Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Wielizcka Salt Mine

We all knew that this day was going to be very emotional, but I'm not sure that we truly realized how much of an impact Auschwitz- Birkenau was going to have on us.  

The entire site was just unbelievable.  To be walking where so many innocent people died for no reason was a heavy weight.  The items that were still at the concentration camps were unimaginable.  In several rooms they had items behind glass.  Glasses, luggage, hair, shoes, and pans could all be found on the camp.  The amount of items at Auschwitz were incredible.  And to think that those items probably didn't even account for half of the people that were murdered there.


An interesting thing I found out on the trip was that the two camps are actually not on the same grounds.  We had to take a five minute ride to get to Birkenau.  I had always thought they were connected.  Honestly, I also thought that Auschwitz was in Germany.  Seeing these historical sites and realizing how little I knew about them set heavily with me.  I don't know if I should blame my middle school and high school teachers for not teaching me correctly, or blame myself for the little interest I probably showed in my history class.  Either way, I wish I had known more about concentration camps before visiting one just so I would have had a better idea of how they were run, who was involved, and exactly how they were set up.


When we arrived at Birkenau, the grounds were set up much differently than Auschwitz.  It was more spaced out, and there were hundreds more buildings.  However, they had to tear down two-thirds of the buildings to preserve the front portion of the grounds.  

 Pictured above is a crematoria that was blown up at the end of the war.  Although this is all that remains on the grounds, there are many diagrams to be found that shows just what the building looked like.  Around the building there are monuments, in 3 languages, that symbolize the lives lost in them.

Imagine sleeping in one of these barracks with 4 other people.  Hard to believe isn't it? Well it is even harder in person.  Although I had seen pictures like this before coming to the camp, in person they are so much smaller.  When you are standing next to this an imagining yourself sleeping without any heat, blankets or bathrooms in the middle of winter it is easy to imagine how uncomfortable that must have been.  


The trip to Auschwitz- Birkenau was a solemn one, but I honestly wouldn't trade the experience for anything.  Upon being home, so many people have asked me about it and wished they could have went.  It is truly something to see.  It is hard to imagine that some people believe the Holocaust didn't even occur. 
After a brief lunch break, the group was off to the Salt Mine!


I had never been to a salt mine before, so I had no idea what to expect!
The tour was really nice and gave a lot of detail on how the mine came about and how it is used today.  The mine was what I expected it to look like.  The pathway was a mixture of wood, cement, and salt while the walls were mostly pure salt.  What I didn't expect to see was sculptures and wood scenery all throughout the tour.  The mine was sort of like a museum.  It showcased small reenactment scenes of the miners, horses that worked in the mines (cool, right?) and the tools that were used.  The mine also had a gorgeous grand room in it that was used for church service for the miners.  Today it is used for weddings and receptions.  


This was one of the many beautiful statues found in the mine.  They are all carved out of salt and many of them are of religious individuals.

 This is the main light fixture that was featured in one of the cathedrals.  It is made of salt and a few other materials. 

 Here are a few of us posing at what we thought was the end of the tour!

 Turns out all we had to do was look a little further to find the grand room that is now used for weddings! It is so hard to describe this room.  It was full of 3D sculptures inside the walls, salt light fixtures all over, and many free standing statues.

It is interesting to know that they actually still mine the salt in a different part of the mine that is not used for tours!