A dark chapter in history

Getting further behind in my postings - will keep this short as Booked a day trip with Cracow tours through the hostel to Oświęcim costing 90 zl. You can save by taking the public bus service arriving directly outside the museum, but you might have difficulty finding an English guide to bring you around, and trust me, a good guide is absolutely necessary to understand exactly what happened in history. Oświęcim is the nearest town to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Many would have heard about the former but it is the latter that is probably alot more frightening when you learn about the atrocities that happen behind the gates.

After an hour and half, you will arrive at the gates to Auschwitz I where the guide (if you have one) will meet you and bring you through. The first tour will take easily an hour and half and goes through a few key buildings in the camp which was formerly a Polish army camp converted to a concentration camp after the Nazis invaded the country. Hearing about how hundreds of thousands of people all over Europe were brought here, many of them killed immediately (especially the old, sickly, women and kids) is just shocking. Selection on whether you live or die alot down to luck; the lead doctor will stand in the train platform with the men and women split in 2 lines before deciding who is to live or die. Some of the exhibits in the blocks show hair that has been cut off the men and women, which filled up an entire room, which the Germans used it to make products back home in WW II. The Soviet camera man who documented the liberation mentioned that he saw 3 'hills' of items when he arrived - one of clothes, one of hair cut from the inmates, and the last dentures, where the gold were removed and smelted down to gold bars!

If Auschwitz was shocking, wait till you see Birkenau. The scale and size of the camp will is so huge that you cannot imagine how many people passed through the gates. The Germans even relaid the railway track so that it stops directly in front of the Birkenau camp instead of Auschwitz. The appalling living conditions and the facts about the extermination of the Jews makes it doubly worse. The article in Wikipedia describes it very well and shall not repeat more about further but will definitely suggest that you visit this place if you can as this is one history that we should all be aware of, even though millions will want to forget about the atrocities.

Got back to Krakow and collected my backpack from the hostel before spending a good 3 hours in the newest shopping complex in the town, which happened to be conveniently located beside the train station. Had my 4th Mcdonalds meal in 10 days (not proud of it) before purchasing a one way 2nd class ticket to Prague for 288 zl, only to find out later that the cabin seats 8 and is unheated! Was not the best way to spend the night and was only glad when it rolled into Prague city center after 9hrs.

Updated 16/3:
Link to more pictures from Auschwitz - Birkenau