9) Field Trip 3: Krakow, Auschwitz

"Brzezinka, Poland- The most terrible thing of all, somehow, was that at Brzezinka the sun was bright and warm, the rows of graceful poplars were lovely to look upon, and on the grass near the gates children played.

It all seemed frighteningly wrong, as in nightmare, that at Brzezinka the sun should ever shine or that there should be light and greenness and the sound of young laughter. It would be fitting if at Brzezinka the sun ever shone and the grass withered, because this is a place of unutterable terror."-- <No News from Auschwitz> by A.M.Rosental.

On May 10th, 2015. we checked out hostel and went to Auschwitz, which is located in southeast of Krakow, about 1 hour drive. We first stop in Auschwitz 1 camp, then the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.During the World War 2, German Nazi built these camp. The main purpose of this camp is to be set up or carry out the killing of the Jews to their extremely harsh working inmates, inhuman or collective executions of human experiments. 

Those are the Cyklon B cans. Cyklon B was produced by Degesch company. Nazi were used it put in the chamber to kill people.

There was 1.1 millions people dead during that time.Actually, it is hard to image how large group people will be until I saw these shoes. It's so mournful to see all these innocent people were killed by Nazi.

On the wall, there is hundreds of people's pictures who was killed in the camp. Each picture shows when did they took the picture and when they were killed. There was a guy he only stay for one day after he took the picture. It's hard to image what is on their mind when they took picture. They all know they will be killed soon or latter after they took the pictures. You can tell from their hopeless faces and despairing eyes, their are suffering torment. 

People wrote their name on the luggage. But they never get change to get the luggage back. 

I think Auschwitz definitely should be preserved as a museum and open to public. Auschwitz camp not only shows the darkness periods of Jewish,but also always remand people the war always bring to people huge tragedy. I think every human more or less has the dark side, and this is why bullying is everywhere. Hitler is not the special case, but he showed world what will happen when the person's darkness is explored extreme big. I hope all the countries will more focus on peace and development rather than increase their military force only.

Before we went to Auschwitz, we spend two days in Krakow. The first day on our field trip we visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine.That was really impressive how deep it actually is. 

Then we went to the hostel, and checked in. The food around hostel are really good. We walked around and visited the beautiful Wawel Royal Castle. My favorite part is went to the Old Town Square, had some drink, and relax. 

 We met this guy in the Old Town Square. He is going to married in one week, I think this is kind of traditional maybe. The guy will wear some kind of costume walk around and ask for the money. Maybe they just do it for fun.

There is also a market in the Old Town Square. You can buy the souvenir over there.I really enjoined my trip. Obviously, Auschwitz is the most impressive place for me during this trip, even though we only stay for one day.