It's been a long day as my alarm went off at 6, we headed out at 730 and have had a full day which has included sitting on the bus (the ride is longer than our plane ride was! Yikes!).
We began the day visiting Track 17 where thousands of German Jews were deported to the camps. I found this emotional and hard to be standing in these places as I tried to place myself, and feel a bit of what they would have. The tracks are surrounded by plaques stating the dates and numbers of Jews deported, ranging from as few as 18 and as high as thousands a day. Being able to stand down on the tracks, feel the rocks and rails made this so real as it was physical. I did, however, have a mix of emotions as the station (which is still used today including a new "Track 17") is in a gorgeous, wealthy area of town that just blew my mind. Of course this is one of many days where my mind and emotions will be jumbled.
From here, we visited the site of the Wansee Conference in 1942. A beautiful home(?) surrounded by gorgeous vegetation (the flowers are all in bloom), and a gorgeous lake out front. I'll write more on this once I'm home and go through and reflect on everything but this was one of the best museums I've been to, to date. Filled with such important background info, files (artifacts), photos and audio it really gives the full context and lays everything out.
We also visited a neighborhood with 80+ signs around street posts and building which is a memorial catering to the German population rather than tourists. These focused on the restrictions the Jews were faced with, and I had a very friendly man translate several for me as we explored and tried to find them on our own. I'm really intrigued by the way Germans view and value their history and the education of it, especially after speaking with this fellow. Im sure I'll cover this more later.
Lunch was delicious: a wonderful German schwarma in Berlin. After a bit of time on our own (I found a grocery store! Apples! ((ouuu, German breakfast was seriously THE BEST EVER)) we headed out to Poland.
I'm in love with the Polish countryside: gorgeous forests and so many rapeseed fields as well as gorgeous farmsteads.
The highway we first drove on, which involved a bit of whiplash and lots of jumping and bumping was built by Hitler for his army to enter Poland.
It's been a long day. Im writing this on the bus, will post as soon as I get wireless.
Tomorrow we'll be at Auschwitz so Im sure tomorrows post will be very good or minimal as I try and reflect. As you know, I'll be posting my detailed actual journal entries once home and rested.
I'm excited to see sun, as we briefly did earlier on the bus, as the last two days were gloomy (appropriately so) and wet.
Peace, and love.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone, from Krakow, Poland.
Location:On a bus. For 9 long hours.
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