we spent a morning there and at various points of time, my tears threatened to fall as i learnt more about the conditions then.
basically, jews were sent by the thousands every single day to this camp, lied with the notion they were leaving for a better place. so each of them will bring their own personal baggage with their most treasured stuff. upon reaching, the baggage was taken from them, looted by the germans, never to be seen again. and on they marched to the selection hall. only the young and fit stays, the old, sick, weak were all marched directly to the gas chambers. no resources were allocated for maintaining them. how sad. so the old people, women and children never had a chance. and normally, those young man who got to live work long hard hours day in and out with the worst living conditions. and before long, most of them died from starvation, exhaustion or sickness. it is a depressing place to visit. but one needs to do that to know.
as a quote i read there says,"the one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again".
arbeit macht frei roughly means work sets you free. but sadly, its death which will set these jews free. and everyday as early as 5am they will marched to work and there will be musicians playing instruments to "cheer" and lift their spirits. in reality, the aim is to let them walk faster by marching to the music.
and they do headcount when they left the camp and when they came back in the evening. so even those who died during the day out of exhaustion/sickness (which was pretty common) need to be lifted back by the others. if not, all will be punished as well.
tins of cyclone B from then.
at one point i chocked back my tears. for there was a part of exhibition dedicated to those children who died. as i look at the luggages and their contents (with the dolls and baby clothes), i really cant bear it. all those little feet being marched to the gas chambers. sigh. i took very very little photos here. too much to bear.
okie, onwards to happier stuff. we visited krakow town square which is really lovely and reminds me of St mark square.
cloth hall
St mary church
having their popular beetroot soup. tasted like ribena. ha.
went up to wavel hill which has the palace and the cathedral for the royal family. very tiring upslope walk.
one of the highlights of krakow is their salt mines. the salt mines are a good 100+m underground and supposedly it is cool and air is fresh down there.
climbing down the stairs to the salt mine. my legs ache after that..!
one of the attractions in the salt mine. an underground church. everything is craved out from salt+ minerals underground. an interesting sight.
we were a good 135m underground which we walked all the way down! the way up? by lift of cos. *lol*
and so ended our time at poland. onwards to budapest (hungary)!
No comments:
Post a Comment