Auschwitz, Poland

- Backblip -

I was up at 4.45 am for a 6 am departure to Krakow. It was to be a day of complete contrasts. We spent the morning touring the Royal Apartments in the Castle on Wawel Hill. We then walked through the city to the main square and into St Mary's Church to view the Veit Stoss altarpiece, one of the largest in the world.

Lunch at Pod Wawelem, which I would recommend, the portions are enormous. Very good value.

But what will stay with me forever are the memories of what one of our group described as "our personal tour of Hell". We drove west to the small town of Oswiecim, where the Germans carried out mass exterminations during WW2. Late afternoon, with the golden sun on the brickwork, a young lady took us around what is quite a small place, the 28 blocks of Auschwitz. It is now a memorial and a museum. Millions have visited here since the end of the war, the steps are heavily worn in each block. We walked through the famous "Arbeit Macht Frei" gateway, past watchtowers and barbed wire. We could sense her anger as she described the methods and means for breaking, humiliating and killing innocent men, women and children.

The horror of displays of numerous personal items, the suitcases, the shoes, the hair and shaving brushes, the spectacles, the vast case of human hair, the poison, the photographs of those who were selected to live or die, the standing cells, the death wall, the gallows, the gas chambers and the crematorium.

We left here tearful, no one could really speak on our journey back to Krakow. We were all dealing with personal thoughts and prayers.

After goodbyes to our wonderful hosts, and settling into our hotel, we saw thousands of young people setting off Chinese lanterns beside the river. We don't know what the light festival was about, but it sent a message of hope for the future after the distress of the day.

F