A Haunting Truth
14 hours… 14 HOURS we spent on a cramped train from Gdansk to Krakow, Poland! When we finally arrived in Krakow at 10AM, it felt absolutely fabulous to get breakfast and stretch our legs. Traveling with only a backpack, my friends and I left the train station in search of our coach bus headed towards the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.
After an hour of travel we arrived at the camp. A feeling of morbid and surreal fascination overtook our group as we passed through the entrance to the museum. Shortly afterward we stood before the hellish gate of the camp. “Work will set you free,” it read over the entrance.
For the following 4 hours, our group wandered about Auschwitz camps 1 and 2 while learning of the ideology and politics that led to the murder of millions of innocent men, women, and children. Haunting is the only word I can use to describe the sensation I felt as I ran my fingers over the claw marks in the walls of the gas chambers left by victims panicking before their tragic demise.
Another landmark with mentioning is the, “Wall of Death” that is housed in Auschwitz 1. The wall was home to the site of over 20,000 executions by firing squad for political prisoners and deviants within the camp. Any form of revolt or resistance was met with brutal torture and subsequent execution throughout the Holocaust.
I must insist that anyone capable of making the trip to the camps do so for the sake of education and respect of those lost in the atrocity. Truly, this was one of the most powerful experiences of my academic life.
Sincerely,
Jacob Reshetar
Tags: semester at sea, Study Abroad
