Auschwitz

Just a quick note....I'm keeping it brief since it's morning here.

Visited Auschwitz-Birkenau yesterday, which is about a 1.5 hour bus trip out of Krakow. It's about as sobering as expected. Auschwitz is really the site of three concentration camps all located in close proximity (Auschwitz-Birkenau-Monowitz). I toured the first two.

Auschwitz was known more of a hard labor concentration camp, while Birkenau's sole intent was quick and efficient mass murder, mainly through the gas chambers. You've probably seen pictures of the entrances to both, but the sheer size of Birkenau is what was so sobering. The buildings went on and on...and on. All of these buildings housed sick and dying concentration camp victims (from Auschwitz) initially until the Nazis built it up into a mass murder machine...at which point they murdered over 1,000,000 people (mostly Jews at Birkenau). As the Nazis realized they weren't going to win the war and as the Red Soviet Army approached, they attempted to hide as much of the war crime evidence as possible. But when you've just murdered over 1 million people at one location, they evidence is overwhelming and obvious.

They had exhibits at Auschwitz where the Nazis had failed to destroy all of the evidence...all of the belongs that was confiscated from the Jews as they arrived. They had room's full on display with mounds of glasses, brushes, shoes, women's hair. The Nazis were so cruel to even use human hair in the textiles production.

One thing that isn't always mentioned in news reports, text, etc as often is the fact that it wasn't just Jews that were mass-murdered. The Nazis also killed of millions of resistance fighters/insurgents, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, and Soviet POWs.

I returned to Krakow around 6p that evening. Krakow was much nicer the second evening around. I guess I just had an attitude adjustment. One of the more exciting parts of European travel is trying to spend your remaining currency. Poland doesn't use the Euro, so I had to burn up any unused Polish money I had left (about $25 worth). So I went on a mini-shopping spree on stuff I don't need...lol. I ended up having an ice cream sundae on the main square in a cafe ($8) that had...orange slices, watermelon, grapes...with your regular expected two scoop ice cream and berries. The Polish are still working on their food as you can tell! I suggest that for our family Father's Day get together...ice cream topped with watermelon slices.

I'm in Vienna now for two days. My mission...to find the best apple streudel I can find.

Image: Auschwitz gate with the words "Work sets you free". Not my picture...it's not that chilly today. I've already used up 50% of my battery space on my camera, so...I'm being careful. I can't recharge!