Auschwitz Birkenau and a few random thoughts upon leaving Poland

Left around 10:00 for our final tour, the most momentous one, to Auschwitz Birkenau.  We were picked up in a brand new mini Mercedes bus and the irony wasn't lost on me although it appears to have been lost on everybody else.  German efficiency at its best efficiency which we would soon encounter in Auschwitz where around 6,000 people a day were ruthlessly murdered. Auschwitz was one of the biggest concentration camps with Birkenau functioning as a sort of satellite camp where people were housed in the most appalling, inhuman conditions.  Both camps had gaz chambers as well as crematoriums, the ashes were dispersed in ponds on the Birkenau site.  The Nazis never dug any graves, everybody who died was cremated so as not to leave any traces of what was being done under the "cover of war".
I don't have too much to write about the visit, it's too horrific to contemplate and even more horrific to imagine. Even being physically there doesn't give you the full scope of how truly awful it must have been with the dogs, the constant barking, the crying, the mud (it was very muddy where grass is now found) the big lights, the incessant screaming in German, the smell of rotten bodies, the fear the smells coming from the crematorium, the ash falling like flakes.  The crematoriums worked on a 24 hour schedule especially during the last year of the war when Hitler was desperate to carry out his "final solution". It truly is amazing to contemplate the ingenuity, the skill, the intelligence, the efficiency, the organization which went into the act of killing untold amounts of people on a scale never before imagined. 
The most horrifying was seeing mountains of human hair used for all manner of things which I prefer not to think about.  People were taking a lot of pictures but I didn't feel like taking a single photo. There are many photos on the internet for those of you who want to see what it looked like.  We were pretty horrified to discover some graffiti on the wood in some of the barracks and on one entire wall in a barrack housing young children ages 2 to 14 in Birkenau.  Silly graffiti of names, hearts, so and so loves the usual drivel which certainly smacks of disrespect in a place where so many have died. It really pissed me off.  We were glad we went, it wasn't a pleasant visit but the memory of the horror perpetrated there must live on. It's essential lest we forget.

Parting thoughts on Poland:

1.  The Poles like to visit their own country many of them in groups here and in Warsaw, in Gdansk as well.
2. Polish food is not very varied with heavy emphasis on meat, not too many options for vegetarians or vegans although apparently Warsaw is the capital of vegans in Poland. We only saw one vegetarian restaurant there.
3. The country is mostly white, even in Krakow not too many foreigners of a different color or immigrants.  Stan's relatives are deathly afraid of immigrants mostly Muslim, even though there are hardly any in Poland. 
4. Poland is probably one of the most affordable countries to visit in Europe especially for Canadians, good value for the exchange rate.
5. Generally service is not of the highest quality especially in ordinary stores which don't cater to a tourist clientele.  They can be sort of surly, ok that was our experience and probably a gross over generalization.
6. I will never ever become conversant in Polish, it's too damn hard to pronounce.
7. There are a lot of cars, too many, the traffic is horrendous.
8. KFC is very very popular especially in the countryside although it's also found in the cities with Macdonald having a premier place.  
9. Everybody is wired to the max, hardly anybody without a phone except us. 
10. There's a lack of good highway but the more roads they build, the more cars will travel on them. It's the same where we live.
11. The Russian nesting dolls are very very popular. Stan had assured me we would never find them here, he was wrong. They're everywhere.
12. Paczki (polish donuts) and cheesecake both are way better in Montreal, at Jean-Talon market. They were a huge disappointment.
13. We enjoyed our time here, we discovered a lot of new places, there is a lot to see and do in Poland. 

Side note:  Running shoes are the shoes of choice of the entire planet (it seems).  No matter what the nationality or gender or age, most people are wearing sneakers brand name sneakers.

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