Brenden's Blog: Auschwitz Concentration Camp & Wieliczka Salt Mine

Time for an update on my travels. I want to apologize to everyone who has been faithfully following my blog. I had stated previously that I would be updating my blog more often, but unfortunately my lap top power cord has bit the dust, and no longer works. I looked at replacing it here in Poland, but the voltage of the actual cords is different. The only way that I can update my blog now is when the Hostel computer is not being used. The laptop itself is getting old, and I had intentions of getting a new one anyway. Enough about that, and time to talk about my adventures.

One of the first places I visited while in Poland was the concentration camp Auschwitz. It is one of those place that I have always wanted to visit, but clearly it is not for a fun time. So I went to the camp, and I must say it was one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in my life. Seeing how brutal this camp was, and the conditions they had to live through was extremely saddening. When you are in Auschwitz, you get taken through the camp and inside many of the buildings. In these buildings you get to see a room full of shaved hair, all the belongings that the prisoners brought to the camp, and things like rooms upon rooms of luggage and shoes. The worst part is that this is only the first of two places you go. The next camp that we went to was called Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was only a couple of kilometers away. It was actually built by the prisoners of Auschwitz during the war, and the conditions there were horrible. It was a really rainy day, and I was miserable after being there for an hour, so to think that people could have spent years there was really hard to swallow. This is definitely a part of history that I think everyone should see, even though it can make for a sad day.

Up to 8 people had to sleep on each level of these

Toilets prisoners had to use

The row of toilets, absolutely 0 privacy.

Double row of fences

Ovens in the crematorium

Now on to something a little different. The next place I visited was the Wieliczka Salt mine, which started in the 13th century. I was not really sure what to expect when I visited this, but essentially it is like a town underground. There are cathedrals, and different commemorative rooms throughout the entire mine. The wood is very well-preserved throughout the mine, due to the high salt concentration levels, and even gets stronger as time goes on. You end up descending 125 meters, with rooms to visit during the whole time. It is hard to explain it on a blog, but pictures may help. Sorry about the quality of a few of the pictures, they are uploading rather weird.