbler who friended some other local Polish civilian electricians who were at the camp to do some electric work.  In the early days, this was normal as contractors of this sort came and went.  They provided him with an electricians uniform and one day, he just walked out of the camp with the others.  As a result, over 1300 people were made to stand for 20 hours.  Dawid Wongczewski, a Polish Jew who was sick at the time with tuberculosis could not stand for that long and he collapsed and died. Wiejowski went into hiding but was caught in the fall of 1941 and shot.

The Crematorium at Auschwitz I became a gas chamber (the only one here) in the fall of 1941. Here, the SS poured Zyklon B through holes in the roof to kill those inside, which was mainly composed of Soviet POWs, Jews and those too sick or old to work. In December 1942 it ended at Auschwitz I as Auschwitz Birkenau took over all of the mass killings.  In November 1944, the mass extermination of the Jews ceased across all of the camps. Knowing the Allies were closing in, they began to dismantle the gas chambers in an attempt to cover up their crimes.

I didn't take any pictures inside the gas chambers as I found that to be very disrespectful.  Those who arrived sick - or too old or young to work - were immediately sent to the gas chambers, without even registering at the camps.  Thus it's impossible to give a completely accurate figure with regard to the number of deaths - but it's estimated to be around 1.1 million people.  In total, it's thought that 6 millions Jews and an estimated 11 million people from other groups (Gypsies, Non Jewish Poles, Serbs, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and Soviets/Soviet POWs) were murdered during the Holocaust.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau was our next stop on the tour.  Birkenau was much, much larger than any of the other camps here.  According to the Auschwitz website, "The Germans managed to build a total of approximately 300 housing, administrative, and infrastructure barracks and buildings, 13 km. of drainage ditches, 16 km. of barbed-wire fencing, and more than 10 km. of roads within an area of about 140 hectares at Birkenau."  Not much is left of any of these buildings.  Much of the land had been "taken" by the Germans from the locals.

A sign at the main administrative building at Auschwitz Birkenau.

In the background behind the train tracks, you can see the remnants of some of the barracks that were at Auschwitz Birkenau.  After the war, museum personnel rebuilt the chimneys of these wooden buildings, and that is just about all that remains of the camp.

A guard tower (some of these are original, not sure about this one though) and a few rebuilt brick buildings at Birkenau.

We walked through the administration building and into the camp, walking along the railroad tracks that led down to where the gas chambers were.  There are no longer any gas chambers at Birkenau as they were all destroyed at the end of the war, before liberation. There are some ruins of Crematoria II, III, IV and V,  but we did not go far enough down the tracks to see them.

One example of a railroad car sits on the tracks at Birkenau.  Prisoners would get out of the crammed railroad cars and were lined up based on gender.  Generally, women and children were immediately sent to the gas chambers in Crematoria II and III.  You might have survived if you were deemed fit to work in the camps.  Around 900,000 people met their death this way at Auschwitz- if they made it there at all.  The rail cars were crammed full of people (80-100 people per car) and conditions were dark and unsanitary.

Guard tower at Auschwitz Birkenau.

As I mentioned before, these chimney stacks were rebuilt after the war.  Some are reinforced to prevent further demise.  Their goal was to preserve the chimneys as well as the foundation walls of the buildings, so that all could get a sense of scale.

Our last stop was the "Death Barrack" where women who could not work were kept before they were sent to the gas chambers. Those who got upper bunks were lucky - they got to sleep on wood.  Those who slept on the bottom bunk were forced to sleep on rocks.  

Each of these buildings was heated by (not shown in this picture) a small ceramic fireplace - probably half the size of the one we have in our small home.  Of course, it was insufficient and many women got sick and died.  There was no food or water in this barrack, and when it was full, women just had to stay outside in the elements in a locked yard.

Many women died in here before they could even be sent to the gas chambers.  Women slept 7 or so across in each bunk.

One of the most gut wrenching things I learned on this day was that the starvation and illness brought about many cases of diarrhea.  Those who were on the bottom bunks often found themselves covered in feces that had leaked through the upper wooden bunks.  As if dying at the hands of monsters wasn't enough, they were forced to die without dignity.

Visiting Auschwitz Birkenau was an unforgettable experience.  I only wish we had more time there.  The worst part, for me is hoping that the world has learned from this atrocity, but knowing that we definitely have not.  Mass genocides continue to occur - Rwanda, Darfur, Myanmar, Bosnia... the list goes on. And now look what is going on in Syria! It's honestly so overwhelming. 

Until next time, Auschwitz. We must never forget.

Recycling in Germany

This post is a little off topic - as in, it's not about our recent travels.  But we have lived here for almost four years and the recycling program here has always impressed yet baffled us.

So Todd and I decided to head down to the Wertstoffhof recently and do a photo tour of the madness that is RECYCLING!

Each Saturday morning (or Friday back before I was working), we load up the car and take the recycling down to the Wertstoffhof.

The first few times we did this, it was a hot mess.  There are SO many different places you can take the recycling.  The Pringles can goes in a different place than the Doritos bag, which goes in a different place from the yogurt cup, which goes in a different place from the milk carton, which goes in a different place from the water bottle.

But eventually we figured it out.  Or mostly.  Because if you don't know where something goes, you can just ask one of the people who work there.  They literally speak ZERO English.  So you need to be prepared.  And they will pretty much know by your accent that German isn't your first language, so they will likely point in the direction you need to go.

Folien (behind the fella in yella) is stretchy plastic.  That means plastic bags from the grocery store. And pretty much anything you can stick your thumb through.  If you mess up, the guy in yellow will move it to "misch" (mixed) plastics, and glare at you while yelling German obscenities.  You can also see the milk carton plastics on the right.  German's don't do plastic milk jugs... they put everything in paper cartons (and I support this fully!)

But this Coke can doesn't go here!  Oh yes, I know it's an aluminum can and that's where you think it goes, but nope.  It goes over in the Dosen dumpster.  THIS is where you put little cat food tins and aluminum foil that you've used to cook.  See that Papierverbunde on the left?  That's for Pringles cans.  You know: things that are made with paper but lined with aluminum.  Cause that deserves it's own spot for recycling.

I promise you, four years in, I'm not confused by much anymore!  Here I am separating butter/yogurt cups from plastic water bottles and milk (almond milk) cartons.

Wait. You thought you could just throw away those corks from all of the wine you drank? Nope.

Even glass is absurd.  You have to separate it in colors.  Brown, green and white.  And you have to fight the wasps to toss it in these little recycling holes.

After you tossed your aluminum foil in the "plastics" area... you have to walk across the entire Wertstoffhof and dump your aluminum cans.

I don't have pictures of the large appliances, small appliances, metal, mixed metal, batteries, regular light bulbs, LED light bulbs, cardboard, random large plastics, leftover food (yes, that's a thing,) CDs and computer gear, and concrete.  You have to separate EVERYTHING.  Then let's not forget about the yard waste.  This has a place, too (see above.)  They don't come by on yard waste day and pick that up curbside like they do in the States.  The only thing they do curbside is trash and paper.  And paper only gets picked up once every four weeks. Trash is every other week and gets picked up in the smallest bin ever. They mean business over here: Recycling is no joke.  That single stream recycling stuff we did in Massachusetts is for the birds.  This is like the Olympics of recycling!

Until next week, Wertstoffhof!  You're completely ridiculous, and I weirdly love you!

Split, Croatia

I honestly never thought this would be a city I would visit, despite hearing good things about it!  We didn't have much time here as we didn't arrive into the city until just before lunchtime on our last day of our vacation.  But you know us... let's try to get it all done anyway!  It wasn't AS hot as it was in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it was more humid.  So the feels like temperature felt sort of similar to the days we spent in Medjugorje and Mostar.

Once again, we took a van between the two countries.  Here I am sitting RIGHT on the border!

This is what sitting on the border looks like, in map form.

I totally laughed when I saw this at the border.  Why is an old Antenne truck here in Bosnia and Herzegovina?  Antenne is a radio station chain in Germany (kind of like "I Heart Radio" or something equivalent to that.) 

It's a little hard to see, but our drive to Split gave us a nice view of Klis Fortress.  It's on the right side... not on the highest ridge, but just a bit below it on a medium sized ridge.  Much of the Oathkeeper episode (Season 4) of Game of Thrones was filmed here (and at Diocletian's Palace in the city of Split.)  When Daenarys comes out to speak to the people of Meereen, it was filmed here at this fortress. It's also where she had the masters crucified as repayment for when they had crucified the slave children.  In real life, there has been a fortification here since around 300 BC.

Once we arrived, we checked into our apartment (or rather, we just dropped our bags off as they were still cleaning it) and headed into the city.  Right outside of the walls to Diocletian's Palace stands the statue of Gregory of Nin who was a medieval bishop that pushed the Catholic church to say Mass in the native language rather than in Latin (which most people didn't understand.)

One of the most important sights to see in Split is Diocletian's Palace. Split is the second largest city in all of Croatia behind Zagreb (the capital.)  The Roman emperor's palace was built in the 4th century.  He was born about 5 miles away from this location in the city of Salona (now Solin), which was the capital of Dalmatia at the time.

Awww, red roses are so pretty!

Just outside of the Peoples Square sits the Church of Our Lady of the Bell Tower.  It was built around 1100 and it's the oldest Roman bell tower in the Dalmatia section of Croatia.

There's something homey and quaint about laundry drying on the line.

This is the Ciprianis Benedetti Palace was built in 1394 for a nobleman whose family owned it until the Benedetti family purchased it in 1860.  Here, St. Anthony sits outside of the palace.

The tower at the Cathedral of St. Domnius looks like it belongs in Venice.  Although it was built in the 12th century, the church itself is the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world that hasn't been almost completely renovated.  It was built in the 4th century!  This tower was actually renovated in 1908.

If you go downstairs (follow the crowds) you'll find Diocletian's Cellars.  Over the years, they were used as a wine/food cellar for the Emperor Diocletian, a home for refugees in the Middle Ages and at one point, was even used for refuse.  In our favorite show, Game of Thrones, it was used as the place where Daenerys kept two of her dragons chained up in Meereen.  I loved the scene where Tyrion came down and spoke to the dragons in season 6 (episode 2.) It's hard to imagine it based on the above photo, but try to... without other humans or stalls where merchants are selling things.

The Vestibule (or Rotunda) was the official entrance of the Emperor.  Originally, it was meant to impress the visitors to the palace.  While still impressive, it's long lost it's dome and other walled frescoes.

The little harbor area of Split is lined with palm trees and (to the right) Diocletian's Palace.  Back in the day of Diocletian around 305 AD, the water came right up to the palace. Now the harbor has been extended and there are shops and restaurants behind where I took this picture.

 Today, Riva Harbor in Split has a walkable promenade that mimics what the area looked like 200 years ago under Napoleon's rule.

Large and small boats come and go in Riva Harbor.

We decided to head back to the apartment because we were SO hot.  Everyone wanted to get their bathing suits on and jump into the Adriatic.  On our way back, we ran across our old buddy, Gregory. If you rub the big toe of Gregory of Nin, your wish will be granted!



I hope they wished for something good!  Those kids behind Grant are wishing that the Bailey family would hurry up with their wish!

After changing and walking the long distance back to Split's Bačvice Beach, we finally landed a spot on the crowded but surprisingly soft sand. (What? No rocks like in Zadar?)

But that person jumping into the water on the right!  Todd, the kids, Madison, KK and Lynne were swimming behind those guys playing a poor game of volleyball.



This is after the person on the right finished their jump into the Adriatic. Splash!

After I spent some time in the water, I sent Madison into the water to cool off and took over on "watching everyone's stuff" duty.  So naturally, Todd decided to join me on the beach for a delicious cold Croatian beverage!

Then, being the awesome daddy he is, he went out to dig moats, build castles, and make dribble castles with the babies!

They couldn't really do this in Zadar because of all of the rocks, and we didn't go to Florida this summer, so this was their only chance to make a killer sand castle!

Natalie concentrating on the tallest dribble castle in Croatia while Grant digs deep into the castle moat.

Meanwhile, back on the beach....

Natalie, giving me a sense of scale of how long Grant's moat was.

Look how cute they are!  The babies think their dad is the coolest for building a castle and moat with them.  Mommy just documented the whole thing. I know someday soon, they won't want to build dribble castles anymore.  So this really makes me happy.

We had some dinner reservations, but had to get back to clean up, so after a few hours, we left the beach.  On the way back, we saw this ... display?  Corn on a wheel (with a horseshoe!), and other random stuff (like a basket of herbs and perhaps a radio?)

Dinner was at the Bakra Steak and Pizza bar (ie; fun for everyone!)  This is really Todd's idea of fun these days. Lynne is totally supportive of this.

Our waiter snapped this picture of all of us on our final dinner of the trip.  It was really a great dinner and we had so much fun!

Though not fun was waking up in the morning and having to go to the airport.  Then you get there and there was this:  we couldn't figure out why none of the sockets worked here at the Split airport.  Then we realized this:  none of them were plugged in and we had zero place to plug them in anyway!

To make matters worse... we got home and Todd and Kathleen decided to go to mass at Rose Barracks.  The rest of us were tired and decided to go home.  There was some confusion on Google Maps, which told us to take the A6 home.  But all I could think was that we weren't going to Rose Barracks like Todd and Kathleen, so I ignored it and took the A9 home.  It was allegedly only a few minutes longer to go the A9, and that is the usual way I take home. About halfway home on the A9 near Schnaittach, there was a super long line on one of the exits and just as we approached it, it told me to take the exit.  But of course, there wasn't time for that once it alerted me.  So I stayed on the A9.  And that was bad.  Because there was a fatal accident in which sadly a young girl died.  It took us 3.5 hours to go home - a ride that normally takes 45 minutes.  But we made the best of it (along with some fun inside jokes... that's WAK, mega Bailey's!) And we were sad for the family who lost their baby girl. It's hard to get upset about traffic knowing something like that happened.

Until next time, Split!  We loved your beaches and can't wait to go back!