Hey there faithful readers. I'm back in Berlin, not as sick as I used to be and winding down from my Berlin Literature test that I just took. I know I got one of the essays wrong, but I think I did well on the other two. My grammar was atrocious, but thank goodness she's not looking at that at all.
I must state here that Staci Molinar is an incredible friend. I walked into IES today and Britta handed me a letter from her. I LOVE getting mail! Thank you, babe!
Poland was really fun this weekend. The trip started off a little bumpy with a fight with a friend, but he and I were able to sit down and talk things out, smoothing everything over between the two of us, which I am extremely glad about. The train ride was super long, much longer than it should have been. We sat at a station in Poland for about 2 and a half hours in the middle of the night waiting for a train from the north to bring us passengers.
We finally got into Krakow around 11 o'clock and did some sightseeing with our tour guide. I'm not used to traveling in a big group so this was a different experience for me. I'm also not used to staying in an actual hotel, which was a super nice change. (being provided with towels and bedding? AND complimentary breakfast?! Heaven!)
Krakow had a really pretty old town and we spent some time there on a tour, and then just walking around and buying some souvenirs and presents. I think I have an actual obsession with buying presents for people when I'm on vacation. It's one of my favorite things to do when I come back from a trip and open up a suitcase full of presents. Bam! Christmas!
On Friday we went on a day trip to the concentration camp Auschwitz and Auschwitz II (Birkenau). I don't think that there was anything I could have done to have prepared me for it and I was not ready for it by any stretch of the imagination. On the bus on the way to the camp I put myself in the mindset that I was going to approach this objectively, from a learning standpoint, and not get overemotional about it. I was going to look at it from a historical context. That failed the minute I entered the first barracks. Walking through with the tour guide and listening to her explain how the extermination of the Jews and other prisoners proceeded I couldn't do anymore than stare wide-eyed at the displays in front of me. At one point, I felt the tears beginning to run down my cheeks, one at a time as I gazed in horror at everything I saw. What pushed me to crying was the deception used by the Nazis, telling the Jews that they were going to a better place, having them bring their valuables and belongings with them, telling them to mark their suitcases so they would be able to find them again. In the southern countries the Nazis sold the Jews tickets to Auschwitz, under the pretense of a better life. After Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was build, the Nazis would force some of the arriving Jews to write postcards home to their families that were still there telling them to make the journey as well, but postdate them by a week. By the time the postcards were sent out and the families received them, "Greetings from Auschwitz, wish you were here" those who had written them had already perished in the gas chambers.
Some of the displays in the barracks were almost too much for me to handle. They had enormous cases the size classrooms filled with suitcases with the names still on them, cookware that the Jews had brought for their new life; an entire hallway, with glass on both sides that had behind it thousands upon thousands of pairs of shoes. In one room, there was a glass the length of the entire wall and behind it was piles upon piles of human hair. The Nazi's saved everything. The hair was used to make fabric for the German people.
It finally got to the point that I was past even crying, almost past all emotion. I stumbled through the barracks, falling behind the group, just looking around at everything I saw, just feeling numb.
It was one of the most moving experiences of my life. I will never forget everything that I saw, and all of the horrors that were told to me. I think that every world leader, every person in any position of power should visit Auschwitz upon coming into office. I think that it would hopefully cause them to think a lot harder about the consequences of their actions, and perhaps make the world a bit more of a compassionate place.
However, to end with hope.
Friday night we had dinner at the hotel and then went out into the old city to do a little more sightseeing/souvenir buying and one of the 'chaperone' (in the loosest sense of the word) guys from IES took us to the Jewish quarter for a festival that was going on. There was an amazing Kelzmer band playing on a rooftop in the middle of a square. I suddenly realized that the neighborhood that I was standing in, with the packed square full of happy, celebrating people and loud Jewish music floating over our heads, is the neighborhood from the massacre in the movie Schindler's List. I took a moment to take in everything around me, to look at the buildings and remember the visions of death that I had seen in the movie, still fresh in my mind because I watched it for the first time in class last week. Then, I turned my eyes back to the celebration in front of me, to the drink in my hand that I had just purchased from the most famous Jewish bar in Krakow, to the sounds of laughter and applause, and most importantly to the music of the Jewish festival that filled the streets and banished the thoughts of death from my mind, filling it instead with hope.
Love to all at home,
Miranda
I must state here that Staci Molinar is an incredible friend. I walked into IES today and Britta handed me a letter from her. I LOVE getting mail! Thank you, babe!
Poland was really fun this weekend. The trip started off a little bumpy with a fight with a friend, but he and I were able to sit down and talk things out, smoothing everything over between the two of us, which I am extremely glad about. The train ride was super long, much longer than it should have been. We sat at a station in Poland for about 2 and a half hours in the middle of the night waiting for a train from the north to bring us passengers.
We finally got into Krakow around 11 o'clock and did some sightseeing with our tour guide. I'm not used to traveling in a big group so this was a different experience for me. I'm also not used to staying in an actual hotel, which was a super nice change. (being provided with towels and bedding? AND complimentary breakfast?! Heaven!)
Krakow had a really pretty old town and we spent some time there on a tour, and then just walking around and buying some souvenirs and presents. I think I have an actual obsession with buying presents for people when I'm on vacation. It's one of my favorite things to do when I come back from a trip and open up a suitcase full of presents. Bam! Christmas!
On Friday we went on a day trip to the concentration camp Auschwitz and Auschwitz II (Birkenau). I don't think that there was anything I could have done to have prepared me for it and I was not ready for it by any stretch of the imagination. On the bus on the way to the camp I put myself in the mindset that I was going to approach this objectively, from a learning standpoint, and not get overemotional about it. I was going to look at it from a historical context. That failed the minute I entered the first barracks. Walking through with the tour guide and listening to her explain how the extermination of the Jews and other prisoners proceeded I couldn't do anymore than stare wide-eyed at the displays in front of me. At one point, I felt the tears beginning to run down my cheeks, one at a time as I gazed in horror at everything I saw. What pushed me to crying was the deception used by the Nazis, telling the Jews that they were going to a better place, having them bring their valuables and belongings with them, telling them to mark their suitcases so they would be able to find them again. In the southern countries the Nazis sold the Jews tickets to Auschwitz, under the pretense of a better life. After Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was build, the Nazis would force some of the arriving Jews to write postcards home to their families that were still there telling them to make the journey as well, but postdate them by a week. By the time the postcards were sent out and the families received them, "Greetings from Auschwitz, wish you were here" those who had written them had already perished in the gas chambers.
Some of the displays in the barracks were almost too much for me to handle. They had enormous cases the size classrooms filled with suitcases with the names still on them, cookware that the Jews had brought for their new life; an entire hallway, with glass on both sides that had behind it thousands upon thousands of pairs of shoes. In one room, there was a glass the length of the entire wall and behind it was piles upon piles of human hair. The Nazi's saved everything. The hair was used to make fabric for the German people.
It finally got to the point that I was past even crying, almost past all emotion. I stumbled through the barracks, falling behind the group, just looking around at everything I saw, just feeling numb.
It was one of the most moving experiences of my life. I will never forget everything that I saw, and all of the horrors that were told to me. I think that every world leader, every person in any position of power should visit Auschwitz upon coming into office. I think that it would hopefully cause them to think a lot harder about the consequences of their actions, and perhaps make the world a bit more of a compassionate place.
However, to end with hope.
Friday night we had dinner at the hotel and then went out into the old city to do a little more sightseeing/souvenir buying and one of the 'chaperone' (in the loosest sense of the word) guys from IES took us to the Jewish quarter for a festival that was going on. There was an amazing Kelzmer band playing on a rooftop in the middle of a square. I suddenly realized that the neighborhood that I was standing in, with the packed square full of happy, celebrating people and loud Jewish music floating over our heads, is the neighborhood from the massacre in the movie Schindler's List. I took a moment to take in everything around me, to look at the buildings and remember the visions of death that I had seen in the movie, still fresh in my mind because I watched it for the first time in class last week. Then, I turned my eyes back to the celebration in front of me, to the drink in my hand that I had just purchased from the most famous Jewish bar in Krakow, to the sounds of laughter and applause, and most importantly to the music of the Jewish festival that filled the streets and banished the thoughts of death from my mind, filling it instead with hope.
Love to all at home,
Miranda
These pictures are for my parents, they were taken in the old town square in Krakow:
How fitting in the Fatherland, eh?
:)
3 comments:
So glad to hear you're feeling better, and that you enjoyed Poland. Every thing I've read about Auschwitz always brings me to tears. I can't imagine how much I would cry if I went there. The pictures in Krakow are beautiful as were the others you posted.(plus it is always nice to see your smiling face) Have fun and study hard. love to you
I love this picture...its awesome. I'm glad you were happy to get some mail; be expecting at least another letter!
<3
Beautiful, man.
Miss you. xxx
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