World Denmark Nordjylland Hobro

Niels in Europe September 2009

Trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau Sep 12, 2009

I was up fairly early and had my breakfast (buffet style) and was ready when the minivan came to pick me up for the trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. There were eight people from different countries. A couple from Toronto (she spoke Polish), two from the States, a couple from Ireland, a chap from New Zealand and then the driver. It was good distance and took almost two hours from Cracow to get to the first camp - Auschwitz. When we arrived we were introduced to a tour guide and given a headsets which were connected to the guide's microphone. It was not to be what I would call a fun tour!!! The horrific photos showed us what went on in the four years the two camps were in operation. We were shown the dozens of buildings which housed the prisoners. The bunks were built for two adults but were often occupied by up to six adults. The 160 wooden barracks had large spaces between the roof and the walls, a small wood-burning oven in the center of the building did very little to raise to temperature to a reasonable level in the winter time. The brick buildings (about fifty of them) were slightly warmer. The cruelty of the Nazis, the Germans and their Polish helpers were unbelievable and many prisoners were shot just for talking while queuing up for mealtime or for work detail. The food served was almost uneatable and contained only a few hundred calories per person per day. Thousand of prisoners died from starvation or illness. The prisoners who were able to work were occupied more than 12 hours a day. We saw huge buildings with women's hair (tons of it) shaved off on arrival at the camp. It was often used to weave into cloth and carpets. There were large rooms with thousand of women's shoes; eye glasses, false teeth and thousand of suitcases which had contained the few possessions allowed on the train trip from their home to the camps. The camps prisoners were mostly Jewish citizens (438,000 from Hungary - 300,000 from Poland and the rest over 500,000 from 10 other European countries) in total 1.1 million Jews were killed there. Other prisoners were political, Soviet POW, Gypsies, criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals. The was a large map of Europe showing the countries were the Jewish people had been rounded up and sent by train to Auschwitz. It pleased me to see that there were no Jewish citizens of Denmark caught and sent south, it is well-known that Danish citizens hid and facilitated the escape of thousand of Danish citizens of Jewish faith October 1st 1943 to neutral Sweden. It is worth to note that 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust! People were systematically brought to the gas chambers in large groups, killed and then incinerated in ovens but when the numbers got too large the corpses were stacked outside a set a blaze. Towards the end of 1944, in the face of the Russian army offensive, the camp authorities decided to cover up all traces of crime. Documents were destroyed, some buildings were demolished, while others were burned or blown up. Those prisoners capable of marching were evacuated between the 17th and 21st of January 1945, deep into the "Third Reich". About 7.000 prisoners, left behind by the Germans were liberated by the Russians on January 27th 1945. Sadly so many of them died within the first year due to the poor health after years of torture and lack of decent food. The one photo, which made the most impression on me and made me cry, was taken by a German photographer and showed a group of Jewish children between the age of 5 and 10 years of age being led, they looked happy and were smiling and "going on picnic" they thought! Well, 20 minutes later they were all killed in the gas chamber!!! Our group went to the memorial and reflected on what we had seen. It was a very quiet bus going back to Cracow! Back in Cracow I took a tour of the city in an eco-taxi which was pedalled by a young man. The "taxi" had some kind of an electric motor helping with up-hill driving - just like "hybrid" car. There was another concert in nice old church - St. Peter and St. Paul's Church. It was a quintet with two violins, a viola, a cello and a base. All young people from the local Academy of Music. The programme was varied and included music by Pachelbel. Mozart, Bach, Saint-Saens, Brahms and. of course, Chopin. It was an appropriate finish to a very emotional day.