Auschwitz-Birkenau

There is no single European country that suffered as much as Poland did during World War II. Millions of Poles, and nearly the entire prewar Jewish population of over three million, were killed in concentration camps. It is important to note that Hitler did not only target the Jews but also the Poles, where his Nazi ideology considered the Poles to be inferior to the Germans. With that our second day in Poland was spent seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was about an hours bus ride outside of Krakow. The Auschwitz extermination camp was established in April 1940 by the Germans in the prewar Polish army barracks on the outskirts of Oświęcim. Auschwitz was originally intended for Polish political prisoners, but the camp was “repurposed” as a dedicated centre for the wholesale extermination of the Jews of Europe. For this purpose, the much larger camp at Birkenau was constructed. Auschwitz is largest of the Nazi extermination camps, and the scene of the largest attempt at genocide in human history, as well as the world’s largest cemetery. This experience was almost overwhelming in that the site, the conditions, and the actuality of what happened there was far worse than what I expected. The terror and horror of that place is unreal its almost difficult to explain. As we walked through some of the exhibits in Auschwitz, on display were people’s suitcases with their names and addresses on them. Viewing the suitcases makes one realize that an innocent person owned each suitcase. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed to be taken within the different barracks so I have nothing to show for these horrific exhibits. Therefore it is important to be aware of history and the past so that nothing like this is ever repeated again.

The infamous gate of Auschwitz with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" German for work makes one free or work shall set you free.

Within Auschwitz there are two camps including Auschwitz and Birkenau. This picture is of some of the barracks in Auschwitz. Auschwitz was a concentration camp where Jews, Poles, Communists, and Prisoners of War were forced to work.

Death Wall - where many people working in Auschwitz were shot.

The entrance to Birkenau. Birkenau is several times larger than Auschwitz and is the site where millions of Jews were gassed to death in the gas chambers.

Inside Birkenau

On the left hand side is the train car where Jews were unloaded after days of travelling, and on the right is the site of the selection process where Jews were either chosen to work in the camp or to be sent straight to the gas chamber.

The Gas Chambers. When it was evident to the Germans that they would lose the war it was important that they destroy any evidence that would lead the rest of the world to believe that the Germans were committing a mass genocide. So there is not a single gas chamber and crematorium that is still intact in that the Germans destroyed them using dynamite. The Germans were very good a hiding what they were doing in the extermination camps from the outside world in that they simply said the camps were strictly prisoner of war camps. As well as the cyclone B that was used to kill the Jews in the gas chamber was delivered in red cross cars.

Inside one of the buildings where Jewish women would have lived. The living conditions were horrific. For example it was colder in the building than it was outside and about 10 women would have slept on one of those plank beds.

The larger side where men would have been kept. Since the building were made out of wood many of them have broken down over the past 60 years and only the brick furnaces remain.

Krakow Poland

Yesterday I reached the one-month mark for my return back to the U.S. I am getting excited to venture back home to see my family, but I have realized how much I enjoy living in Europe and having the ability to travel around the different regions and experience the vastly different cultures. Recently I returned from Krakow Poland and Stockholm Sweden. Although while we were away there was a bit of a natural disaster back in Cork. Apparently due to the increase in rain over the past couple of weeks the dam that controls the water levels in the River Lee was reaching capacity so some Irish engineers decided to lets some water out but after doing so it caused some of the quays to burst flooding the entire city. Basically most of Cork City was knee high in water and in return the flooding damaged most of UCC so school has been cancelled for the entire week and is expected to resume next Monday. Many of my friends living in on campus housing were relocated to accommodations outside of the city. In my own flat complex in downtown the entire ground floor was filled with water up to one’s knees but since I live on the floor above the first floor no water got into my room so luckily we returned from Sweden to a dry room.

Nevertheless, those of us that were not in Ireland but in Poland and Sweden had a great time traveling around Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. On our way to Krakow Poland we spent another night at our home away from home, The Dublin Airport. This was our second time where we arrived in Dublin the night before and had a flight early the next morning. Thank God Dublin Airport has a Starbucks because they have the most comfortable couches to sleep on compared to the wooden benches over at McDonalds. We arrived in Poland the next morning at around 10am. Poland is one of the poorer countries in Europe and thus is cheaper than many other European Countries. Poland is a recent member of the European Union but has not adopted the Euro as their currency and instead they are on the Zloty (zl). For €1 one would get about 4zl. For example we got a kielbasa for 5zl or €1,25 from a street vendor in Krakow and in Cork one could get a sausage for €3.

Poland is a country that has been overrun countless times by marauding aggressors, subjugated to overbearing foreign rule for centuries, the Polish nation has endured more than most. Yet Poland, a country crushed flat so many times it has become indestructible, is shaking off the last vestiges of forced slumber and rushing with great abandon into a modern 21st century. We began our trip in Krakow, Poland’s most sought after and intact city, which boasts so many unique buildings giving us a sense of what Poland was like before WWII. Another reason we traveled to Poland was to experience Auschwitz-Birkenau, a notorious Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The hostel we stayed at in Krakow was by far the best accommodation we have stayed in while traveling in Europe. Upon our arrival we were greeted by Ana and Slawek, the two owners of the hostel who toasted shots of Polish Cherry Vodka to welcome us. Na zdrowie is the Polish equivalent for cheers. Upon our arrival to the hostel each day after sightseeing Ana would welcome us with some Tea, Coffee and small appetizers. We were truly treated like Polish Royalty and the best part is that we only paid €8 each evening. With that Poland is a country that most skip over while venturing through Europe, but I am glad I had the opportunity to go and experience this dim yet very unique place where the people are among the friendliest and hospitable.

A very typical street in Krakow. Since Poland is high is latitude the sun goes down really early in the winter time. So by 4 pm it is completely dark outside. To the right of this walkway was a little stand that sold the best Kielbasa sausages

Rynek Glowny - The main square in Krakow and the largest square in Eastern Europe.

St Mary's Basilica - This Church was located in the main square and every hour at on the tour left hand turret a trumpet player opens the window and plays a song to signal the time of day.

A picture of me in the Main Square

A Church with some pretty creepy statues out front

Another Church - St Peters and Paul's

Wawel Castle - We never got a chance to go inside because the walls of the castle because it was to dark

We attempted to go and find Oskar Schindler's Deutsche Enamelware Fabrik, like in the movie Schindler's List. But we were unsuccessful and ended up in the former area that was once the Jewish Ghetto, where Jews were kept bofore being transported to concentration camps around Poland. There were chairs in the middle of the square most likely as a memorial but we were not sure what the memorial represented.

Another Church that we stumbled upon right outside of the Jewish Ghetto.

Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, UK

I really enjoyed my time in Northern Ireland where I learned a lot about a divided society among many historical sights and some great scenery. Derry/Londonderry is Northern Ireland’s second largest city next to Belfast and perhaps the most historical city in all of Ireland. Derry, as referred to by the Irish, or Londonderry, as referred to by the Northern Irish is not actually apart of the Republic of Ireland but rather a kingdom within the United Kingdom, which consists of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. To understand Northern Ireland it is first important to know a little history. In the past Ireland was once a colony of England just like the U.S. was but in 1921 Ireland gained independence from the British and formed there own country. However, six counties in the North of Ireland consisted mainly of Protestants who associated themselves with the British and desired to remain apart of Great Britain. So after the Belfast Agreement Northern Ireland succeeded from the Republic of Ireland and joined the UK. But of course since the Irish were the original inhabitants of the emerald isle and a minority resided in the North a divided society quickly erupted among the British Protestant majority and the Irish Catholic minority. From the establishment of the Northern Ireland in the 1920s until the early 1990’s there has been large amounts of violence in the north including car bombings, shootings, and British attack on the Irish minority. Seeing as how Derry/Londonderry is quite a divided society it was a perfect place to hold a conference on conflict resolution, and divided societies, which I attended while in the North. The conference brought in many several academics from around the world to talk about many of the world’s divided societies including Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine, and Pakistan and India to name a few. One of the main reasons I went was because USD paid for me to attend the conference along with $150 for transportation, and we got FREE FOOD. The conference was really interesting and I feel as though I learned a lot, while I got to meet people from all over the world. Some of the students that attended the conference had very liberal ideals compared to my own thoughts so I found it kind of comical to listen to some of there ideas that they thought would solve world peace. For instance one girl felt that art was the key in solving world conflict and argued that art made people aware of conflicts in turn causing a desire to change world politics.

Belfast and Derry tend to be the two cities where most of the conflict and fighting took place and within each of these cities are areas that are specific to the Protestants and areas that are specific to the Catholics. Within each area are murals showing different scenes or pictures of the conflicts that erupted. This is a protestant mural of the dove depicting peace.

All of these murals are found in the Bogside, which is where the Catholic community resides. Within the Bogside is a wall that encloses the Catholic community, which was to help protect against the Protestant community. This mural is suppose to be of Jesus.

Two murals depicting difference events and attacks that occurred between the Protestant and Catholic communities

This large wall is at the entrance to the Bogside of Derry and the Catholic community. The wall is probably the most iconic monument in Derry.

The British flag on top of a Presbyterian Church on the Protestant side

The only two Protestant murals supporting the British crown.

A picture of the bogside from the top of the walls that enclose it

After the conference ended I had a full day before I had to leave Derry and most of the other participants left as well but there was one girl that was staying the extra day as well so we took a train Castlerock, a small Northern Irish beach town. The owner of our hostel told us to visit this area and said the scenery was among the best in the North. This is a picture of the small town in Castlerock.

A gap that overlooked the ocean

The Irish forest

This area is known as downhill and at the end of this grassy area is an old library although we didn't see any books inside.

Irish Grass. The grass is Ireland is really different from the grass back in California in that it is thicker, greener, and kind of wild.

Cork City

So we were not able to make it up to Scandinavia because Matt had a lab for one of his classes that he couldn’t miss, although we are planning on going to Oslo and Stockholm during the last week of November. So for the past couple of weeks we have been hanging out in Ireland. This upcoming Thursday I am heading up to Derry in Northern Ireland to attend a conference that I was accepted into. Its sponsored by the University of Ulster and USD is going to pay for me to attend the conference, a place to stay, and my transportation. The conference is on divided societies and I thought it would be neat to go so that I could learn a bit about the conflicts between Northern Ireland, which is apart of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland as well as the conflict between the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. But one of the main reasons I am going is for the free food, and the opportunity to see another part of Ireland for FREE! Then we have planned a trip for the third weekend to Krakow Poland. Ryan, Victoria, and Caitlin all have Polish roots so that is the basis for or travels to Eastern Europe. One sight I intend to see while in Krakow is Auschwitz Concentration Camp, which is infamous for being the largest concentration and extermination camp used by the Nazis during World War II.

Back in Ireland it has been getting much colder and much rainier. Today we had intended on going to Kinsale, a small Irish beach town in West Cork County, but didn’t because of the rain. We are going to try and go tomorrow since there is no rain in the forecast. Lately I have had a lot of down time since the only studying I have to do is for my final exams at the end of term in December. Although this upcoming week I am going to try and start a paper for my European Framework class, I have put a lot of effort into this paper, as it’s the only form of assessment for this class. This past week I started my four-week plant diversity class, and my professor looks just like Bill Nye the science guy and you can tell that he really really likes plants because he constantly talks about the huge plant collection that he keeps in his extra bedroom that has been converted into a green house.

I have started to take some pictures of Cork City and I will upload them as I take more but here are a few.

This shot is taken from Shandon Bridge of the River Lee and downtown Cork. All of the main shops and store are typically located on the different quays off of the river. The quay concept confused me for the longest time but basically the streets that run on either side of the river do not have a single name, rather each block is a different quay. I live off of Bachelors Quay, and quay is pronounced key.

This is another shot of the River Lee taken from Lavitt's Quay.

This is St. Patricks Street and is the main street for shops, department stores, resteraunts etc. This is also the area where many of the festivals are held. The most recent was the Cork Jazz Festival. We were in Italy while it was happening but supposedly people come from all over and it is a lot of good craic.

This is inside the English Market, which is like an outdoor market where vendors sale fresh fruits and vegetable, irish meats, and baked goods.