In Vienna: One day in Poland...

17 June 12

As I attempt to put my experiences from Poland into words, I am at a loss for what to share because it all is so important. The trip was quick, the memories deep and the emotions overwhelming. For my description, I will simply start at the beginning. I took the night train on Friday, June 1^st from Vienna to Krakow. When I arrived at Krakow’s main train station on Saturday morning, I had only a slight idea of the paths down which my day would lead me. First off, arriving in the country where my father’s family is from; the country where my father’s family’s last name was Madry made my heart long to know and understand as much as possible about this place. For my single day trip, however, I would only get a glimpse.

My journey began with a tour to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, Birkenau. We traveled the hour from the center of Krakow to the visitor’s entry where we met up with our tour guide. She was from Oświęcim (Auschwitz in German) and worked as a teacher when she was not providing moving tours through the two camps. We started in Auschwitz I which was a work camp where only able-bodied men were housed. In our 1.5 hours we saw so much and I learned that the gas used in the gas chambers was called Cyclone 8 and its poisonous capacity was activated by heat. We walked through several of the brick barracks now converted to museums. Each told a story of the horrors perpetrated within the gates of Auschwitz. One remains as it was during WWII with glass covering the doorways where we could see the wooden barracks where victims slept. We were reminded that being held in Auschwitz I was a coveted position compared to the conditions of Auschwitz II, Birkenau.

In Barrack 11, the main hall was lined with photos taken by the Germans when new victims were brought in and there were so many names and facial features that were too familiar. My hometown was settled and formerly populated by Poles. I found a connection in this hallway that made me visibly tremble. Further down the hallway, I found pictures of Jewish victims who had been beaten before their photo was taken, and due to their date of arrival and date of death included under the photo I could see some did not even survive 24 hours in hell at Auschwitz.

Our trip to Auschwitz I ended with being shown the only remaining gas chamber to elude destruction as the Soviets liberated the camps. It was overpowering, it was devastating, it was terrifying, but we all walked in just as the victims did 7 decades ago. I could not believe the tour included walking through this site of so many deaths. It was such a small room where hundreds would be forced in at a time to die a few minutes later. After this, we were told our next stop would be the extermination camp, Birkenau and none of us had any verbal response, our silence said it all.

Walking into Birkenau was strange because the remaining or rebuilt barracks were so far off in the distance that the train tracks and entry gate appeared something like a factory, which is so far from what it was. When our guide began to explain each point to us the picture became so gruesome. It made me so angry to be in there! One point was the “staging area” where the train cars came into the camp and the victims were unloaded after days in stuffed into a small space. The women and children formed one line and the men in another. They were told to leave all of their belongings and a doctor stood at the front of the line; he would point his outstretched thumb to the left or the right. To the right meant immediate death, even before registration. To the left meant the person was fit to work and would thus have a chance to walk through misery and hell with a possibility of exiting on the other side.

We were taken through many spots in the camp including being shown how the Germans exploded the gas chambers in an attempt to hide their crimes before the camp was liberated. In the rubble you can still see the underground undressing room and the columns of the death chamber. There were four large gas chambers in Birkenau, remember Auschwitz I, the “work” camp only had one.

Our guide showed us the wash room and toilets. These were only long buildings, identical to the rest of the barracks, with long open sinks that had water flowing to them only once a day in one building or long rows of raised cement with holes in the other. Our guide also took us to the only authentic barrack that had not been destroyed or rebuilt. We stepped in to the building with the bars still on the windows and cold misery hung in the air. The ground was the dirt floor the victims had walked on, the bunks were the 5 or 6 feet wide shelves 6 to 8 people slept on, and the dim light was the dark world in which they had to live. I was absolutely terrified in this space and as we spent longer in this structure, fear crept up my spine and seeped through every nerve in my body. I was afraid to accidently touch anything, the floor being bad enough, for fear I would bring the hollow emptiness with me.

On the drive back to Krakow, I was worn out. Emotionally drained though my mind continued to spin in efforts to process all I had just seen and heard. I closed my eyes and woke up just before we arrived in the Krakow city limits. It was the separation I needed and seeing the groggy tour mates around me, I would guess they needed it too.

I asked to be dropped off at Saint Mary’s Cathedral in the city center. I walked in to say a prayer in the chapel and as happens so frequently these days, I cried. Having this moment with the tourists flashing their cameras around me felt ridiculous and I left to see what else Krakow had to offer me in the almost 7 hours I had left before getting on another night train from Krakow to Vienna. Krakow’s city center was beautiful! It was also very interesting and full of history. I even took a golf-cart tour of the Jewish Ghetto and Schindler’s Factory. My evening ended with some good wine and delicious pierogies!! So much in just a single day in Poland…