Poland: Part II

So belated, I know... let's travel back in time to mid-May.

We spent the second half of our time in Krakow seeing the Salt Mines as well as Auschwitz I & II.

 Wieliczka Salt Mines

These salt mines have been in existence since the 13th century. They no longer produce salt (as salt is not as expensive as it once was, these production facilities are not so economically viable), but are open for tours (which is much more economically viable). The tour is a mix of explaining how they mined the salt as well as showing off some of the many carvings made by miners and by artists into the salt. The walls, the floors are all salt- though not in the pretty white crystal form we use on the table. Its more of a greyish substance, but it's definitely salt.

These carvings are all in salt.

Salt

The tracks from the old mining carts built into the salt floor.

They actually used horses way down in the mines- which is amazing to me. We had to walk down some 300+ narrow steps to get there. How on earth did they get the horses down there!!?

Matt helping with the demo

The miners built chapels within the mines as they were very religious and their work was quite dangerous (ie. they had a lot to pray about).

The Last Supper... carved in relief... in salt. In person it looks very deep, but it is really only a couple of inches deep.

Floor 'tiles' carved in salt

King Neptune

The deepest point, 130 meters or about 426.5 feet underground.

Auschwitz I

 After visiting the salt mines, we went to tour Auschwitz I & II. It was an extremely sad and disturbing tour, but we certainly felt it was somewhere important to visit. Auschwitz I is almost entirely intact, with many of the buildings repurposed inside to be more 'museum' style with various exhibits.

Infamous entrance sign: Arbeit Macht Frei (Work makes free... yeah right)

One of the 'dormitories'-  aside from the barbed wire and the knowledge of what went on here, you might think it was some sort of college campus.

This map shows how far the Nazi's went throughout Europe to capture both Jewish and other Prisoners held at Auschwitz.

This exhibit was all eyeglasses taken from prisoners as they arrived at Auschwitz.

Prayer shawls taken from prisoners.

Luggage taken from prisoners

Shoes taken from prisoners

 Seeing all of these items (and the sheer volume at that) taken from prisoners was extremely disturbing. In addition to these items we took pictures of, there was one room containing tons and tons (literally) of hair that was shaved off of the prisoners. The Nazis used the hair to make blankets among other things, but the hair in the exhibit was never used.

Punishment room. 4 people would be 'punished' (as if everything else weren't punishment enough) by being forced to stand together in one of these small compartments. Two are shown here, and obviously the walls at the time went all the way to the ceiling. With 4 people there was not room to sit or lay down. After a long day of labor they would spend the night in this compartment then be forced back to work the next morning.

Dormitory Room. Each bunk was said to have held 10 people.  

Gas chamber

Hole in the ceiling where the poison was dropped.

Crematorium

Auschwitz II (aka Birkenau)

Birkenau is 25 times the size of Auschwitz, and is approximately the size of the city of Hoboken. There is not a lot left here as the Nazis attempted to eliminate evidence once they knew it was over for them.

Entrance- you may recognize from movies such as Schindler's list. Unlike other camps, the Nazis built the railroad to run directly into this camp.

Some of the still existing buildings 

You can see in these pictures how vast this camp was. 

This was an actual car used to transport prisoners. It was found in Hungary. 

Remains of one of the gas chambers/crematoriums

Dormitory. In this camp testimony was given that one bunk (not the whole bed, just one bunk level) would hold up to 14 people. New prisoners were forced to sleep on the lower bunks and were able to move up when prisoners on higher bunks died. 

 In summary- seeing these camps was horrifically disturbing, but extremely important. I will never understand how any human could have rationalized this treatment of other humans.