The Road of Death

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher

“I hope we will learn from history.”

Nazi Germany annexed Poland in 1939. 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, including 3 million Polish Jews. Auschwitz is the German name for the Polish city Oświęcim. Differ from the other killing centers, the Auschwitz complex consisted of a concentration camp, a labor camp, a large gas chambers, and a crematorium at Birkenau for the mass murder.

Eyeglasses. Crutches. Hair (for haircloth and felt). The biggest holocaust in mankind history is unimaginable. How could the soldiers work arrogantly and thought mankind would show gratitude to their mass murder? P stands for Pole; while red, green and pink refers to political, criminal, and homosexual prisoners. The badge coding system was inhumane. 

The camp was the largest of its kind in order to carry out the Nazi plan for the “Final Solution”. It was opened from 1940 to 1942, and closed in 1945 with its liberation by the Soviet army. Over 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, including nearly 1 million Jews. Those who were not sent to the gas chambers directly, were selected for forced labor in the labor camp.

“Hops is the last thing to die.”

1 track accommodated 80 people. Some died of starvation before arrival. Due to the stink in the bathroom, prisoners were able to conduct illegal activities, such as exchanging food and news. When one died, they could do nothing but search for food and clothes from the corpses, trying  to survive via trading. Suffering from rat attacks and illness were common.

Our guide’s grandpa was a forced labor, yet still assisted the Jews. “I would not be here if he got shot. He helped them exchange messages. Maybe I can do something too.” This heroic figure leads her a 25-year experience. For her, the relationship between Germany and Poland is as if marriage. Poland joined the EU in the right direction, yet it needs time to rebuild trust.

Fun Fact:

The Wawel Dragon required ransoms of cattle and virgins. Skuba, a young shoemaker, stuffed sulfur and pitched it into a ram. The beast could not extinguish burning sulfur and the gas made it explode. Lajkonik, which is an unofficial symbol of Krakow, resembles how the warriors repelled the Tatar invasion. This is how the Krakow people outsmarted any evil.