Auschwitz-Birkenau

"Arbeit Macht Frei"

The words written on the gates of nearly every German concentration camp from World War II. In English, it roughly translates to "Work Makes You Free". Chances are, you've probably heard about the words before, most likely as you daydreamed in your high school history class. To many, the words mean nothing. Yet, as you stand at the entrance of Auschwitz, and the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" hang coldly above the gate where 1.5 million Jews were led obstentiously to their deaths, you realize how chillingly real those words become.

Today was our trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. To say I was extremely excited to visit a death camp may sound inapporpriate for those of you who don't know about my strong interest in history, so let me just say that I had been looking forward to seeing the camps for some time. This was actually my second trip to a concentration camp. The first camp I visited was the Sachenhausen Concentration Camp in the town of Oranienburg just outside Berlin. Saschenhausen was used mainly for political prisoners and Soviet POWs, although later in the war,Jews were brought and murdered here, up to 10,000 I believe. Much of the camp was dismantled or burned down, and it's rather hard to get a feel for what happened there. Saschenhausen isn't the symbol of German opression. Auschwitz is.

We drove for an hour to see the Camp, and quickly got into a 3.5 hr English tour. We were taken inside the gates and shown around the barracks area. Much of the living quarters that the prisoners of Auschwitz used look more like military barracks than holding cells. And in fact, they were. Prior to Nazi occupation, the buildings were used by the Polish Military to house soldiers and supplies. Once the Nazis invaded Poland on Sept. 1st, 1939, that all changed.

While the exterior at first glance showed itself to have much in common with a contemporary prison (with barbed wire fences and watch-towers), it was the inside that detailed the madness and brutality that took place room. Each different barracks we were led into detailed everything about prisoner experiences in Auschwitz. Who was brought here. What they were forced to do. Where they were punished. What was taken from them. Everything. Each room, (from the SS "Tribunal" room where prisoners were given death sentences for something as little as sharing bread with another inmate) got progressively worse and worse (We were also shown "The Dark Room" where up to 20 prisoners at a time were forced into a lightless and seal-proof room, often to suffocate to death)

It isn't until we get to the possessions barrack that I had my first genuine jaw dropping, mouth covering experience.

We were lead into a dark room, about 15-20 yards in length, and on the left side of the room contains a lighted room behind a sheet of glass.

In this room contains the human hair of over 20,000 prisoners, mostly female.

The Sonderkommandos (prisoners forced by the SS to do specific tasks, such as disposal of bodies within camps) would be charged with shaving the heads of women after they had been gassed. This hair was then packed and sent to a German company, which used the hair to make everything from blankets to nets. The thought of a government trying to eradicate an entire population was bad enough, the fact that a company tried to profit from it made it almost unthinkable.

Much of the rest of the rooms were the same. One room contained thousands of children's shoes. The next contained thousands of clothes that formerly belonged to prisoners. You realize these people were literally stripped of everything they had.

After Auschwitz, we were driven to Birkenau, and although many of the barricks for Birkenau no longer stand, the chimneys and much of the fencing, railways, and other things still exist. The camp stretches as far as the eye can see. Once your hard, it's not hard to imagine over 90,000 people at a time were forced to live on this sprawling base.


It was an experience I was glad I was able to have. I honestly think everyone should have to visit these camps to understand the gravity of what happened in World War II. It's quite a thing for young Americans like myself to read about how horrible the atrocities were, and quite another thing to see with your own eyes where it happened.

As we left the camp, I couldn't help but think how anyone could possibly deny that the holocaust ever happened. There is so much evidence, so much documentation, and so many stories from those lucky few who survived. I imagine most people who take such a stand have probably never visited a place like Auschwitz. Or Dachau. Or Saschenhausen. It seems like nowadays, denying the holocaust ever happened is chic for some, either because it serves someone's political purpose (like Iran's Ahmadinejad) or perhaps because people simply don't learn. Humans kill each other for some of the most trivial reasons, yet after such an event as this, you would think we would have learned from our mistakes after coming to the brink.

Apparently, some of us still haven't.

Krakow: Mildly Offensive since 1945!

We arrived in Krakow, Poland last night after what seemed like a 4 hour drive. I say it seemed like a 4 hour drive, because it should have been a 2 hour drive. I woke up from a nap to discover that we had apparently taken a wrong turn somewhere, and we're were now on some back-country roads in the middle of nowhere....in Poland.

^$%&^%!!!


Not to worry though, after stopping at a gas station to buy a map (and talk to an equally confused gas station attendant who spoke only Polish), we were back on the road and back on track. I got my first experience driving in Poland, which I suppose was as monumentous as say...driving on I-275 in Detroit. We arrived late last night so didn't really go out and see the city.

Today was adventure day, and I was pretty stoked. We made a trip down to the Old Town Center first. Very beautiful. Old churches. Old buildings. Old people. Just your typical European city. Krakow sort of reminds me of a 50 year old retired meth-abusing SuperModel. You can see it still has some beauty, and a long time ago it was probably extremely beautiful. But it also looks as if it's been put through the ringer a few times (and in this case, by the Commies)

Regardless, it is a wonderful city. After checking that out, we drove through the Jewish Quarter (and past Liam Nees...I mean Oskar Schindler's factory), before walking around the Wawot Castle as the sunset. Again, another fantastic structure which gave a great view of much of the rest of the city.

All in all a great day. And a great start to our little trip to the land of Golash and Lech Walesa. On a side note, I will probably never figure out this damn language. Everything seems to end in an 'e', 'y' or an 'i'. I saw a sign for computer repair with the words "komputery" written in big letters on the window. It is even harder trying to comprehend the language on the radio, although after every 5 minutes of talking, they seem to continuously play Lady GaGa music.

That's all for now.

Cheers.

*ON a side note, you may be wondering what makes Krakow "mildy offensive" as my title suggests. I have a picture from a tour guide brochure which I need to upload (and have to dedicate a short post to). Regardless, you will know what I'm talking about once you see the picture.

Road Trippin' It.

So today's random blog update takes place from Krakow, Poland. I can't say it's from "lovely" Krakow because I haven't actually had a chance to go see the city yet, but that'll come later today, and there will be another post talking about that.

My girlfriend's parents are in town, and were nice enough to take me and Noel on a little road trip through East Germany and Poland. First stops on our trip were Leipzig and Dresden, one city known for absolutely nothing and the other known for being blasted to smithereens in WWII.

The first stop was at Leipzig. Now I can't honestly say that Leipzig is known for nothing because that's not true. The first major protests to take place against the GDR Regime (German Democratic Republic, or Communist East Germany for you non-history types)happened right here in Leipzig. But other than that, I don't really know much about the city itself, and to be honest, it isn't the most attractive German city I've ever visited. Driving into the city, you get to see nothing but all of the gaudy, uniform Communist-era apartment buildings and structures that helped give the Reds a giant 'F' in architectural creativity. This is also one city (much like Berlin) that doesn't benefit from winter weather or overcast skies, as the more overcast it is, the uglier the city gets. Once we got downtown, we were able to see a bit of old town Leipzig, which was nice, but again, nothing to write home about. If I were going to rank this city on a list of German cities I've visited, I wouldn't put it too much higher than Madgeburg (the Flint, MI of Germany)

Dresden, however, was a different story. We got into Dresden late on Wednesday night, and coming in, I thought it might be more of the same of this city as well. But I was wrong. Downtown (Old town) Dresden was quite impressive. And very beautiful. Old buildings with neo-classical designs found everywhere. Palaces. Churches. Amazing. What impressed me the most was the Frauenkirche. A beautiful church located in the heart of old town. Looking at the Church, you would look at it and marvel and how it somehow managed to survive the bombings of WWII.

Truth is, it didn't. Looking at a postcard not far from the Church, I saw a picture of the church lying in absolute rubble just after the war. The Church, like much of the city, was literally rebuilt from scratch. Dresdeners worked tirelessly to rebuild and restore much of the buildings that helped give the city the nickname of the "Florence on the Elba".

As I've gone through cities like Dresden, and Berlin, it almost makes you sad over the amount of history lost thanks to the Nazis. Here you had a totalitarian regime that was in power for barely 13 years, yet they still managed to wipe out thousands of years of German history because of their own ignorance and aggressiveness. Berlin would easily be on par with Paris and Rome in terms of its beauty if many of the buildings that had been constructed before the war had survived. The Communists took over the East, effectively replacing one dictatorship with another, and did nothing but cheapen the look of much of East Germany. What a shame.

That's all I got for now. Off to explore Krakow a bit for the next couple of days. Will tell you all a bit about what the city is like.

Cheers.

Um...well....CRAP!

So naturally, I wrote my last post admonishing myself for not writing on my blog more. And what do I do? Wait another couple months! Hooray for procrastination!

Since my last blog post was on June 8th of this year, I'll give you all an update on what has happened since then.

-I finished working for the Lichtenberger Sprachinstitut (the children's school I worked for) on July 15th. That job was filled with its ups and downs. I had to deal with a handful of psychotic German, a sometimes psychotic management, and the pains of driving 450km a week. All in a car just a little bigger than the desk your computer is sitting on. There were positives to the job though, and ironically enough, for as much as I bitched about the job and the travel, I felt myself getting just a bit emotional saying goodbye to the kids. Sure, there were plenty of kids (mostly my 8 year olds) that hated the very idea of English and tried to make my life a living hell for 6 months, but for everyone of them there were 2 or 3 genuine great kids, who came to class each week excited to see me, excited to learn english, and excited to act like a goofball just like their teacher. On the last day, they were crying, and some had death clutches on my leg as they hugged me and wouldn't let go. A good experience nonetheless, and I learned a little bit about German life that most Expats in Berlin never get to see.

-I've also done a bit of traveling in the last 6 months. In May, my sister paid a visit for 10 days and we took a weekend trip over to London. Great city. Had the opportunity to do most of the "tourist attraction" type stuff such as Westminster Abbey, Parliament, etc. But considering how much of a history buff I am, I didn't mind. The only downer of London was that it was so god damn expensive. Just eating out cost me and my sister an arm and a leg. And Don't even get me started with transportation.

In June, I took another weekend trip, this time to Rome. My mother was here to visit this time, apparnetly as part of the Stanton Family Tour. Of all the cities I have visited so far, Rome is perhaps my favorite. History literally surrounds you everywhere. It was surreal. I know it is odd (and perhaps a bit nerdy) to try to visualize the city and its inhabitants thousands of years ago, but while wandering the streets, and seeing both the Colosseum and Palatine Hill up close, it was hard not to. Italians are also an interesting bunch. Super Friendly, extremely helpful, but also doing just about anything to try to rip you off. Whether it was food being mysteriously added to our restaurant bills, or the hotel trying to add an extra 30 euro to our hotel bill for no reason, it seems like they try to squeeze every last dime out of you. I did manage to hear one of the worst (and yet awesome) pick-up lines used in quite a while. As I left the Colosseum, a vendor trying to peddle his merchandise saw a pretty girl in front of me and said the following:

"Hey Baby! Where you come from? Paradise?!?! aaayyyyyyyy!!!!"

All I could think about for the rest of the week was the creepy Italian guy from 'Eurotrip'.


In the last of my travels, I actually came back to the United States in August and spent some time with the Blanchet family. We took a 7 day cruise to Mexico (Cabo and Puerto Vallarta) which was a great time and relaxing, before I went back to Michigan for 10 days and spent some time with the family. I definitely took advantage of the euro-to-dollar exchange a little too much as I was a bit broke when I got back to Germany.



I'll leave it at that for now. I'll go into my internship with the ICD and Graduate School in another post.

Cheers.