Read Adeline's stories of her recent trip to Europe some parts of which brought tears to my eyes....
Hi Mom, Dad, Wei Wei and Ai Ai,
I'm back from my extremely long and drawn out trip of Europe. It was
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
I really enjoyed this trip. More so than Italy, mainly because I planned it, and also because we didn't do a tour package so we could do what we wanted.
I really love Europe! There's just so much to like about it!!
Mainly, I love Germany and Austria and Poland! I also visited the Cz Rep (Prague) but didn't like it that much (although Prague is a beautiful city).
Yes, Poland. Did you know I went there? I don't think its a highly visited country and I've never seen it advertised as a tourist destination before but I am so glad I went there. I went to Krakow, mainly to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau but ended up enjoying Krakow city itself so much. Things there were so cheap when converting from Zloty (Polish Currency) to pound. After our first meal, David and I stopped looking at prices on the menu and just ordered as we liked. We ate like kings and dined at classy, fine dining places every night. I even left a tip of more than 10% of my bill on our last night because I was so happy with the food and service and also because I could afford to!
To exemplify how cheap everything was for us, Coca cola cost us 50 p. In Vienna, Coke cost us 2 euros. Big Difference right? So every night we ate fresh seafood at this classy French-Polish restaurant. The dishes ranged from 28 zloty to over 40 zloty but to us, when converted, the meals never exceeded 20 pounds. That's a big big deal for us. And we could just spend money like water because we knew everything was so cheap! However, we held back on certain things that we felt were too over priced and unreasonable.
Anyway, enough about Poland. I'm getting ahead. My tour started in Berlin, Germany. David and I landed at Schonefeld Airport on 30/3, at 9 AM. We then took the S-Bahn to our Hotel which was located near the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall. Saw lots of graffitti on the way. Was not impressed by the weather. But you know what we were very impressed by?
German Engineering.
Yes, the S-bahn is so awesome! Its convenient and takes you to all the main places in the city. The trains come on time, On The Dot. The train stations are big, spacious and so organised. I was really amazed at how efficient Germany was. I really liked the main train station, the Hauptbahnhof. Best train station I have ever seen. It is HUGE and has lots of shops and restaurants. German children are very well behaved and German parents seem to take very good care of them (unlike UK families: single parenting, benefit scroungers etc). Anyway, I was very impressed by the efficiency and organisation of the Germans. However, I would later see this level of German organisation and efficiency again... but in a very different context. I saw it again in Auschwitz and Birkenau. Did you ever wonder how one single government killed more than 1.5 million Jews in a few years?
Auschwitz (in Poland) stayed with me for hours and will maybe stay on for days, after I took the tour. In my quiet moments, or just before falling asleep, the bunkers in the concentration camp, Birkenau would flash before my eyes. I would repeat every exhibit I saw, every picture of every person that I looked at. I can still remember the smell of the bunker, and I can still feel the atmosphere. Auschwitz really left a very deep impact on me. I kept imagining what it must have been like for them. I was really haunted. Still am.
Yet, it was the best tour I have ever taken and it was the best for David too. If you ever want to travel not just for leisure, but to learn, you should go to Auschwitz. I cannot imagine the depths of men's hearts to the point that man was capable of creating such a place and such a system for other men to live and die in. Our tour guide ended the tour so aptly with these words: ..now you can see..how one man... created a living hell for another man to live in. It was a really really tragic tour. Nobody clapped when the tour ended. We were all just too shocked. I gasped out loud a few times during the tour because I was just too taken aback by what I saw, smelled and felt. It happened over 50 years ago but the camp remains, just as if it happened recently. Also, in all our pictures of Auschwitz and Birkenau, neither me and David can be found smiling. It just wasn't appropriate. The tour guide even scolded the parent of a kid who was throwing stones on the camp grounds because it was disrespectful.
Back to the question. How did a group of men exterminate over 1.5 million Jews in just a few years? Birkenau is a testament to that. When I first saw the camp, the first thing that struck me was how organised it was. The bunkers were neatly spaced, everything was neatly organised. To be honest, the camp, reminded me, of Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Disturbing right?
They thought of everything. Hitler and his men devised the concentration camps in their conference: The Final Solution to the Jewish question. They chose Auschwitz as the final destination for many of the Jews in Europe. Jews were brought from as far as Oslo in Norway and Thesaloniki in Greece. The Jews in Greece even had to pay for transport to Auschwitz. As you know, Jewish discrimination had been going on for a while. In some places, Jews were already moving and living in ghettos, not allowed to mingle with the general population. So here was what they did:
1. First, they took over Auschwitz which was a former soldiers' bunker. They expelled all the villagers living within 40 km of Auschwitz. They didn't want anyone to know what they had planned.
2. Auschwitz was first used as a prison for Polish political prisoners. Later on, the first Jews started arriving in overcrowded trucks. Many died on the trip there.
3. Auschwitz was not big enough. So they built Birkenau, a camp a few km away. This was where their organisation and efficiency shone.
4. The Jews were told that they were being transported to a country in Eastern Europe to start a new life. They did not want to cause panic. They also told them that they could only bring a limited amount of luggage. So the transportees only brought their most valuable items.
5. The Jews are then loaded onto cramped trucks to make the very long journey to Auschwitz. Many die from suffocation and exhaustion during this trip, especially the elderly and the young.
6. At the camp, the Jews are separated. The army doctor examines them. Those deemed fit to work are given uniforms and led to one area. THose deemed unfit (elderly, children, pregnant women, sickly looking people) well....
7. They are told that they will be going for a shower... to clean them up.
8. They are led along a stretch of road in Birkenau.. to these 'showers'. (We walked along this same stretch). As you know, the showers are not real showers. These are the gas chambers which helped the Nazis exterminate over 1 million of the 1.5 million that they killed.
9. In the gas chambers, the people are told to strip. There are signs on the wall saying 'This way to the showers'. There are hooks for you to hang your clothes up. For all purposes, the place really looks like a public shower. The Nazis did not want to cause panic.
10. The Jews are cramped into a room. There are shower heads on the wall. But these do not work. Instead there is a hole in the ceiling. From here, the Nazi soldiers will pour the poison Cyklon B. This poison will cause death by internal suffocation... within 15 minutes. The Nazis lock the shower doors. The Jews still think they are going to have a shower.
11. They lock the doors, they pour the poison. Jews die by the hundreds. There is massive vomitting and bleeding as the poison takes effect.
12. After the gas subsides, the doors are opened. Jewish prisoners are forced to search the bodies for gold teeth. They cut the hair from the bodies. This human hair will be used to make yarn and wool for the Nazi soldiers' garments. ( I saw the human hair exhibit. They preserved it. It made me feel so sick). The belongings of the dead are taken to Germany to fund the German army. The Auschwitz was not only useful in getting rid of the 'enemy', it was also very profitable. The German army made over 80 million marks from the camps. l
13. These Jewish prisoners are then shot. The Nazis did not want any eye witnesses of their crimes.
Okay. This is the end of Part 1. I can go on but have to take a break as it is too... sad. I was there on the camp grounds. I walked inside the gas chambers. I saw the crematorium which was used to cremate the bodies. Nobody knew what the Nazis were up to. The Allies only found out about the scale of this evil after they defeated the Axis. The soldiers who liberated the prisoners say that they will never forget what they saw.
I can tell you that the bunkers which housed the prisoners affected me the most. The smell was terrible but I am sure that the camp prisoners had much much more terrible smells and living conditions to deal with. Those who did not die in the gas chambers died because of appaling living conditions, starvation, overly long roll call, execution, beatings etc.... The bunkers. I could go on and on. I can understand why survivors develop so many phobias and fears. They will never forget, definitely. Most who arrived in the camps died within a few months of being there. Even young, able bodied people.
Okay, have to end here.
Actually, I also visited many nice and beautiful places during my trip. I saw the Alps for the first time. They were beautiful and so majestic. I had a great time in Berlin. I had an even better time in Munich. I loved Vienna. David and I did not really visit the landmarks. We went cafe hopping instead. Viennese cafes are a cultural institution and I guess we really simmered into Viennese lifestyle. The cafes are amazing. The waiters are all dressed in tuxes, no matter how shabby the decor is, and the food is really good. The pastries are amazing. I had Sacher Torte from the historical and famous Sacher Hotel twice. I watched a concert performed by a quartet of 3 violins and 1 cello. It was amazing. I really liked Vienna. Then I went to Prague. It was meh. People were rude, didn't speak English and for some reason, Prague had so many tourists even though it was only early spring. Nice city though, very fairy tale like. The Cz Rep's landscape reminded me of all the storybooks I'd read before. The drawings seem to come straight out of the landscape. Heidelberg was nice but it paled in comparison with the other cities. I went to Neuschwanstein and had a really good tour guide who made us laugh. Castle was very nice from outside but inside was like.. what, that's all? That's because Ludwig II didn't have time to complete it.
I visited two zoos, and one Parliament (German Parliament, the Bundestag). I watched one German opera in Vienna (Der Fledermaus by Johann Strauss). I heard Mozart, Dvorak and Strauss played live in front of me. I really enjoyed it. I visited three castles. Heidelberg castle, Neuschwanstein and Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. I ate all kinds of things. Travelled on all kinds of trains. I really liked the experience I had. My favourite train was the newest Intercontinental Europe train. It was super fast and super comfortable.
okay. got to go now. Will write more later.
Love,
Adeline.
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