Poland - Part Two

POLAND - part two

Excursions from Krakow:

- AUSCHWITZ: you get there comfortably by coach in a couple of hours and then wait for the guided group tour in the various languages, and they give you a device with headphones through which you clearly hear what the guide says along the way. I was very torn about doing this visit because I knew it would impress and depress me, but in the end I did it more or less for the reason I found expressed right after the entrance: HE WHO AVOIDS HISTORY, FOR AS LONG AS IT LASTS, IS DESTINED TO REPEAT IT ON HIS OWN SHOULDERS.

At the entrance there is the famous inscription ARBEIT MACHT FREI, that is work sets you free, an inscription that had been stolen a few months earlier and was then put back in its place.

1.5 million Jews and not only Jews but also gypsies, political opponents, gays, etc. were gassed in this perfectly organised slaughterhouse. There are the brown brick barracks that served as dormitory-prison, and in some of them they have collected the findings found when the Nazis left at the end of the war, not before having burned almost everything to hide their misdeeds.

There are mountains of human hair that was used to produce fabrics! The suitcases of the deportees with their names stamped on them, their personal objects, shoes, toothbrushes, glasses, razors, etc... And then the interrogation rooms and the extremely narrow punishment cells where they had to stand in the dark before being put against the wall and shot. And naturally the gas chambers, into which they were herded as soon as they arrived from the trains, which sometimes took a month and unloaded half of the poor wretches already dead and the other half reduced to 30 kg in weight because they had had no food or water for long days. The strongest were assigned to work, the others were sent straight to the gas chambers, including children under 12.

Opposite the Auschwitz camp there is that of BIRKENAU, which is visited in succession and was the camp intended for women, equally horrible and shocking and partly burned. The only positive note I heard in the moving account of the Polish guide: at Auschwitz ONLY 7,500 Italian Jews arrived, because Italians, good people, managed to hide and save the majority of their Jews.

WIELICZKA

are the salt mines in operation for 700 years and still in use, located on the outskirts of Krakow and reachable by bus in about half an hour from the centre. It is a pretty town with a fine park around the entrance to this UNESCO-protected site. Nine levels reaching 327 m in depth and a route of over 300 km of galleries and tunnels. You pay about 10 euros and with a guide speaking the various languages (I chose English for scheduling reasons and it was a very kind young Polish woman who spoke excellent, very understandable English). At the beginning I was even alone, but then two couples of fat Americans from Chicago and Oregon joined. You go down about 350 steps, all chalky, grey-black, in a cool environment so you'd better bring a jumper, given that the guided tour lasts about 3 hours.

There are many tunnels, halls with statues of miners, horses, mules all made of salt, and then the wonder of a cathedral, that is an immense hall carved out of salt and decorated with statues and biblical bas-reliefs such as "the last supper", chandeliers that look like crystal and naturally the statue of the Polish pope. The greatest emotion is when you arrive in a decorated hall where light shows are switched on that highlight the striking nature of the bas-reliefs, and then the showpiece slowly emerges: CHOPIN, the great Polish composer.

You come back up to the surface in a small lift after having been at 200 metres in depth, and before leaving you can eat in the self-service restaurant, which offers Polish cuisine specialities at very low prices, or you can buy various objects of salt, some of other stones such as amethyst and amber, which together with Swarovski crystals (Czechoslovak) make up the main component of the ornaments relegated to souvenirs.

SCHINDLER'S FACTORY

is located on the immediate outskirts of Krakow in an industrial area. It is the real site of Schindler's story, from which Steven Spielberg drew perhaps his most beautiful and touching film in his long career of successes. Schindler had hundreds of Polish Jews handed over to him by the Nazi concentration camps, naturally for payment, and so he saved them from certain death, making them work in his factory, which mainly produced period pots and pans.

The museum created inside the factory itself was recently inaugurated and I absolutely recommend the visit, very interesting and varied, even though the theme is always that very sad one of Jewish persecution. Less depressing than Auschwitz and richer in period objects: you follow a fine circuit through various rooms and galleries in which period photos, clothes, furnishings, even toys have been placed, the workers' living rooms have been reconstructed, even the hairdresser's and barber's salon, and then reconstructions of the Jewish ghetto. There is also the room of Schindler's office with his desk and his photo and lots of other things, but all of them very interesting. The visit costs around 10 euros

I DID ALL THESE VISITS ON MY OWN, TAKING PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND PAYING ONLY THE ENTRANCE TICKET, IN TOTAL FOR THE THREE EXCURSIONS, TRANSPORT AND ENTRANCE TICKET I SPENT ABOUT 40 EUROS, whereas if I had joined the organised group excursions I would have spent ALMOST THREE TIMES AS MUCH| On the last day, worn out by the great heat, I decided to take a day of relaxation; I took bus 292, which goes to Krakow's BALICE airport, paying less than 1 euro for the ticket, and then I walked for half an hour before reaching Lake Kryspinow, which is Krakow's beach. The lake is quite big with clean water but of a dark green colour, entirely surrounded by birches, reeds and, surprise, sand both at the edges and on the bottom, so you can walk around barefoot and go into the cool but not cold water without any problems.

I stayed in the quietest and most "liberal" area, the naturist beach, being a convinced naturist for 40 years, without prudishness or morbidity but only for the pleasure of sunbathing and swimming as nature made me. I met a group of very nice young Poles with whom I had a pleasant conversation. They even offered me beer, which they carry with them in large cool boxes and which they drink continuously, alternating drinks with swims and long cheerful chats. It was Sunday and I relaxed and cooled off before returning, with a lift offered by my Polish friends, to the city and before setting off the next day for Zakopane.