Wieliczka Salt Mines

This UNESCO registered landmark, the Wieliczka salt mines is located 30 minutes on the outskirts of Krakow, has been in operation for 900 years. It used to be one of the world's biggest and most profitable industrial centers when common salt was commercially a medieval equivalent of today's oil. Always a magnet, since the mid-18th century Krakow's Wieliczka salt mine has become increasingly a tourist attraction in the first place. Both domestic and international tourists can walk underground for about 2,000 m in the oldest part of the salt mine and see it´s subterranean museum, which took us over three hours to move through it.

Over nine centuries of raw salt mining in Wieliczka has produced a total of some 200 kilometers of passages as well as 2,040 caverns of various sizes. The tourist and the safe section starts 64 meters deep and ends 135 meters below the earth surface, where the world's biggest museum of mining is located showing unique centuries-old equipment among it´s exhibits. Below the common area, some 210 meter deep, there is a sanatorium for people who are suffering from asthma and allergy conditions. People will occasionally conduct concerts, weddings and other celebrative events take place in the Wieliczka mine’s biggest chambers.

Click here to view the passionate traveler´s photos of the salt mines...

The Horrors of Auschwitz death camp

One of the reasons that Andy and I went to Krakow, is that we were interested in seeing the Jewish events and the slave camps that were used in WWII. We decided to see the biggest camp of all, called Auschwitz.

The site of the Nazi's notorious Auschwitz death camp is one hour’s bus ride from the town of Krakow. Between June 1941 and January 1945 about one million men, women and children perished in the three Auschwitz concentration camps. There were called Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz and also showing their forty sub-camps. At its prime, the whole complex was a deadly prison to some 150,000 inmates that were being either murdered outright or starved and worked to death.

History of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp

In 1939, Adolf Hitler destroyed the Polish town of Oswiecim as part of the Third Reich holocaust plans, and a year later the Nazis converted the town’s abandoned barracks into a concentration camp. The first inmates, a group of Polish political prisoners, arrived on June 14, 1940. In addition to Poles there were soon imprisoned Soviet POW’s, Gypsies, and other nationals from the rest of German-occupied Europe to suffer and die in the hellish conditions. In 1942, notably after the construction of the nearby Birkenau (Auschwitz II) concentration camp, trainloads of European Jews start to come. Most of them were immediately put to death in the Birkenau gas chambers.

• October 1939: the Nazis annex the ancient Polish town of Oswiecim to the Third Reich and rename it Auschwitz.
• November 1939: new German administration installs a German mayor.
• 1940-1944: Polish peasants are being driven out of the area to make room for German settlers.
• 1940: on Himmler’s order Jewish slave workers change emptied army barracks into a concentration camp.
• June 14, 1940: the Nazis bring political prisoners, all of them Poles, to Auschwitz Concentration Camp as its first inmates.
• 1941: all Jews are forced out of Oswiecim.
• October 1941: construction began of the Birkenau Concentration Camp, i.e. Auschwitz II, starts near Oswiecim.
• 1942: Creation of Auschwitz III-Monowitz Concentration Camp.
• January 1945: Evacuation of the Auschwitz camps.
• January 27, 1945: the Soviets liberated Oswiecim.
• 1947: new Polish government creates Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of the concentration camps.
• 1967: erecting of the International Monument to the Victims of Fascism at Birkenau.
• 1979: UNESCO enters the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Birkenau death camp in its list of World Heritage sites.
• 1986: launching of the Youth Meeting House in Oswiecim.
• 1992: opening of the Center Dialogue and Prayer.
• 2000: opening of the Auschwitz Jewish Center and Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue.

Knowing it's provocative history, it was difficult for me to digest of what happened here over 60 years ago. I was amazed by the preserved structures are still in perfect conditions leaving visitors who roam free through the facility a gut wrenching feeling that the horrors and the committed crimes are still fresh in people's minds. The day tour of this place, was enough for me to take photos and to deeply understand the enormous magnitude that this concentration camp plays a big role in today's society.

Click here to view the passionate traveler's photos of Auschwitz...

Królewskie Stołeczne Miasto Kraków

Leaving the city of Berlin, Andy and I have taken a 9 hour slow train ride to the southern town of Krakow, Poland. We decided that we would skip the capital of Warsaw as we were looking for the WWII history and also to ensure the student and young vibrant life of Krakow.

We stay for a few days at a funny and strange hostel called Tutti Fruitti which shows an enormous photograph collection of shiny fruits at a close up range. Strawberries, Blueberries, applies, orange, cherries, mango, and you name it...

Apart from our fruit smelling hostel, the town contains Europe's 2nd biggest square playing the host to many restaurants, churches, dance clubs, bars, pubs, street vendors, street entertainers and most importantly the overwhelming flocks of pigeons. In the dead middle of the town, lies a big reddish brick castle with a tall looking cathedral that has been present for hundreds of years providing the inhabitants of the town with medieval protection from it's enemies. Walking beyond the castle, leads to one of Europe well known Jewish quarters which contains the remains of a large WWII ghetto, Oksar Schindler's Factory & office (remember the movie Schindler's List?) and an old Jewish style cemetery which has to be relocated once due to it's shear size and the additions of local Jewish people who were murdered by the Nazi regime in the area.

The feelings certainly very emotional being in a place that had one of the biggest profound events in the history of human kind. Click here to view the photos of the town Krakow.