05 | 09 | 18
A U S C H W I T Z
This past weekend I visited hell on Earth. I visited the largest mass murder sight in the entire world. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever witnessed and the most empty, sickening feeling i've ever felt in my lifetime… but I had too. Because we must not forget. We must temporarily put ourselves through a small fraction of the sorrow and somber feeling that Jewish women, children, fathers, grandparents, lovers; felt, amongst many other terrible emotions, every single day for five years.
On saturday morning our group left bright and early for Krakow, Poland. It was about a 3 hour bus ride away. Since we left so early, I slept the majority of the way there. Upon our arrival about 5 minutes out, I woke to a beautiful scenery. Lots of bright green trees and windy roads leading to cute storybook houses and cafes. Immediately we headed to the famous Salt Mines, where we'd go on a three hour tour. The salt mines are 9 stories deep and thousands of feet under ground. We only covered 1% of the 2,000 caves there were to see. Since the mine is now a museum, the caves weren't as "authentic" as I expected. Which I was totally okay with because it meant no dirty clothes, no bats, and no haunted spirits like I was expecting. Instead the salt caves looked like limestone hallways that were very wide open. In each little "hallway" there were replicas of miners and the tools they used to mine. There was also waterways with salt water we were able to taste. So salty it burnt my lips!! Think of the dead sea X's like 1,000. In one part of the cave there is a massive carved out chapel about 3 floors down. It had chandeliers made of salt as well as these amazing carved out reliefs. It was very beautiful and hard to believe these miners had such artistic talents. After the salt mine tour was over, our group checked into our hostel (dont even ask, if you've read my previous blogs you can imagine what it was like..wahhhhhh. *eye roll & crying emoji*) my hostel roomies and I went and had a salad! After dinner, Jess and I walked around in a mall for a little bit but didn't find much! We headed back to the hostel to get some sleep…which didn't happen. The hostel didn't have air and we were on the third floor, so we opened the window where directly below us a group of annoying and extremely loud chubby british men decided to cause a riot. all. night. long. all of us tossed and turned from the heat and the noise and the extremely uncomfortable beds. Super annoying but what do we expect at this point with the damn hostels. Nothing less.
On Sunday our group was ready by 10 a.m. to head to Schindler's factory. A lot of people in my group watched the movie Schindler's list before hand and kept pushing all of us to watch it..but I just couldnt. I've heard from enough people now how tough it is to get through. I feel every single emotion much stronger than your average person…anyone whose close to me knows this about me. So I opted out and after visiting the museum I was glad I did. The entire interior of the factory was destroyed so it didn't look anything like what you see in the movie I guess. Instead, its completely transformed into a Holocaust exhibit. Not just about the factory itself, but a complete timeline of how the Holocaust started and happened, and how quickly it got out of hand. One thing that was so hard was the exhibit featured diary entires from Jewish children. There was this one little girl, 8 year old Stella Meuller, whose entries I followed throughout the exhibit. At one point she wrote about how her daddy kept coming home with bloody noses and black eyes, and how he told her it was just because he was working too hard because he didn't want to scare her. I went on to read about how hungry she was. It was so heartbreaking. When the museum tour was over by lunchtime it was hard to come out of and step back into the sunny world with everything i'd just read about and seen. After we left the factory we went to lunch and got polish street food! It was different but yummy! We then decided to head down to the historic city center where we walked around the little polish boho shops and saw the cutest little souvenirs. After gathering our post cards we kept seeing all these horse and carriage buggies tours that you could take for about $20 US dollars. I really wanted too, since it was my last trip I told the girls to hop in and enjoy the experience with me! It was actually the highlight of my trip!!! We laughed and messed around the whole time, we stepped back into our glory days of being little girls and pretended like we were princesses being taken to the castle…just with a little more vulgar and humorous language. LOL. It was funny and made for a good way to take our mind off the heavy experience we had to have in Poland. After our little buggy ride, we hopped on out and grabbed a donut. Naturally. Then Cara and I headed to our European mothership…Pull & Bear. Pull & Bear is in every country, but the U.S. and the clothes are Urban Outfitters vibes and quality with forever 21 prices. Winning. I did some shopping for me and my sweet little sister! After we left the mall, we walked back to our hostel through this beautiful park!! It was honestly one of the prettiest parks i've ever walked through, so green and old, no trash or graffiti. Lots of pretty flowers and cobblestone pathways. Care and I turned on feel good tunes like usual and made our way back to the noisy hostel. 6 of us girls went to dinner that night and had really special conversation about how much we appreciated one another and how amazing our bonds have become!
We woke at 5:00 a.m. the next morning after another rough and sleepless night. We all prepared ourselves for the emotions and feelings we were about to experience. Our tour bus left for the Auschwitz camps which were about an hour 1/2 away. When we arrived, we parked and approached the camp. To be quite honest, the green crisp grass and the upkeep of the outer grounds made for an odd initial feeling. I was expecting scary, dirty grounds but the smell reminded me of a golf course early in the morning and I really didnt feel any sort of erie feeling, not right away anyway. After going through a security line and receiving a headset from our guide we approached the gate into Auschwitz 1. The gates sign translates to "Work Will Set You Free." My initial feeling when reading it was just pissed. I was pissed off because it was a scheme, I though "those people weren't "working". They were tortured and killed." When you stepped inside the camp you see many brick buildings or "barracks" that were previously (before the concentration camp) used as a housing quarter for polish soilders. Then when the Nazis invaded poland they over took the grounds for their horrible concentration camp. The barracks we visited housed thousands of Jews and Hungarian gypsies. The rooms were no bigger than an average classroom size yet there were 800 jews per room. They were on top of one another. After seeing the first couple of empty barracks which just held Holocaust propaganda and signs informing us on what actually took place there, we then visited a barrack that gigantic glass cases full of jewish hair. There I stood looking at masses, and mounds upon mounds of hair, what stood out to me was a beautiful blonde, thick, little braid. It looked so much like my baby sisters hair. All I could think of was how these poor people were forced out of their clothes, their belongings, their living quarters their lives and their dignity, to have their own hair shaved off like animals. After seeing the hair, a massive glass case full of jewish shoes followed. Each one of them dirty and worn, but unique. They belonged to somebodies mama, their papa, their baby. How awful. We then came across casings full of bloody and ripped baby clothes, and cases full of glasses, some of them broken. How heart breaking for a little old man who couldn't see without them, to have them ripped off his face and broken. All I could think of was each one of these individual items belonged to someone who went through hell. We walked out of the barracks to a blank wall with flowers and memorials lined against it. This was the wall where the jews were lined daily and instructed to get down on their knees to be shot and killed. It was awful and walking away from it I got nauseas and sick to my stomach. I'd never felt so empty. At Auschwitz 1, our tour ended with seeing the crematories and gas chambers thousands of jews were forced into to take their "showers." It was just awful and knowing that I then had to go 5 minutes away and tour Auschwitz 2, for the remainder of the afternoon was really tough…
Walking into Auschwitz 2 was surreal. The long path to hell that lead you too a giant building and barbed wire fences surrounding acres and acres of barracks, fields, and train tracks. After walking through its gates I got to the point where I felt nothing. I looked around to see a mile long road that lead to the end of the rail platform where the two other gas chambers lay burned and destroyed from the Nazis attempting to cover their crimes. We started our long walk down to the end where the rocky road was really hard to walk on. I thought of all the poor barefoot babies who had to walk and run back and fourth working on it for 12 hours a day, exhausted and hungry and beat. When we finally got to the end their was a memorial statue that represented the families that died at the camp. There was also a sign that read "Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, children, and mainly Jews from various countries of Europe." How sobering. I stood and looked at the destroyed gas chambers with disgust and anger and loads of sadness… We made our way back up the long road to visit the only barrack open to visitors. The children's Block. The living quarters were just awful. There were three tired hard wooden bunks the poor babies were forced to sleep on. Many of them piled on top of one another. They weren't allowed to used the restroom at night so many of them were forced to relieve themselves right on top of one another. The carvings of the names and stars of David were so heartbreaking and I really couldnt take any more of it. Thankfully our tour concluded after that and I walked away absolutely somber. I felt NOTHING and EVERYTHING at the same time. and I never ever wish to feel it again.
This past weekend I visited hell on Earth. I visited the largest mass murder sight in the entire world. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever witnessed and the most empty, sickening feeling i've ever felt in my lifetime… but I had too. Because we must not forget. We must temporarily put ourselves through a small fraction of the sorrow and somber feeling that Jewish women, children, fathers, grandparents, lovers; felt, amongst many other terrible emotions, every single day for five years. All in all, im grateful I saw it because it meant paying my respects to those beautiful, innocent souls.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. | John 3:20
A U S C H W I T Z
This past weekend I visited hell on Earth. I visited the largest mass murder sight in the entire world. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever witnessed and the most empty, sickening feeling i've ever felt in my lifetime… but I had too. Because we must not forget. We must temporarily put ourselves through a small fraction of the sorrow and somber feeling that Jewish women, children, fathers, grandparents, lovers; felt, amongst many other terrible emotions, every single day for five years.
On saturday morning our group left bright and early for Krakow, Poland. It was about a 3 hour bus ride away. Since we left so early, I slept the majority of the way there. Upon our arrival about 5 minutes out, I woke to a beautiful scenery. Lots of bright green trees and windy roads leading to cute storybook houses and cafes. Immediately we headed to the famous Salt Mines, where we'd go on a three hour tour. The salt mines are 9 stories deep and thousands of feet under ground. We only covered 1% of the 2,000 caves there were to see. Since the mine is now a museum, the caves weren't as "authentic" as I expected. Which I was totally okay with because it meant no dirty clothes, no bats, and no haunted spirits like I was expecting. Instead the salt caves looked like limestone hallways that were very wide open. In each little "hallway" there were replicas of miners and the tools they used to mine. There was also waterways with salt water we were able to taste. So salty it burnt my lips!! Think of the dead sea X's like 1,000. In one part of the cave there is a massive carved out chapel about 3 floors down. It had chandeliers made of salt as well as these amazing carved out reliefs. It was very beautiful and hard to believe these miners had such artistic talents. After the salt mine tour was over, our group checked into our hostel (dont even ask, if you've read my previous blogs you can imagine what it was like..wahhhhhh. *eye roll & crying emoji*) my hostel roomies and I went and had a salad! After dinner, Jess and I walked around in a mall for a little bit but didn't find much! We headed back to the hostel to get some sleep…which didn't happen. The hostel didn't have air and we were on the third floor, so we opened the window where directly below us a group of annoying and extremely loud chubby british men decided to cause a riot. all. night. long. all of us tossed and turned from the heat and the noise and the extremely uncomfortable beds. Super annoying but what do we expect at this point with the damn hostels. Nothing less.
On Sunday our group was ready by 10 a.m. to head to Schindler's factory. A lot of people in my group watched the movie Schindler's list before hand and kept pushing all of us to watch it..but I just couldnt. I've heard from enough people now how tough it is to get through. I feel every single emotion much stronger than your average person…anyone whose close to me knows this about me. So I opted out and after visiting the museum I was glad I did. The entire interior of the factory was destroyed so it didn't look anything like what you see in the movie I guess. Instead, its completely transformed into a Holocaust exhibit. Not just about the factory itself, but a complete timeline of how the Holocaust started and happened, and how quickly it got out of hand. One thing that was so hard was the exhibit featured diary entires from Jewish children. There was this one little girl, 8 year old Stella Meuller, whose entries I followed throughout the exhibit. At one point she wrote about how her daddy kept coming home with bloody noses and black eyes, and how he told her it was just because he was working too hard because he didn't want to scare her. I went on to read about how hungry she was. It was so heartbreaking. When the museum tour was over by lunchtime it was hard to come out of and step back into the sunny world with everything i'd just read about and seen. After we left the factory we went to lunch and got polish street food! It was different but yummy! We then decided to head down to the historic city center where we walked around the little polish boho shops and saw the cutest little souvenirs. After gathering our post cards we kept seeing all these horse and carriage buggies tours that you could take for about $20 US dollars. I really wanted too, since it was my last trip I told the girls to hop in and enjoy the experience with me! It was actually the highlight of my trip!!! We laughed and messed around the whole time, we stepped back into our glory days of being little girls and pretended like we were princesses being taken to the castle…just with a little more vulgar and humorous language. LOL. It was funny and made for a good way to take our mind off the heavy experience we had to have in Poland. After our little buggy ride, we hopped on out and grabbed a donut. Naturally. Then Cara and I headed to our European mothership…Pull & Bear. Pull & Bear is in every country, but the U.S. and the clothes are Urban Outfitters vibes and quality with forever 21 prices. Winning. I did some shopping for me and my sweet little sister! After we left the mall, we walked back to our hostel through this beautiful park!! It was honestly one of the prettiest parks i've ever walked through, so green and old, no trash or graffiti. Lots of pretty flowers and cobblestone pathways. Care and I turned on feel good tunes like usual and made our way back to the noisy hostel. 6 of us girls went to dinner that night and had really special conversation about how much we appreciated one another and how amazing our bonds have become!
We woke at 5:00 a.m. the next morning after another rough and sleepless night. We all prepared ourselves for the emotions and feelings we were about to experience. Our tour bus left for the Auschwitz camps which were about an hour 1/2 away. When we arrived, we parked and approached the camp. To be quite honest, the green crisp grass and the upkeep of the outer grounds made for an odd initial feeling. I was expecting scary, dirty grounds but the smell reminded me of a golf course early in the morning and I really didnt feel any sort of erie feeling, not right away anyway. After going through a security line and receiving a headset from our guide we approached the gate into Auschwitz 1. The gates sign translates to "Work Will Set You Free." My initial feeling when reading it was just pissed. I was pissed off because it was a scheme, I though "those people weren't "working". They were tortured and killed." When you stepped inside the camp you see many brick buildings or "barracks" that were previously (before the concentration camp) used as a housing quarter for polish soilders. Then when the Nazis invaded poland they over took the grounds for their horrible concentration camp. The barracks we visited housed thousands of Jews and Hungarian gypsies. The rooms were no bigger than an average classroom size yet there were 800 jews per room. They were on top of one another. After seeing the first couple of empty barracks which just held Holocaust propaganda and signs informing us on what actually took place there, we then visited a barrack that gigantic glass cases full of jewish hair. There I stood looking at masses, and mounds upon mounds of hair, what stood out to me was a beautiful blonde, thick, little braid. It looked so much like my baby sisters hair. All I could think of was how these poor people were forced out of their clothes, their belongings, their living quarters their lives and their dignity, to have their own hair shaved off like animals. After seeing the hair, a massive glass case full of jewish shoes followed. Each one of them dirty and worn, but unique. They belonged to somebodies mama, their papa, their baby. How awful. We then came across casings full of bloody and ripped baby clothes, and cases full of glasses, some of them broken. How heart breaking for a little old man who couldn't see without them, to have them ripped off his face and broken. All I could think of was each one of these individual items belonged to someone who went through hell. We walked out of the barracks to a blank wall with flowers and memorials lined against it. This was the wall where the jews were lined daily and instructed to get down on their knees to be shot and killed. It was awful and walking away from it I got nauseas and sick to my stomach. I'd never felt so empty. At Auschwitz 1, our tour ended with seeing the crematories and gas chambers thousands of jews were forced into to take their "showers." It was just awful and knowing that I then had to go 5 minutes away and tour Auschwitz 2, for the remainder of the afternoon was really tough…
Walking into Auschwitz 2 was surreal. The long path to hell that lead you too a giant building and barbed wire fences surrounding acres and acres of barracks, fields, and train tracks. After walking through its gates I got to the point where I felt nothing. I looked around to see a mile long road that lead to the end of the rail platform where the two other gas chambers lay burned and destroyed from the Nazis attempting to cover their crimes. We started our long walk down to the end where the rocky road was really hard to walk on. I thought of all the poor barefoot babies who had to walk and run back and fourth working on it for 12 hours a day, exhausted and hungry and beat. When we finally got to the end their was a memorial statue that represented the families that died at the camp. There was also a sign that read "Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, children, and mainly Jews from various countries of Europe." How sobering. I stood and looked at the destroyed gas chambers with disgust and anger and loads of sadness… We made our way back up the long road to visit the only barrack open to visitors. The children's Block. The living quarters were just awful. There were three tired hard wooden bunks the poor babies were forced to sleep on. Many of them piled on top of one another. They weren't allowed to used the restroom at night so many of them were forced to relieve themselves right on top of one another. The carvings of the names and stars of David were so heartbreaking and I really couldnt take any more of it. Thankfully our tour concluded after that and I walked away absolutely somber. I felt NOTHING and EVERYTHING at the same time. and I never ever wish to feel it again.
This past weekend I visited hell on Earth. I visited the largest mass murder sight in the entire world. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever witnessed and the most empty, sickening feeling i've ever felt in my lifetime… but I had too. Because we must not forget. We must temporarily put ourselves through a small fraction of the sorrow and somber feeling that Jewish women, children, fathers, grandparents, lovers; felt, amongst many other terrible emotions, every single day for five years. All in all, im grateful I saw it because it meant paying my respects to those beautiful, innocent souls.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. | John 3:20
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