Krakow (part two). Auschwitz, Birkenau and Salt mine tour

I am writing this while I have a bit of time before my Schindler's factory tour. 

My tour of Auschwitz etc, was super early.  I had gotten a crazy deal on a 12 hour tour that included transportation and entrance and guides to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps, plus the famous salt mines not far away.  

The van left the meeting point at 5:30 so I had to leave by 5 am.  I was awake.  I had been awake since 2 am. 

We drove through what I suppose were the suburbs of Krakow and then some farm land.  Maybe a little over 90 minutes.

Out the bus window.  I snagged the front seat.

We got very specific instructions about the bathroom situation.   There are three stalls for women for the whole area of Auschwitz.  There are 120 000 visitors a day.  We were getting there early.  Do NOT waste the opportunity to use the loo upon arrival.  THREE STALLS! I was first in line.

But I suppose that should not be my focus at Auschwitz. 

A terrible picture of the famous gate.  

There is no end of resources you can access about the history of the second world war, the Nazis,  the camps, the treatment (if torture, murder,  annihilation can be called 'treatment').  But of course, standing where so many others had stood was a new level. 

Photo of the band that would play as the prisoners arrived.

The tour was very clinical.  After my Ghetto tour the day before, with personal stories about individuals,  this tour was very fact based.  Numbers of Jews, how they were 'processed'.  'This is the building where the gynecologist experimented on women's reproductive systems' , 'This is a giant room full of human hair used for industrial purposes', 'here a photos of women lining up for the gas chamber', 'here is the gas chamber that survived the destruction of the camp as the Nazis retreated'.

It was a LOT.

Used gas canisters.  Something new I learned.  The gas is 
an insecticide.  That was its original use.   To deal with lice.

When Auschwitz first opened it was mostly for political prisoners, the academia, the Polish politicians, anyone with influence, was removed and sent to prison.  Auschwitz was chosen as a temporary placement because it already existed. But then  they started arresting so many people for pretty much every reason, that the prisoners were slave labour to build more buildings and then more camps.  

The band was made up of Jewish musicians who had been
moved to the camp.  This was a pretty good situation for them, 
comparatively.

Exiting the gas chamber.  I'll spare you the inside.

The view of the camp from the other side.

Then we went to Birkenau. It is much bigger but less intact.  

The trains came right in through that bit door in the centre

Birkenau was built on a giant swamp.  The huts originally
had no floors so they were wet and cold and breeding 
grounds for all sorts of diseases.

Those brick structures in background are chimneys for the 
wooden huts that no longer exist.  There were a lot of them.
The Nazis gave then stoves and chimneys, just no fuel.

Inside of a hut.  It reminds me of that movie "Life is Beautiful" (I think, it won the best picture Oscar).  Three beds on top of each other, the bottom one on the hard floor, the top one against the gap between roof and wall.  Washing and bathroom huts at the end of a row of living huts.  But no water, and definitely no soap.  And they had to got to them from their huts naked. Sanitation was just another form of torture and dehumanization.

They destroyed the gas chambers as they left.  

I watched a documentary recently about twins at Birkenau.
The walled space between these two buildings is
where the twins were housed.

Then we drove for about an hour to get to the salt mines.  It was a long day.  Whoever is in charge of these things has moving tourists along down to a science.  At each place, we were passed off to a guide who would do the tour.  No time for chitchat, we are on the move...

I've been to salt mines in a couple of places.  They have been pools of ground water that is evaporated and then the salt is harvested from the now dry pools.  This one is not that.  This one is an actual mine, dug underground over centuries.  The rocks are salt.  I tasted the wall, it was salty. I do not understand how the salt got there, or how they got it out of the rocks, maybe the rock is just salt?  That info was not included in the tour.  We just walked around underground for 90 minutes, marveling at the medieval engineering skills.  It is no longer a working salt mine.  It is a tourist mine.  The pictures are not impressive.

There are multiple churches down there. 
This is the biggest, dug out over 90 years but
three guys who did it after their shifts 

It was a very long day.  I had some backpack cheese and crackers and bought myself an ice cream cone at the salt mine.  I have not been eating properly.  And I'm probably on the worrisome side of dehydrated.  But I soldier on...