This morning we boarded the bus for what was supposed to be a little over an hour drive to Auschwitz. However, the traffic - same as in the US - and the poor condition of Polish communist-era roads resulted in a two hour bus ride. No matter. It gave Peter, our tour guide, a chance to talk to us about the history of Poland and the events leading up to the Holocaust. Peter is a very interesting speaker and the bus was quiet; he had all ears.
We arrived at Auschwitz and were given head phones by which we could clearly hear our tour guide, who walked us through the main gate (with the overhead sign Arbeit Macht Frei - "Freedom Through Work"), the barracks which now house artifacts from the camp, and the gas chambers. It was very quiet and as our tour guide mentioned "...hard to get your brain around."
Birkenau was about 2k away and we stopped there briefly -some of the movie Shindler's List was shot here. It was truly a death camp and was about 15 times larger than Auschwitz. Here families deboarded the train and were immediately divided into "those fit to work" and those who would march directly to the gas chambers. Whereas at Auschwitz there were trees and shade, there were none at Birkenau, which on top of all the other devastating conditions, must have been hot and humid in the summer - with no relief. It was a sobering day.
We returned to Krakow at about 4PM and had free time until now, when we leave for a 'dress-up dinner' with the possibility of a Chopin concert or tour through the Jewish ghetto or....?
Krakow is a beautiful town. On the way back to the hotel, there was a trio of accordian players - playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. They were very, very talented, if not a little strange.
Tomorrow morning we leave for Budapest. We will travel through Slovakia and it is a long trip so we will not be there until late tomorrow night. There may be no post tomorrow.
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