On Saturday, April 9th our group visited
Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland that was built by Nazi Germany during
World War II. Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps and consisted of
Auschwitz I, which was the first and oldest camp, and the Birkenau, which was
the largest camp in Auschwitz network and where majority of prisoners were
murdered. We all know what happened during holocaust; most of us read books/articles,
watched movies/documentary films dedicated to this topic. However, getting
inside the Auschwitz camp and seeing everything with your own eyes is a
completely different experience. It was emotionally challenging to go through
it, I would even say that it was the most difficult trip I have ever had in my
life.
 |
| Auschwitz I |
When we arrived to Auschwitz the weather was very
gloomy. In fact, I have heard that it is never sunny in the Auschwitz area and
almost always it is raining over there. It seems like the nature itself cries
for all the victims of the holocaust time that were tortured and killed in this
camp. Our guide started the excursion from statistics: in the years 1940-1945,
the Nazi deported at least 1,300,000 people to Auschwitz and 1,100,000 of this
people died in this camp. Ninety percent of the victims were Jews. I know it is
difficult to imagine such a great amount of people being murdered in one death
camp and statistics do not provide you with the full picture.
 |
| Suitcases left after murdered Jews |
At the Auschwitz I, they have multiple rooms full of
belongings that were left after the victims. There was a room full of shoes,
suitcases, plates, glasses, and hair brushes. Can you imagine a room with the
pile of shoes so high it hits the ceiling, just hundred thousands of women’s,
men’s and even kid’s shoes? Now you have to imagine that all the people that these
shoes belonged to were brutally killed. This is not just statistics from the text
book, this is real! The image is so powerful you can almost see the victims of
the holocaust standing in front of you. It gets even more emotionally
challenging to handle, when they take you to the room full of women’s hair.
After the women were killed in the gas chambers, Nazi soldiers would cut off
their hair in order to sell it later for the production of ropes. My hands
started to shake when I saw all these hair left from the murdered women. It is
almost impossible to hold tears.
 |
| Entrance to the Birkenau |
 |
| Gas chamber |
After Auschwitz I, we went to Auschwitz II also known
as Birkenau. Jews were delivered to this camp by train. Children, old and sick
people were murdered at the gas chambers immediately upon arrival without
registration. They showed us some pictures of undressed women on their way to
the gas chamber. Nazi soldiers would tell them that they are going to take a
shower, so those women did not even know that they were actually on their way
to death. It was a very powerful image. Those people who were not killed right
away, mostly men and strong women, were forced to work. The conditions of their
life at the concentration camp was a horrid nightmare. Some prisoners would
just fall on the ground during the work and wait for the guard to shoot them as
immediate death was more preferred than such a life.
 |
| Crematorium |
This trip was definitely a life changing experience.
You leave Auschwitz camp as a different person. It opens up your eyes and shows
the ugly and horrifying side of the humanity. It is still hard to believe that
this all actually happened, but it did! And we all must remember it and pass
the memories from generation to generation so it would never happen again.
Waking up in Venice is like waking up in a fairy tale.
When you are there it feels as you are still dreaming and walking in your
sleep. There is something special about Venice, I would even say magical; it
does not look like any other places in the world. Venice is located on the
water, so there many canals that go through the city. Therefore, locals do not
use cars to get around the city, instead they use boats. How fascinating is that!
During our three days stay I have not seen even one car, which is actually kind
of nice if you think about it. 
