My visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Warsaw Uprising Museum will forever be something I don't know how to talk about. But in recent political climates, there's a need to.
Auschwitz concentration camp, consisting of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II- Birkenau, and Auschwitz III- Monowitz, was the largest Nazi concentration and death camps. It started its operation in 1940, initially serving as a detention centre for political prisoners and slowly evolving into a network of camps for exterminated Jewish people or other enemies of the Nazi state.
While the Holocaust and these concentration camps are portrayed in lots of mainstream movies and books (as it should be, more on this later), the Warsaw Uprising Museum covers a part of history I never knew about until I visited Poland, the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The museum opened on July 31, 2004, marking the uprising's 60th anniversary, documenting the Polish underground resistance's attempt to liberate Warsaw from German occupation.
Even though revisiting heartbreaking parts of history might not be a part of your ideal vacation, everyone, no matter where you're from, should visit when you're mentally prepared.
THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE VISITING
History
I guess World War II and the Holocaust wouldn't need much introduction, right? As mentioned, Auschwitz consisted of three parts: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II- Birkenau, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz. Auschwitz I was the main camp, formerly a military base, opened in 1940 initially as a detention centre for Polish political prisoners. It then became a concentration camp where mass exterminations and lethal experiments were done. It has now turned into a museum. Auschwitz II- Birkenau was 3km from Auschwitz I and much more extensive than Auschwitz I. It was opened in 1941 due to the rapidly increasing number of prisoners and Jews being deported, and an estimated 1.1 million were killed here in the gas chambers. Those who were not sent to the gas chambers mostly died of other causes, such as starvation, forced labour, sicknesses, and inhumane living conditions. It was the primary site of the Nazi's "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem". Monowitz was the largest camp by area, mainly a labour camp for producing chemicals. It was completely destroyed now.
Auschwitz was liberated by the arrival of Soviet troops in January 1945.
How to get there
Due to their proximity, most tourists would arrange the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau as a day trip from Krakow.
Bus: Traveling by bus would be the cheapest option, taking around 1.5 to 2 hours. There are four companies to choose from, heading to Auschwitz I directly or Oswiecim Bus Deport. You can check the bus timetables here.
Train: There are frequent and direct trains from Krakow to Oswiecim, 2km from Auschwitz I. It's faster than the bus but much more expensive.
Car: If you already have a car and prefer to drive there, it would take around 1 hour and 15 minutes from Krakow. You could also hire a private driver.
Tour (my choice) (What we did) Joining a tour is by far the easiest option as you wouldn't need to fuss about transportation, reserving the timed tickets, or arranging guided tours with educators. Everything would be taken care of by the tour operators. We joined the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum Tour - Private Transport with tickets by Auschwitz & Salt Mine Tours, where we were picked up at our hotel by a minivan with around eight passengers, including us.
Guided tour or not
You can choose to visit on your own or join a guided tour with an educator. If you decide to see without a guide, admission to Birkenau is free all the time, but tickets are required to visit Auschwitz I for specific periods of time. You still need to reserve your timeslot in advance, even if you choose to visit without a guide. For details, you can visit their official website.
If you decide to join a guided tour with an educator, it is recommended that you book your tickets at their official website as early as three months in advance, as the tickets sell out quickly. You would also have to arrive on time for the tour.
I'm personally not a huge fan of guided tours, but in my opinion, it's a bit hard to understand the atrocities that happened here on our own. In addition, it was easy to get lost in the extensiveness camps and get confused with the flow. To gain the most out of this experience, I'd recommend joining a guided tour with an educator or a complete group tour with transportation included, but be prepared that you would be in a bit of a rush.
Other tips
- Bags must be smaller than 30 x 20 x 10 cm (smaller than a piece of paper) to be allowed to bring in. The contents of your bags would be checked, and you would also need to pass through a metal detector like at the airport. There are paid lockers available, but they tend to be occupied during busy times. You can also leave your bags in your car or the tour bus and just take what you absolutely need.
- Photography is allowed in most areas of the camps. No flash photography is permitted in the buildings. There are signages at places where photography is forbidden, signalling that to you.
- The rule of thumb is to be respectful throughout your entire visit. Hence, respectful clothing is a must. You would also be walking a lot during the tour. The ground can be uneven and muddy, snowy even, in my case. Hence, comfortable footwear or even hiking boots would be recommended.
- It is not recommended for children under the age of 14 to visit, but it is not strictly enforced. It can be tough for young children to comprehend what they see in Auschwitz or to explain to them how to be considerate there.
MY EXPERIENCE
I'm definitely not someone who's very knowledgeable about world history, like Nic, nor am I a war nerd like Rob. I wasn't even into "politics" before 2019, by all means. Then the Hong Kong protests happened, and politics isn't something you can choose to be involved in or not anymore. (For more information, you can check out these info cards.) Facing potential totalitarianism, I could only turn to history to see what could possibly happen. One of the topics that I kept finding myself coming back to would be the Holocaust. Reading about the genocide, especially from a first-person perspective, was devastating. It further prompted me to see the camps in person, trying to picture these words as realities. Hence, visiting Auschwitz was already on our list when we decided to go to Poland in early December 2019.
November 2019 wasn't kind to us at all, from the first confirmed death of the protests in early Nov to the Siege of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (not the best article, but you can read more on your own). Being a student of CUHK, it's hard not to be affected by these emotions. (I'm not going into details here.) I still remember vividly having a panic attack at the airport before our flight when I saw my home district being bombarded with tear gas, and that was how my trip to Poland started.
Auschwitz I
It was just starting to snow in Krakow that morning, and I was super excited to see snow for the first time. But when our van slowly drove towards Oświęcim, the town where Auschwitz is, it was already all white outside. Looking at the camp from afar, the snow didn't seem so pure and innocent anymore. Knowing that so many were killed here and the chilly breeze sent shivers down my spine.
As mentioned, large backpacks weren't allowed inside, so I left mine in the car and only took my camera with me. Upon arrival, I could already spot huge crowds lining up, trying to get tickets. And that's when I was quite glad that we decided to visit with a guided tour and with our entrance tickets in hand. We were grouped into a large group of around 20-30 with other visitors and were quickly whisked through security. As you can see, we were provided with headphones from which we could hear our guide so that he wouldn't have to yell, respecting this sombre place. Throughout the 1.5 hours we were in Auschwitz I, we were mainly in a single file, and with the headphones, the site was so eerily quiet it really set the tone.
The first thing we saw was the infamous "ARBEIT MACH FREIT" sign at the front gate (pictured above), meaning "work will set you free". I'm not going into details about what I saw inside the museums as you will learn about it when you come here yourselves. I read quite a lot about this place before coming and had seen pictures from other travel blogs, so I knew what to expect, but it was my emotions, or the lack thereof, that surprised me.
The beginning of the tour consisted of a lot of data and factual descriptions from the educator and the display boards, like the death toll on the left. Unlike the books written in the first-person perspective, those exhibitions fell slightly flat to me, and I couldn't really grasp the magnitude. I was quite shocked by how emotionless I felt, doubting my humanity for a bit. But I agree we did need to acknowledge these factual backgrounds before moving on.
As the tour went on, we were guided through several brick barracks, which were once involved in gruesome operations like medical experiments in Block 10 or inhumane punishments in Block 11. One of the more heartbreaking items I saw would be the pictures of people being transported here without knowing what was awaiting them, thinking that they were being resettled, and seeing little children among the crowds. On the other hand, one of the most astonishing things I saw was photographs taken by the prisoners in the camps, and I couldn't help but wonder how those photos survived until the end of the war. People imprisoned in these camps were often portrayed as pitiful victims, but many were resilient and smart survivors in reality. I'm glad that there are photos like these and memoirs from the survivors to help tell how horrid life in Auschwitz was.
Models of the gas chambers and the pile of canisters: Since the gas chambers in Birkenau that had killed so many were destroyed, we could only visualize what they were like by studying these models. Another exhibition that made an emotional impact on me was the mountain of canisters used in the gas chamber. That imagery really reminded me of scenes I've seen before in real life. I guess humans just aren't capable of changing for the better.
People's belonging: I kinda expected this part of the exhibition as well, from my trip planning research. If reading words didn't feel like reality to you, this is the part with concrete evidence for us to grasp how massive the magnitude of the monstrosity was. Most of the prisoners' belongings were burned in the Kanada warehouses when the SS evacuated the camps. But seeing the remaining piles of glasses, shoes, suitcases, and other items was already enough to cause me to shudder when I tried to imagine the lives of the owners.
I did feel like the tour was a bit rushed, leaving not much time for us to reflect on what we just saw. This was especially apparent to me when we were guided through the photos of each of the victims. They really were humans like you and me. They have a face, a name, and a life before all these. Seeing all these stories left untold was much more impactful to me than the numbers at the beginning of the tour. And it could easily happen again to you and me. The reflections and the contrast between the black and white on the wall and the visitors' vibrant colours really hit me. I left Auschwitz I not as emotional as I thought I would be but with factual knowledge and concrete pieces of evidence that filled the gaps between the stories in my head.
BIRKENAU
We boarded our van and were transported to Birkenau shortly after. We stayed in Birkenau for around an hour. (If you are travelling independently, there's a free shuttle bus that runs between the two sites every 10 minutes.) Birkenau was enormous and deserted. The land stretched beyond your visual field, but there weren't barracks like in Auschwitz I; everything- most of the barracks, the crematoria were destroyed by the Germans just before the liberation, an attempt to hide their evil war crimes. Due to its desolation, the chilly wind made being in Birkenau even more unsettling. We walked along the train tracks where people transported here by train would arrive. Looking back to the station and the train tracks, if not for the electric fences surrounding the place and the knowledge of the atrocities that happened there, it could be just another extensive train station posing innocently under the snow. We were no longer in a single file in Birkenau. Standing in the emptiness, my mind got lost easily- numbness. I finally knew what I felt walking through these two camps.
Remaining on the vast land was an original cattle cart that was used for transporting deportees, and the ruins and foundations were left untouched.
Living environment: Here, we also get a glimpse into the tight living conditions in the women's barracks.
And our tour ended here at Birkenau. We had some time exploring the bookstores there before being driven back to Krakow. While Auschwitz I was a perfect introduction for people who didn't know much about the camps beforehand, Birkenau completed the imageries in my head as I got to see the settings where those stories happened with my own eyes. There wasn't much that shocked or traumatized me or new pieces of information that I hadn't read in books in both camps. But I still think it is crucial to visit here, be educated, and be respectful. "Those who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.
WARSAW UPRISING AND WHY IT HIT HOME
Warsaw Uprising Museum is dedicated to one of the darkest moments in recent history, the Warsaw Uprising. The uprising began on August 1, 1944, and lasted for 63 days. It was an armed underground resistance movement against Nazi occupation initiated by the non-Communist Polish Home Army (AK).
The uprising was timed to coincide with the retreat of the German forces from Poland ahead of the Soviet advance. While approaching the eastern suburbs of the city, the Red Army temporarily halted combat operations, enabling the Germans to regroup and defeat the Polish resistance.
By October 2, 1944, the Germans had suppressed the uprising, deported civilians to concentration and forced labour camps, and reduced Warsaw to ruins. Approximately 40,000 civilians were murdered during massacres in Wola; many died due to starvation; others were deported to different concentration camps afterwards. 150,000–200,000 Polish civilians died during this uprising.
Due to some trip planning errors, we only had 3 hours in Warsaw before leaving Poland and heading home, and I was pretty glad that I chose to spend the time visiting the Warsaw Uprising Museum among all the tourist attractions. Excluding all the transit time, we only had a bit more than an hour inside this museum and didn't have enough time to see everything. Again, I won't describe everything here in detail as you really have to visit this museum yourself. But this museum really did a good job covering all parts of the uprising. Here are some photos of what impacted me emotionally the most.
I know I really shouldn't compare a tragedy where lives were lost on a much bigger scale and ended in a much worse consequence than what happened back home, but it really hit close to home. Reading these stories, I couldn't help but think about the sieges of my university and PolyU just two weeks before my visit. The descriptions of soup kitchens and food shortages especially reminded me of memories that I was reluctant to remember. Due to the parallels, it was the first time a museum made me this upset. The amount of sacrifice people are willing to give in exchange for freedom is unimaginable.
POLAND AND HUMAN RIGHTS
I didn't plan to write this blog post initially because I had no idea where to start, and writing about happy things is definitely more comfortable. Yet when I saw newspaper articles talking about Poland in October 2020, in the midst of all the talks around the USA elections, I couldn't help but think about this country I visited almost a year ago.
Since 22 October, hundreds of thousands across Poland have been protesting in response to the constitutional court's decision to rule on a provision of a 27-year-old law that allows abortions in cases of severe fetal deformity, including Down syndrome, despite high risks of COVID-19 transmission. Even though Poland is traditionally more conservative, people believe that this is much more than abortion rights in Poland. It is about every woman must have the freedom to choose. According to news articles, the current ruling party's primary method of existing on the political scene is to create conflict and social disharmony. This alone is problematic. LGBTQ people, along with immigrants and now women, have played the role of the people's enemy for the past five years.
Under the influence of EU membership, the social climate in Poland has also been undergoing massive changes, leading to many Poles travelling and studying abroad and the influx of pop culture influences like Netflix. The protests have been dominated by young people who were born after the fall of Communism. They have studied and travelled the world freely and know how to live elsewhere. They speak foreign languages and are very familiar with what human and civil rights mean in the 21st century. And they believe that the abortion ruling infringes on their liberties.
One popular slogan in this protest is, "You can't lock us all up." Again, with riot police, tear gas, pepper spray, and physical assault. The whole scene sounds familiar. Poland didn't have a particularly good time after World War II when it came to freedom as it fell into the Soviet Union's communist government. I'm not particularly familiar with Poland's politics after the war either, but I think democracy and freedom are definitely something they're still struggling with and something we should read about.
CAMPS IN CHINA
Even though we always swear we should never let this ever happen again, it is much more of a reality than we'd like it to be. With ourselves already being heavily suppressed by the Chinese government, it is not hard to imagine what extremes the CCP goes into suppressing the Uighurs in Xinjiang. And I can't help but wonder when would the international government do anything concrete to pressure the CCP into stopping the operation of the world's most massive industrial-scale oppression of a religious minority since the Holocaust.
The relationship between the Uighurs and the CCP has long been filled with grudges with a history of rebellion and resistance to the latter's rule, which intensified with terrorism, sporadic outbreaks of protest, and violence in recent years. These caused Xinjiang to be the target of the most restrictive security measures ever deployed by a ruler against its "own people" once the CCP had its grasp there. These measures include the extensive use of facial recognition cameras, mobile phone monitoring devices, and the mass collection of biometric data.
The current knowledge is that more than three million Muslims are being held in over 500 camps there. Children are being isolated from their families, wives of the detained Uyghur men are forced to sleep with male Han Chinese Government officials, and the prisoners are subjected to rape, mandatory sterilizations, physical and mental torture, or even death. Recently, new ports revealed China's attempt to cover their harvesting of organs from Uyghur Muslim detainees by falsifying organ donation data. The reports claimed that more than 90,000 Muslims and other political inmates are being executed each year for profits from their live organs' sale. Alarming, isn't it.
So, the CCP is not only systematically erasing the Uyghur Muslims but also thriving from their eradication by selling their remains.
So it's mid-Nov 2020 now; almost a whole year has passed since my visit to Auschwitz and Warsaw and the sieges of CUHK and PolyU. I attended an exhibition about the battle of CUHK last week, which reminded us this is far from over. Just yesterday, we were once again hit by news of officers from the national security police department entering our campus after over 100 graduating students rallied, chanted slogans, and raised flags that were deemed pro-independence a day before.
How can we stop these from ever happening again before we all just become another name in an exhibition?
BOOKS AND MOVIES
1) The Choice: I bought this autobiography at the Auschwitz bookstore. Written by the then gymnast and ballerina, the book follows Edith Eger's experience in Auschwitz, where she was made to dance for the infamous Josef Mengele, and her journey of healing and recovery after the liberation and as a psychologist. This book provides hope despite having such a dark topic and focuses more on the healing part than the Holocaust itself.
2) The Book Thief: This novel is one of my favourite books of all time and definitely one that made me shed the most tears. Narrated by the character Death, it is about a young girl living with her adoptive German family during the Nazi era and her fascination with books. Though fictional, it's hauntingly beautiful and devastating to read. If you prefer watching films to reading, it also has a movie adaptation with the same name.
3) Diary of a Young Girl: Probably one of the most well-known books about the Holocaust, Diary of a Young Girl is a journal by Anne Frank, a young Jewish teenager in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
4) The Tattooist of Auschwitz: I know, I know, the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre claimed that this book is historically inaccurate, but I still enjoyed this novel based on Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Lale Sokolov's memories of Auschwitz. I think that this book is a relatively quick read, a beautiful love story, but also a powerful tale talking about this horrible period of time. It might not be the best material for learning history, but it is still worth a read.
1) The Pianist: Despite Polanski's criminal charges and credibility, the Pianist is one of the only mainstream movies that sort of covered the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Warsaw Uprising; thus, I watched it right when I got back from this trip. This movie adapted from an autobiography, tells the story of a Polish Jewish radio station pianist's survival during World War II. It's one of the most haunting and devastating movies I've ever seen, probably elevated by Polanski's personal survival story during the same war. I recommend this movie.
2) Schindler's List: I just finished watching this movie while I was finishing this article, and I recognized quite a few locations in the film from my trip. Compared to the Pianist, it didn't feel as heart-wrenching to me. It felt more like a documentary, not in a bad way, with much more explicit barbarous scenes. It is the real-life story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist and member of the Nazi party, who tries to save his Jewish employees after witnessing the persecution of Jews in Poland. This movie is a masterpiece set in the Holocaust if you can sit through the three hours.
3) Boy in Striped Pajamas: This movie is an adaptation of a novel with the haven't. I haven't watched it as I couldn't find it streaming. The Holocaust drama relates the horror of a Nazi extermination camp through the eyes of two 8-year-old boys; Bruno, the son of the camp's Nazi commandant, and Shmuel, a Jewish inmate. This movie is also on the to-be-avoided list of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for its factual inaccuracy and emphasis on greater sympathy for the Nazi German family centred in the story rather than for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
4) Jojo Rabbit: I'm a huge fan of Taika Waititi, and Jojo Rabbit is easily one of my favourite movies of all time. Being an anti-hate satire, it is definitely the least depressing movie on the list, and it is told from a boy's German boy's perspective. It is not exactly related to Auschwitz or the Warsaw Uprising. Still, I find myself usually more interested in civilians' points of view towards war than the soldiers or people directly affected by the war after watching 1917 earlier this year, and this movie provided me with that. Perfectly blending humour and heart-wrenching moments, this film about World War II with a less heavy tone is much needed for kids to learn about these horrific times.
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