A trip to Krakow and Auschwitz

I recently went to Poland for a weekend trip avec mon frere. Elena and Nicholas stayed a while longer in Cyprus and I found myself itching to "go somewhere" for a weekend.

We flew easyJet from Luton to Krakow, hired a car and stayed at the Hotel Copernicus (which is flawless and beautiful).

On Sunday we drove from Krakow to the little town of Oswiecim, which is the Polish for Auschwitz.

The camp Auschwitz-Birkenau is now a state museum and much of it is kept in its original state. Entry is free, but you can pay for an English guide, which take groups of around 30. After a short film about the liberation of the camp by the Red Army in 1945, you are taken on a 3 1/2 hour tour.

Aushwitz I is where much of the museum is, and you walk through large rooms which house real artefacts of the prisoners - shoes, suitcases, prayer shawls, glasses, and combs. They are in window displays. One room housed shaven hair which was found in tightly packed bags in the camp warehouses.

Exhibits include many photographs from the period, and maps showing where the prisoners had come from.

Then you walk to crematorium 1 and the gas chamber. Everyone is silent at this point, as the guide points to the chimney like holes from where the Zyclon B gas was thrown in.

Then there is a bus to take you to Auschwitz II, called Birkenau, which is huge (around 400 acres) and which housed brick and wooden barracks, and crematoria 2, 3 and 4 (a fifth was under construction).

Our guide, Lukas, was a young Pole who was knowlegable and serious - ending the tour with the words: "This was history, but please don't be sad. Speak about it to others. And enjoy your lives."

In 1939 there were 3 million Jews in Poland. In 1945 there were 600,000.

Krakow, where we stayed, is a cracking little medieval town (pictured at night above) - charming, endearing and eye-catching. And steeped in Jewish heritage.

Pictures above:

1) At Birkenau there is a huge memorial with inscriptions in all the languages of the fallen, including Greek. Click on first picture above for a bigger tumbnail to read the inscription in English.

2) Krakow at night.

3) Watchtower at Birkenau. We walked along this rail track to get back to catch our bus back to Auschwitz.

4) Above the entrance to Auschwitz is the inscription: "Arbeit Macht Frei" - Work Brings Freedom. Cynical was how the guide described it.