The Geno-Sidetrip: Auschwitz and Poland (Part 3/3)

Poland is one of travel's lost mammoths. Somehow, until recently, it remained off the beaten path of many travellers who opted for orderly Germany or lazy Mediterranean nations instead. Before visiting Poland, I didn't expect mountains, great food or one of Europe's hippest cities. Now I can't wait to get back. There is something distinct about Poland and its people. Where the subtleties of the Baltics can sometimes run together in a blur of Eastern European "Don't dare call me russian" itis, Poland is refreshingly its own odd Polish place. Yes vodka is drank en masse and no the trains are usually not on time. Instead of mistaking these as post-communist traits, they would better be assumed as simply part of the Polish way. Women with legs up to their necks, long on make up and short on skirt length mix with untrusting but affable men in leather coats and thick rimmed glasses. The architecture is far from German but carries its undertone in a subtle way. Poland is the transition that typifies Central Europe. A home on the edge of the continent's great neighborhoods: the industry of Germany, the tradition of Czech and Slovakia, stubborn Russia, rusty Belarus, emerging Lithuania and progressive Sweden across the sea. In spite of this color wheel of cultural drift, Poland is overwhelmingly its own very unique nation. The polish are proud, polite and profound. Mountains, endless coastline, easy access most of Europe and a stirring past make a visit unforgettable.

Germany gets most of the press in WWII lore. They were the aggressor, were wrong and history knows it. Lesser known may be that the Nazi afflictions on Poland and the Polish were greater than any European nation by millions. In fact, the German death toll was 1.2 million fewer people and they lost the war. Much of this lay in the happenstance of unlucky geography. Being hamburgered between Russia and Germany in the 1940s epitomizes rock and a hard place lore. Poland not only fell immediately but was the ideal place for exercising the Holocaust and being the whipping post of two pissed off maniacal dictators. The great sad stories of the day are nearly all set within its borders: Oscar Schindler, Wladyslaw Szpilman (the Pianist), Elie Weisel. And most famously, Auschwitz.

This must be true of visiting Poland as well. To make a visit to this astounding place complete, you must leave the grand squares and pulse of nightlife behind and witness a holocaust memorial. Auschwitz lies only an hour from Poland's exemplary showpiece, the city of Krakow. Krakow holds Europe's largest square: full of pigeons and crafts and hypnotic wafts from polish bakeries. The short trip from Krakow is easy to book and very affordable. Your guide can do as little as simply drive you there or as much as interpreting the entire site. Auschwitz is hollowed ground. I recall the feeling of being surrounded by ghosts in striped linens, sadness and brave despair. Most of the facility is in tact. The bunks you've seen in the movies, the gas chambers and the firing walls. It takes little imagination to conjure the images of extermination as you wander around the site under a grey somber sky. You enter under the rusty steal sign lying "Arbeit Macht Frei", through layer of barbed wire and utilities constructed strictly for function. Cement, dirt and wire effuse eventual death: Auschwitz' only art form.

In contrast to the underdeveloped Rwanda and nondescript Cambodian Memorials, Auchswitz is organized, well funded and very well may be the world's most effective memorial site. Holocaust survivors have poured over 65 years of thought and effort into the site. This effort is palpable in every step as you explore the grounds. Officially called the Auschwitz-Birkinau Memorial and Museum, every detail seems to have been thought out and displayed in a way to effectively transmit the horrors of the time. Piles of hair, stacks of shoes and prisoner clothes lay in heaps as you pass from corridor to corridor. Staring at the stack of children's shoes gave such a visceral shock that my voice seemed to exit my body completely. Nothing could be said. Thoughts were too daunting to process but so massive that they could not be pushed aside. You are made to confront a reality that will stir you, will sadden your view of humanity and equally inspire and fill your heart with a sense of compassion and community in a form you may have not previously felt. Documents, death warrants and simple accounting forms represent human life as if they were deutschmarks on a P & L statement. Prisoner barracks with stacks of wooden shelves stand well built, beds where the emaciated rotted before they were showered with Zyklon B. These elements come together to form a stirring memorial; one that will lift you up just knowing that people survived and went on to live and grow after such an experience. One that will make you shake your head than anyone could doubt the veracity of Holocaust.

Elie Wiesel, novelist and survivor of Auschwitz said, "Not to transmit an experience is to betray it". The inquisitive, the stout of heart and compassionate of soul will find themselves inherently wanting to visit and learn about the sad spots on the globe. For those who still wonder if seeing these terrors will make a difference consider this: No great story comes without struggle and no great person ascends without failure. Genocide is the perfect expression of humanity's failure. These places remind us that life is struggle and to succeed, we must learn from our grave mistakes. The Hutu's didn't murder the Tutsi's, the Khmer Rouge didn't murder Cambodians and the Third Reich didn't murder the Jews. People did. We did. To understand our story is to understand both our failure as well as our triumph.

Brent Korte

Part 1 (Rwanda) can be found at http://intrepidation.blogspot.com/2009/11/geno-sidetrip-rwanda.html

Part 2 (Cambodia) can be found at http://intrepidation.blogspot.com/2010/02/geno-sidetrip-cambodia.html