Oświęcim

October 12, 2025

Oświęcim (pronounced Auschweetch) lies 64 kms WSW of Kraków. I caught the train, then walked 2 kms to Auschwitz-Burkenau, where I discovered the tour starts 3 kms away, on the other side of the railway station. Still arriving in time, I joined the 10:15 French tour (1).

The Germans converted a Polish military barracks to a prison camp called Auschwitz I. This camp houses the museum telling the story of both Auschwitz I camp (mainly for Polish prisoners and Soviet POWs) and Auschwitz-Burkenau constructed a few kms away as a death camp for Jews and Roma. The museum and memorial are designed to remind visitors and refute potential denial of the holocaust. It was haunting to look at the faces on a wall of prisoner photographs in one barracks with their dates of arrival and execution. 

The introductory movie at Auschwitz I had the most shocking thing I heard today: our 3 1/2 tour was longer than most of the Jews transported to Auschwitz-Burkenau stayed there before being led to the gas chambers.

The tour group and guide took the shuttle bus to Auschwitz-Burkenau, viewing the remains of the Judenrampe and the Crematoria, destroyed before Soviet troops arrived to hide evidence of the killing here.

A train was leaving Oświęcim for a connection at the mainline to Wroclaw 1/2 hour after the tour ended. The ticket seller could not find a seat for me all the way to Wroclaw, so sold me a ticket on the local to the mainline at Mysłowice. At Mysłowice station (under heavy construction), no Bilety (ticket office) was visible. A westbound train appeared, and I asked the conductor if I could buy a ticket onboard to go to Katowice, where I hoped to buy a ticket further west. She waived me onto the train and I stood with a crowd in the vestibule. 

The bilety office at Katowice told me there were no seats on any train today to Wroclaw. I booked one of last seats on the intercity bus. Upon arrival at Wroclaw (2), I walked in short sleeves for 15 minutes in the 50° drizzle to make up for the stuffy bus (3).

(1) The English tours had sold out by the time I reserved about a week ago. I can mutter a few words of French, and all the signs were in English anyways (plus Polish and Hebrew) and a guide is required to enter the memorial sites.

(2) Pronounced something like "Vroslav," the former Prussian/German city of Breslau was transferred to Poland when the German-Polish frontier was moved west to the Oder River at the end of World War II.

(3) After buying a red currant-filled donut at the station.

Quiet early morning at Auschwitz Birkenau before any tour groups arrived

At Auschwitz I:

The gate to Auschwitz I

Double razor wire fence 

Cans of Zyklon B

Luggage carefully labeled by hopeful arrivees

Guard tower 

At Auschwitz-Burkinau:

Views towards the wooden barracks side. Up to 60,000 slave-labor prisoners were housed here.

The rail car is a simple memorial to the Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz-Burkenau. Our guide is in the foreground with the dark glasses. We are standing on the Judenrampe, where transportees were separated upon arrival into those destined for the gas chamber, and a small minority of the able-bodied who worked as slave labor.

The Crematoria were blown up as Soviet troops approached in an attempt to hide the evidence of Nazi crimes

The bird is oblivious of the horrors committed here

On the train to Mysłowice

In Wroclaw:

Kosciusko fought in the American War of Independence, rising to the rank of Brigader General. He later returned to his homeland to fight against Russia for Polish independence. A bridge on a highway near Albany is named in his honor, as he fought in the Battle of Saratoga

Wroclaw central square