Lost in translation

Krakow Trip

We spent the weekend at Krakow with some 100 other exchange students. Krakow was the old capital of Poland, and one of the very few places which was not badly destroyed during WWII cos the Germans were living there.

Everyone had been telling me how nice Krakow is.. I was kinda skeptical cos Europe was full of old towns, cathedrals and castles. How nice can this town be.. But I was wrong. I really like Krakow.  But I like it not because of its castles or cathedrals, though they were nice. What I really liked was the town square, Rynek Glowny, Europe’s biggest medieval town square. I loved the atmosphere there, its winter but the place was bustling with people and buskers playing good music. It’s very big, and a cathedral, cloth hall and other beautiful landmarks mark each corner of the square. In the middle of it is a statue, and there are children running around, playing with pigeons. You can feel the joy and liveliness in the atmosphere.

And the clubs are great there too..they play good music at least (compared to Warsaw). And after clubbing at like 3am you find lots of pple on the streets!! Everyone is still happy and eating their kebabs and pizzas on the streets, groups of youngsters singing and heading home. I really like the place.. :) and the weather is nicer too, not that cold compared to Warsaw. That’s why pple can hang out at 3am eating kebabs on the street..

On the last day, we visited Auschwitz, the Nazis concentration camp, where over 1 million Jews lost their lives. I had already heard a lot the gloominess and sadness of the place, and was looking forward to going there to really see history for myself. (Am really bitter and disappointed that I didn’t get to visit birkenau, the 2nd part of aushwitz, but let’s not talk about that) And it was cool, cos we visited Kaziemierz, the jewish village in Krakow in the morning before going to Auschwitz, so it made it more meaningful.

How shall I describe the place? I didn’t feel like death was in the air, but I really felt the sadness of the place. It’s like.. deadly quiet and people were all very respectful. Its not like a museum or memorial hall, that you usually go to.. it was a camp. And we walked from block to block, visiting each like it was some ‘monument’ But the fact is, this place was once full of people, people who …. I cant describe it. Tragic fate? I don’t think it quite adequately describes them.

And as I walked around, I cant help but imagine how this place was like and the captives felt threading on the same ground as I was threading on. Walking towards the Death Block, Block 11, where the shooting ground was, and where the standing cells were at, the gas chambers. There were rooms filled with hair, shoes, luggages, spectacles, clothes.. When you see them, its really natural to just look at them like a pile of objects..but the fact is, each pair of spectacles, each pair of shoes represent a person. It really is very sad.

The Jews had arrived at this place, thinking they were going to work in Eastern Europe, so they had brought along their valued possessions, and probably lots of hope and anticipation. Who knows? The german soldiers then carried out selection and do you think they really carefully select? Some had their fates straight to the extermination camp, and as the name suggests they died there in the gas chambers as anonymous pple. Other abled men had to “Work”, and were sent to the concentration camp. I can’t imagine.. And I still can’t even after visiting the place. How can anyone in the world be so cruel?

I’ve visited the memorial museum of the Rape of Nanking when I was much younger.. I wasn’t old enuff to think at that time it hink..i can vaguely remember the place. Some vivid images of the women being tortured. They weren’t just raped la..they were mutilated. Last year, I watched ‘Shooting Dogs’, a documentary about the genocide of the toosies (issit spelt like that) in Rwanda. I can’t imagine… It’s just so scary how ugly the human soul and heart can be. How can it be? Then I thought, maybe the time and era in the past was very different during the war or like it’s a totally different social standard and environment that shaped people to be like that. Maybe they were shaped by society to be that way or whatever.. but then, what about Abu Ghraib? Where the US soldiers tortured Iraqi POWs. That’s recent. Ummm.. Perhaps its what war makes of a person. All your values, morals would be warped.

posted by eMzie @ 9:04 AM