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View Full Version : Poland/Auschwitz tour.

voltanapricot
10-21-2005, 12:15 PM
I spent 3 days in Poland, it was an amazing, very interesting and horrowing experience going around the old camps in Auschwitz.

Afterwards we got to mooch around Krakow which is such a lovely city!

Anyways, this is how my trip went:

This be the lovely hotel I stayed in, an old fort. Me and my mates got the biggest room. :cool:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0278.jpg

Looking around the town...OMG THAT SIGN HAS MY NAME IN IT.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/chlopskie.jpg

The next day we started our tour in Auschwitz I.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0193.jpg

"Work Makes You Free."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/auschwitzI.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/chamberAI.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/auschwitzIblock11.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0201.jpg

I found the trees kind of eiree. Walking around, you feel like something still isn't quite right. Afterwards my friend and I realised that there were no birds chirping or any sort of natural sounds...nothing.

So off to Auschwitz II - Birkenau:

Iconic, no?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0260.jpg

I'll post more in a tick.
ToucanSpam
10-21-2005, 02:14 PM
Nice pictures. I wish to visit those places someday, for their historical significance. Krakow and Auschwitz especially. Did you get a wierd bad vibe walking through the camps?
HEIRESS
10-21-2005, 02:17 PM
I dont know if I could handle visiting there, though I want to someday
Ive got a intense obsession with reading holocaust survivor memoirs
voltanapricot
10-21-2005, 02:43 PM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0246.jpg

Yeah, it was surreal you know, walking around where all these dreadful things happened.

I picked up a nicely written book by Kystyna Zywulska, 'I Survived Auschwitz.'
If you haven't picked that one up yet, I'd seriously recccomend that one Airesse. I'm currently reading the memoirs of Dr.Mengale's assistant, fella was a sick, sick man.

Anyway...we went on a Schindler's List factory tour, the coach stopped by for us to take pics of the sign but the guy let us in!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0288.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0294.jpg

Oskar Schindler's office.
jabumbo
10-21-2005, 03:01 PM
i visited poland back in 94, so i was only 10 at the time


my dad and sister went to visit the camp one of the days while my mom staed with me and my little sister at somebodies house



i loved it though, i spent the whole day playing games with a boy whom i couldnt speak too. it was amazing
DroppinScience
10-21-2005, 04:30 PM
Afterwards we got to mooch around Krakow which is such a lovely city!

I believe one of my grandparents came from Krakow (the exact areas from where the Polish side of my family has always been a little sketchy... in fact, one area of Poland members of my family came from... is now a part of the Ukraine, those borders change all the time).

I haven't really had any interest in visiting Poland (and I especially wouldn't be interested in seeing the concentration camps), but I'm glad you enjoyed yourself.
Tzar
10-21-2005, 06:57 PM
"auschwitz; the meaning of pain, the way that i want you to die"

sorry. whenever i see the word "auschwitz" i think of Slayer. :(

nice pics, clo
TimDoolan
10-22-2005, 01:37 PM
http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/teacher_services/shared/dforrest/wwII_memorial/OSCAR_SCHINDLER/spielberg4.jpg
Oscar Schindler was a true hero. Schindlers List was always very tough to watch, but a great tribute to all he did. I can't believe you got to go into the real mans office. Great photos, keep em coming.
synch
10-22-2005, 02:10 PM
Nice pictures Clo. "Arbeit Macht Frei" makes me ill, the sadism of it all. Bleh.

I visited a concentration camp in the Cech Republic about a decade ago. Very impressive stuff...

"auschwitz; the meaning of pain, the way that i want you to die"

sorry. whenever i see the word "auschwitz" i think of Slayer. :(

nice pics, clo
Angel of Death...
ToucanSpam
10-22-2005, 02:13 PM
http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/teacher_services/shared/dforrest/wwII_memorial/OSCAR_SCHINDLER/spielberg4.jpg
Oscar Schindler was a true hero. Schindlers List was always very tough to watch, but a great tribute to all he did. I can't believe you got to go into the real mans office. Great photos, keep em coming.

I don't know if calling him a 'hero' is proper, remember that the movie we saw (directed by Spielberg, a man of Jewish decsent) manipulated the story surrounding Schindler and made him look good. Fact was, he was a womanizer, and was associated with the Nazi party. Yes, he did amazng things and he deserves a lot of good things to be said about him, but he wasn't as great as he was portrayed on film.
QueenAdrock
10-22-2005, 09:28 PM
My ultimate vacation after I get my European History degree is a 2 week vacation through France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, and then swing down to Italy. I want to hit up all the major war sites/historical places. My favoritest professor went to Auchwitz and said it was just so incredibly depressing being there, that there was an electric charge in the air that was a pressing reminder of what happened there.
Audielicious
10-22-2005, 10:12 PM
I dont know if I could handle visiting there, though I want to someday
Ive got a intense obsession with reading holocaust survivor memoirs
I recommend this one then: All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein. I met her at an assembly in high school. She's an amazing woman.

Wonderful pictures, Chloe! (y)
DroppinScience
10-22-2005, 10:31 PM
I don't know if calling him a 'hero' is proper, remember that the movie we saw (directed by Spielberg, a man of Jewish decsent) manipulated the story surrounding Schindler and made him look good. Fact was, he was a womanizer, and was associated with the Nazi party. Yes, he did amazng things and he deserves a lot of good things to be said about him, but he wasn't as great as he was portrayed on film.

I don't think the movie made him overly heroic. He was mostly an amoral man who decided to do one bit of good at the last minute. He was of many shades of grey, and I don't think the movie glossed over that. Even if the ending with the survivors visiting Schindler's grave was a bit much...
QueenAdrock
10-22-2005, 11:31 PM
I think it was appropriate, the families who were saved showing tribute to Schindler at the end of the movie was a nice touch. However, if they were all crying and kissing his gravestone and stuff, that'd be tacky. But from what I remember, they just went up and silently put a rock on his grave which was humble yet honoring.
DroppinScience
10-22-2005, 11:43 PM
I think it was appropriate, the families who were saved showing tribute to Schindler at the end of the movie was a nice touch. However, if they were all crying and kissing his gravestone and stuff, that'd be tacky. But from what I remember, they just went up and silently put a rock on his grave which was humble yet honoring.

But what was especially odd about that scene was that the way they portrayed the survivors: one version is themselves in the present day, and another as how they appeared in the 1940s. A bit "Back to the Future"-ish, if you ask me...
voltanapricot
10-23-2005, 02:37 AM
Fact was, he was a womanizer, and was associated with the Nazi party.
Yeah, but being involved in the Nazi party gave him some power, didn't it? I see what you mean though. The fit Jews would have been sent to work anyway, but what makes Schindler exceptional, I think, is that he used his own profit to make life more tolerable for them.

I liked how the film ended, isn't it some Jewish custom to use rocks instead of flowers?

The only thing that gets me about the film was that big emotional scene at the end before he gets into the car. In reality that never happened.
mickill
10-23-2005, 02:46 AM
Fabulous pictures, Clo. You lucky bastard.
voltanapricot
10-23-2005, 02:52 AM
Hey Mike, here's your chance to get lucky! See if you can guess what scene was shot here in the Academy Award winning movie Schindler's List! To win a prize! Laugh out loud!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0279.jpg

P.S. My friend has a better pic without people in it. You see that girl in the pink? I don't like that girl in the pink. :mad:
mickill
10-23-2005, 02:59 AM
That was a long ass movie. I don't know what scene was shot in that spot. Uh, the car chase? A shootout?

I don't like that girl in the pink either. What a cow.
voltanapricot
10-23-2005, 03:14 AM
...aaaaand this is what you could have won!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/cathedral.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0309.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0307.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0316.jpg

Okay I'm gonna stop now.
Knuckles
10-23-2005, 09:12 AM
these pics are great (y)
thanks for posting them C :)
ToucanSpam
10-23-2005, 09:42 AM
Hey Mike, here's your chance to get lucky! See if you can guess what scene was shot here in the Academy Award winning movie Schindler's List! To win a prize! Laugh out loud!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0279.jpg

P.S. My friend has a better pic without people in it. You see that girl in the pink? I don't like that girl in the pink. :mad:


If I remember correctly, that was the staircase that a young girl and her grandmother were spotted by a young boy serving as a searcher for stragglers in the streets of Krakow. 'Don't worry, i'll put you in the good line.' or something...


In responce to what you said when you quoted me, the ending was cool, I personally thought it was very cool how the actor/actress would lay down a rock with the actual person their character was modelled after. That had a very real feel to it. The car scene was a bit much, just another example of Hollywood making something more romantic than what it actually was.


Awsome pictures, I think I might also follow in the footsteps of QUEENADROCK and go across Europe and see these awsome cities for myself. I know before I die I have to walk the streets of Moscow.
hellojello
10-23-2005, 10:48 AM
http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/teacher_services/shared/dforrest/wwII_memorial/OSCAR_SCHINDLER/spielberg4.jpg
Oscar Schindler was a true hero. Schindlers List was always very tough to watch, but a great tribute to all he did. I can't believe you got to go into the real mans office. Great photos, keep em coming.
Fair call, but I should tell you, that guy in the pic is Liam Neeson.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4403/schindler7to.jpg
Oscar Schindler



Thanks V. for sharing the pics. Interesting.
mickill
10-23-2005, 01:50 PM
No, that guy in the picture is Qui-Gon Jinn.
ToucanSpam
10-23-2005, 01:56 PM
No, that guy in the picture is Qui-Gon Jinn.
:eek:
voltanapricot
10-23-2005, 02:11 PM
Okay, guys? It's Oskar Schindler? Not Oscar. Would you call the queen Kween Elizabeth? No! *sobs*

By the way I'm glad you lot enjoyed the pics and everything.

Toucan: It was a girl and her mum and they were allowed to hide. Close enough. You win a sexy pidgeon.
ToucanSpam
10-23-2005, 02:13 PM
Toucan: It was a girl and her mum and they were allowed to hide. Close enough. You win a sexy pidgeon.

Horaay. Isn't that the urban term for a money grabbing woman?



Horaay!
Nadia
10-23-2005, 02:31 PM
"Arbeit macht frei"..... the Nazis were really sick.... and still are..... :(
those Auschwitz pictures are really creepy (for me), i don't know if i would be able to visit a place with such a painfull history.
utze
10-24-2005, 03:31 AM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/clo_lovemolks/Poland/IMGP0260.jpg

Have been there, too.

Watch this!

http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/61/1112161/1280_3663303066653763.jpg