Day 37 - Kraków (Auschwitz)

Parking is difficult in Kraków, because there are so many cars.  If a sign says "No Parking", no problem -  just park on the footpath!  

Today was a distressing and overwhelming look at the cruelty of one group of people against others.  The inhumanity and brutality of the 3rd Reich against prisoners is difficult to believe, far less accept.

Initially concentration camp inmates were political prisoners, religious leaders, and businessmen.  After that came prostitutes, gypsies, unmarried mothers, and pregnant women.  Once the gas chambers were up and running, the Nazis began rounding up Jewish people from all over Europe.  Of the people who died at the hands of the Nazis, 90% were Jewish.

After yesterday's Salt Mine tour, our legs were really feeling the walking over rough stone roads and climbing stairs.  With hindsight and knowledge, it may have been better to take the Auschwitz tour first and then the SaltMine.

The photos and words below explain some of the Auschwitz story.

This is the only entry and exit to Auschwitz.  The sign above the gate says "if you work you live"

 

Electrified fences against which many threw themselves to avoid the torture.

This map shows where the Nazis gathered the Jews from within Europe, destined for Auschwitz.

Origins of the people sent to Auschwitz.

Some statistics of the people sent to Auschwitz and their demise.

This photo is most important.  The doctors are looking at each person and those fit enough to work are told to move to the right ready to commence work, and the others are sent left and immediately prepared for the gas chamber.  As you can see, women and children are on the left and will all go straight to their deaths. It is here that families were torn apart and never to see their loved ones again. Only 25% of those entering were allowed to start work.  Of these, most were starved to death, tortured or shot for minor errors like falling over when exhausted.

As the description says at the bottom, these women and children are walking straight into the gas chamber, expecting a shower.

This is how they killed them.

Piles of personal luggage.  In this photo their suitcases have been stripped and thrown here.

And in this one their shoes.  I was not permitted to take a photo of the tonnes of hair that was cut off their heads when they entered the camp before they were murdered.

 

7000 people were left at Auschwitz when the Russians arrived and liberated those few remaining.

This is the gas chamber into which 800 naked people would be pushed and told they would be given a shower.  There were shower heads overhead just to make them calm , and then the gas came in.

4000 people would be gassed here every day.

The bodies would then have the gold in their teeth removed, their hair cut, jewellery removed, and placed on these benches and pushed into the furnace.  This was the most upsetting sight on the tour.  Ladies in the tour group were crying and it was a gut wrenching sight to see how obscene the Nazis had been.