Dear Readers,
Thank you to those of you who have already responded. I hope the rest of you will chime in as well.
We spent today at Auschwitz-Birkenau – the largest German concentration camp. I’ve already written about it on FaceBook. I wasn’t going to also send a Haber Report, but a third of you aren’t on FaceBook (yes, I counted) and I felt it was important enough to discuss here as well. So this may be a bit redundant for the rest of you.
1,300,000 people were deported to Auschwitz of which 1,100,000 were Jews. When they got there, they were immediately put into 2 lines, one for men and one for women and children. A doctor looked them over and decided on immediate death (because they were too young, too old or looked frail; no questions were asked, just his decision) OR future death, i.e., they looked like they could be worked to death. Of the 1.3 million who arrived at the camp, 1.1 were exterminated (either immediately or later on). 90% of those murdered were Jews. We’ve all heard the stories, seen the movies, read the books, etc. And some of us have spoken with our parents about their WWII experiences, but if your parents were anything like mine, they didn’t talk to you about it. I imagine this was due to various influences but including not wanting to re-live the horror and not wanting to burden their child. By the time I was old enough AND interested enough to ask questions, there was no one left to ask. 😓. Clearly, spending several hours walking around Auschwitz and viscerally feeling the incredible horror that occurred there was a difficult experience.
Here are a few photos from our day. This is a typical rail car that transported people to the camps; no windows, no bathroom facilities, no food; many many crowded together.
They came with their possessions which were taken from them as they arrived. Some of you might see some familiar names here.
These are Zyclon B pellets which were used to gas people to death. They thought they were going to a shower.
And here’s the hole in the ceiling where they were inserted.
You get the idea. It goes on and on.
Several of you have already seen the excellent exhibit that is currently on display at the Jewish Heritage Museum about Auschwitz. The rest of you might want to go and if you don’t want to, I definitely get that as well.
We actually got back to our hotel (Auschwitz is about an hour’s ride from Krakow) in time to go to one of the museums we couldn’t get into yesterday BUT we were so wiped out both physically and emotionally, that we opted for a nap instead.
We had a lovely Polish dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge; one of the few restaurants that I didn’t reserve in advance.
Tomato soup with crawfish 
Chicken prepared 3 different ways. 
Cherry vodka (on the house) to end the meal as well as a chocolate sweet (also on the house); both delicious.
A nice way to end this difficult day.
Tomorrow we will visit the Jewish section of Krakow. Stay tuned.
❤️
Irene
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