Holocaust Conference and Auschwitz

Sorry it has been so long guys, but I have been really busy the past few days. The Holocaust Conference started on Thursday at the Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University. There were so many intelligent people there that were presenting papers and asking questions that it made me feel a little bit like I was not that smart and I didn't know very much about my favorite subject, but I realize that for most of these people this is their life's work. But they really had some good arguments. One woman from Australia, Ellen Ben-Sefer, talked about children's lives in transit camps during the Holocaust. It was really interesting because she talked about how they learned lots of behaviors that we would consider really negative in the outer world in order to survive, such as lying and stealing. She also talked about how children began to play role-playing games such as victim and persecutor in which some children would pretend to be the Nazis and some the Jews and they would act out these violent crimes in a playful manner. It really was eye-opening to see how the Holocaust affected children other than death.
On Friday we went to visit Auschwitz....It truly was a very heart-wrenching, emotional experience. From the very beginning, walking through the gate with the Nazi motto, "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work will make you free), you couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness and sadness. To know that 1.5 million Jews walked through that gate, never to return out of it is just an unexplainable feeling. We walked through almost all of the blocks, but one of the most terrifying was Block 11. It housed prisoners of the Gestapo (Geheime Staats Polizei or Secret State Police). This block looked a lot like the others at first, "beds" made of straw that looked more like a barn for horses, disgusting and inadequate restroom facilities, etc. but then when we went underground, we saw one of the worst parts of the whole camp.....where they tortured the prisoners. Walking through the dim hallways, it seemed that you could still smell the death. We looked into the isolation and suffocation rooms and you could still smell it on the doors. Then we saw the "standing cells". These were extremely small (maybe 3 feet wide) cells in the basement of the block in which they would put 4 prisoners at a time. You could not sit down or move at all, and they were bricked up. Most people died in these cells from starvation or suffocation.
We then saw the main courtyard where selection was held and the gallows where prisoners who
resisted or tried to escape were hung for the whole camp to see. The Nazis would even make prisoners file past the victims and look them in the face to stifle any resistance. After that, we made our way to a smaller courtyard between to blocks which was the execution courtyard. At the very end of this courtyard was the execution wall. The Nazis were absolutely meticulous about this wall and this courtyard. In order to make sure that bullets would not riccochet off of the wall and kill the soldier doing the shooting, they reinforced the concrete wall with blocks of wood. Also, they never used a single firing squad in the camp because they were too loud and they didn't want the other prisoners to know what was happening. For this same reason, all of the windows facing into the courtyard were boarded up so that nobody could look out of their window and see the executions taking place.
We also went to see Block 4, which used to be the extermination block, but now houses the material proofs of the Nazi's crimes. We walked through large rooms full on each side with shoes, pots and pans, brushes, combs, and toothbrushes. It was really amazing to see how much stuff there was that was accumulated from these victims, and therefore it helped to realize just how large scale the operation really was. And these were only a small percentage of what was collected. In one room, there was a huge wall full of hair, 2000 kilos (2 tons)! And that was only a small percentage. Can you even imagine how much more there must have been, but a lot of it was used to make fabric for German uniforms.
After lunch right outside of the camp, which to be honest was a little weird....eating a big meal right outside of the place where thousands of people starved to death....but anyway, after lunch we took a bus to Auschwitz-Birkenau which was the main center of the death camp, and was definitely the largest. At 400 acres, I was truly amazed at the size of the place. Yet again, it really helped to give an idea to how massive the Final Solution was. And this was only one camp. We walked through some of the "barracks" that looked more like barns, and were actually originally intended for horses, but were used for the Jews. We saw the rows of wooden beds with no mattresses that were unlevel. There were three levels to each bunk, and if you were strong enough to make it to the top, you definitely wanted to, because with the horrible food, many people suffered from diarrhea, and they were only allowed to go to the bathroom twice a day, and often only for 30 seconds or less. Thus, people simply relieved themselves in the beds while they were asleep, so they people on the bottom really got the raw end of the deal.
After that, we went to the "bathrooms", which were housed in yet another barn and were simply three rows of concrete latrines with a bunch of holes in the top. There was no running water, no electricity, and definitely no privacy. Often, the stronger men were forced to climb into these in order to clean them, but oddly, they considered this a great job because they were very gross and smelled extremely bad afterwards, so the Germans would leave them alone because they didn't want to come near them. Interesting how they could turn a very disgusting situation into a positive.
We then followed the train tracks into the center of the camp where they would have selection right off of the trains. They would send some to the left and some to the right, and very often, women and young children were sent straight to the gas chambers.
There was not much left of the gas chambers because when the Soviets were approaching Auschwitz, the Germans began to deport all of the prisoners capable of being transported into Germany and destroyed much of the camp. We did get to see the ruins of some of the crematoria, though. It was really eerie, and even more so when we walked around it to the pits where they dumped the ashes and saw that you could still find remains of human bones......after 60 years. At the site of Crematoria II, there was a Jewish family there that lit a candle and placed it on the rubble and began to recite the Kaddish. Even though I couldn't understand what they were saying, and I'm not Jewish, it was really very touching to hear and heartbreaking to see that people are still affected by this.
It was really just crazy to actually see how evil some people can be. It makes me wonder what was so bad in the lives of that many people that they could listen to and follow someone that psychotic when they're planning to exterminate an entire race of people. It truly was an eye-opening experience.

Kazimierz

Today after class, Vladek took us to Kazimierz, which is the Jewish quarter here in Krakow. It was truly awe-inspiring. We saw both the old and new Jewish cemeteries and several different synagogues. In the cemeteries, instead of flowers, people would place small stones on the graves as a small memento that they were there. Although we did not see the Jewish ghetto or Schindler's factory today, I think we will see that sometime this week since the International Holocaust Conference starts on Wednesday. I got several good pictures in Kazimierz, and I can't wait to show them to everybody! But I better go do some reading for class, so I will write more later!

Lauren

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Today we visited the salt mine in Wieliczka, which is about 20 minutes from the center of Krakow. It was awesome! It was amazing to see what these people can carve out of salt. We descended 600 feet (300 stairs) into the mine, which took a while. They made sure to tell us not to go away from the group because if we got lost, it could take them up to a year to find us! At one point, we saw some statues of some mine workers and their horse that helped with the loads. Our guide told us that the horses were lowered into the mines and then they stayed there for the rest of their lifetimes. I can only imagine how cold it could get down there in the winter. They also had a beautiful cathedral carved out of the salt in the mine. It was gorgeous, and there was a statue of Pope John Paul II in the cathedral since he was from Krakow. However, by the time it was built, he was too old to be able to descend into the mine, and was never able to see the statue. The last really amazing thing was a huge ballroom inside the mine that was carved out of the salt! Our guide said that it would hold up to 500 people!
The past few days have really been incredible! I am so lucky and blessed to have been given this opportunity and I am so glad that I took it! I love all of y'all and I hope you're having a good time wherever you are!

Lauren

I'm finally in Europe!

Well, I'm finally here! It's been amazing so far! I have met the coolest people. A couple of Scots, a Brit, and an Irishman. They were awesome, me and my friends went with Paddy (the Irishman) and James (the Brit) to a couple of bars last night and had a really good time! Classes have been good so far....Dr. Krammer is amazing. We're going to take a tour of Wawel Castle tomorrow, so that should be good and we go to the first of 3 operas, Tosca, on Sunday night! But I'm going to go enjoy the beautiful city, so I will write more later!

Lauren

I finally got my passport!

So it finally came in today! After 13 weeks it's finally here! Thank goodness because I leave in like 10 days. I am so excited! I can't wait, it's going to be so much fun! I hope everybody will enjoy seeing my pictures and reading my journal! I'll try to update it as often as possible. But I better head off to work, so I will write more later!