13th November 2016

The clip-clops echoed over the cobbles until around 11 pm, but it had been a long day, and I only learned this crucial piece of information from Sue at breakfast. By that point, I had already formed a delightful relationship with my Polish pillow and was blissfully unaware of the nags outside.

Breakfast was a hearty spread of cheeses, meats, sausages, eggs, and breads. Yoghurts and cereals were available too, but I steered clear of such devil’s fare. With appetites satisfied, we braved an icicle shower and made our way to the lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel, where we passed the time reading the English newspapers until our coach to Auschwitz arrived.

The journey took just under an hour, during which we watched an informative video outlining the ideology behind the camp and how it operated, a sobering but important preparation for what lay ahead.

Upon arrival, we divided into two smaller groups and were given headphones and receivers connected to our guide for the day. We followed her through the various huts and buildings, stopping frequently as she provided insight and explanations.

The site was crowded, as it always is, regardless of the time of year or weather. It was heartening to see so many young visitors, many of them in large school groups.

All failed to display any exuberance of youth, and many seemed particularly moved by what they were discovering.

Much of what you see has been preserved with sensitivity and doesn’t exaggerate the horror of what occurred; it doesn’t need to. The sheer evil of the concept and operation of the camp is profoundly felt. The accommodation blocks, torture cells, electrified barbed wire, execution wall, garrets, and gas chambers are not things to be merely described or photographed; they should be experienced ‘in the flesh’ and contemplated in silence. The somber accounts of both horrific acts and remarkable heroism and self-sacrifice stir the emotions, and may hopefully serve as a warning to young visitors for the future.

We spent three and a half hours at the relatively intact Auschwitz Camp 1. After a brief break, we boarded the bus and travelled the short distance to Auschwitz Camp 2, also known as Birkenau. There are four camps in total, with Birkenau being the largest. It is massive. That is the one fact I struggled with, the scale. It was the mass destruction of fellow humans on an industrial scale. Seventy per cent of the 1.5 million people (and that is an estimate; it was probably far more) who passed through its gates were murdered in gas chambers within hours, their ashes scattered into a pond within twenty-four hours. The rest were worked to death.

Again, as in Camp 1, we wandered through the complex, though most of the huts were wooden, and the Nazis had destroyed much of what remained to cover their crimes. We stood for a while at the central memorial, taking in the quiet reverence of the place, before passing by the ruined changing rooms, gas chambers, and ovens. It was profoundly sobering, as was walking through the Death Huts, where women, exhausted from the brutal labour and unable to go on, waited without food or water until their time came to be murdered.

It was a bitterly cold day, and I felt it was a fitting time to visit this place. On our return journey to Krakow, I pondered what might have become of our little island, and indeed, the rest of the world had this German ideology not been defeated. I shudder to think!

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed several cups of warming coffee and caught up on the news via BBC 24 before heading out to find a restaurant for our evening meal.

After much perusal of the many options available, we finally settled on a small restaurant down a side street off the Market Square, drawn in by the persuasive banter of the ‘usher-in’. It turned out to be a good choice. Sue’s pork chop with Polish vegetable concoction and my pork ribs with the same were both delicious and, well… Polish. For the first time, we chose the same dessert, marshmallow and chocolate with citrus crisps and parsley ice cream. I think we’ve been watching too much ‘MasterChef ‘ together!

Tonight was also significant because there was a supermoon. Charlotte had posted a photo of it several hours earlier on Facebook from Bali, so it was nice to post our photo of its Polish counterpart as we enjoyed our meal.