Day 24 - Auschwitz

Day 24 Tuesday September 6

Our day starts on a sombre note. One of our friends lost her mother and she along with her husband are cutting short the trip and leaving the group. The rest of us drive towards Auschwitz on our way to Warsaw.

Auschwitz was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, (which thankfully we did not visit) a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers.

As you go in the camp, there are buildings that have exhibits showing the inhuman ways in which the Jews were massacred by the Nazis. All the books, movies, TV series that I had seen about the holocaust came alive on seeing the horrifying scenes of atrocities committed by humans on other humans. I was overwhelmed with sadness and could not stop crying.

I am showing some pictures of the outside portion of the camp. I have kept other photos that are quite disturbing in a separate album.

If you do wish to see them, please click on Auschwitz Camp

On the way to Auschwitz

Barracks

Gas chambers

Electrified fencing

It was good that lunch was arranged after an hour and a half at Atmosphera restaurant in Katovice.

We checked in Hotel Westin, Warsaw at 7.30 pm

The day's figures are:

Hotel Holiday Inn Krakow 9.15 am

Auschwitz camp 11 am - 1.30 pm - 71 kms

Lunch at Atmosphera restaurant, Katovice 3.00 pm - 4.00 pm - 64 kms

Diesel 5.45 pm 41 L (PLN 347.68 EUR 75.32 INR 153 per litre) - 189 kms

Hotel Westin Warsaw 7.30 pm - 103 kms

Traveled today 427  kms

Total distance 7297 kms