June 10, 2025: Bergamo to Krakow and Auschwitz

(Written by Brian on June 11)

Originally we thought our flight left at 8:50, so Devri and I set our alarms for 5:00. After waking up several times in the night, however, Devri realized the flight had been moved to 8:50, so we were able to let the kids sleep in a little bit. Our bed was awful, though, and so neither of us slept really well. We packed up, rearranged suitcase stuff into our backpacks since Ryanair had some pretty strict luggage weight requirements, and then took off for the airport in an Uber.

 

We had to walk out onto the tarmac to get to our plane at the Milan-Bergamo Airport

Ready to fly to Poland!

As we landed we could barely believe that we were actually in Poland after talking about it for months/years. 

The Krakow airport had a fooseball table near baggage claim, so we invited a Polish kid on our flight to join our fun while we waited for  our luggage

We found a taxi driver at the airport with a van and rode into Krakow itself, which was about 30 minutes away. I was immediately impressed with how the houses in the countryside looked exactly like what you’d see in the US. It reminded us of Kansas and the South/Florida since it was so green. On the way, we realized we knew 0 polish and asked the driver how to say “hello” (cheisch is what it sounds like) and “thank you” (dzunkuje? Sounds like June-kew-yeah), which we immediately forgot 800 times over the course of the day. We probably sounded like a bunch of crazies going up and down the streets saying “Hello!” in a terrible American accent.

We went to the train station to research what it would take to take the bus or trains to Auschwitz since our Auschwitz tickets were for 4:30. Meanwhile, the taxi driver that took us to Krakow, Jerzy (said like Jerry best I could tell), had given us his number and said he could take us to the gates, wait a few hours, then bring us back. We finally ended up just taking him up on the offer since the busses were mostly sold out by the time we got around to trying to book them, and it was just easier in so many ways.

The way the trees at this house were trimmed made them look like Hershey Kisses

Since we decided to go with Jerzy, we even got some time in the Krakow old town, which is quite medieval. The town was beautiful and the people were very kind. Honestly, it was the safest I’ve felt on the entire trip. There were so many kids around that must have been school groups, and it wasn’t very crowded at all. The weather was also perfect - about 70 F.

The kids trying to catch pigeons

Krakow's Old town square

St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow's Main Market Square

Historic Town Hall Tower, the only surviving part of the old town hall

Holy Trinity Church, dating back to 1223

Church of Saints Apostles Peter and Paul, 1597-1619

Monument to Piotr Skarga, a prominent Polish Jesuit, preacher, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,  in Maria Magdalena Square

Gabe's injuries after some now-forgotten incident in Krakow

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

After entirely too short of a time in the old city, we had to meet up with Jerzy for our 1.5 hour taxi ride to Auschwitz.

He told us he would wait for about 3 hours and it usually took about 2 hours in the first site and 1 hour in the second (there is a shuttle bus that takes you between the two sites). We weren’t sure Rachel and Gabe (due to their sensitive hearts) would last that long, but we turned out to be very wrong. We spent about 3 hours at the first site and at least an hour at the second site.

The street in front of the Museum entrance of Auschwitz

Supporting each other heading into Auschwitz

Path leading from the Museum entrance to the Auschwitz I camp. A recording of someone saying the names of the victims plays as you walk through. It is incredibly sobering hearing their names.  

Map of Auschwitz I

Gate into Auschwitz I

"Work makes one free" entrance sign into Auschwitz I

Looking into one of the rooms filled with the shoes of the Victims

What to say about Auschwitz? When Devri and I went to Dachau 10 years ago in Germany, it was a sobering visit that left us feeling emotionally drained and hurting for the people that suffered so much. Auschwitz was that and so much more to us. The first site was pretty large and felt just a little smaller than Dachau which surprised us, but when we went to the second site, we were completely shocked by the size of the camp. It could have easily fit 6+ Dachau sites in it, probably with room to spare. I think I counted close to 250 barracks, and the Nazis were working on expanding the site to fit another 60,000 people, so there was another large group of buildings being constructed when the war came to an end.

Rachel described Auschwitz the best by saying it was “overwhelmingly sad” and “crushing”. There are no words really to describe the horrors that the prisoners experienced there. No words to describe the atrocities that were committed against people, against mankind. No words to excuse or diminish the fact that these people killed innocents, even thousands and thousands of children, for no sane reason. I was especially struck by a video they had playing of a survivor of Auschwitz speaking at the 75th anniversary of the camp liberation talking about the eleventh commandment.

”..minority rights must be protected… Thou shalt not be indifferent when any authority violates the existing social contract. Be faithful to this commandment, to the eleventh commandment: thou shalt not be indifferent. Because if you are indifferent, you will not even notice it when upon your own heads, and upon the heads of your descendants some other Auschwitz falls from the sky.”

The kids all did very well at the camp and were sober and respectful the entire time. Gabe said he really didn’t like seeing the pile of real eyeglasses that were collected from the inmates. Rachel said she was terrified by the pile of glasses since if they were broken or taken, the people wouldn’t be able to see anything. Devri and I were somber for the entire camp, but both of us lost it pretty hard seeing toddler clothes in the museum. Who could do such horrible things to toddlers? It reminded me of Matthew 18:6 - “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” I don’t want to pass judgment on the soldiers operating the camp. I don’t know how they justified it to themselves or if fear kept them at it, but regardless of the reason, their acts were atrocious and cannot be excused.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau entrance

Auschwitz II-Birkenau map

At the second site, we ended up walking to the furthest corner of the camp to see the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoriums. I was especially lifted by the story of the revolt of the Sonderkommando, who were prisoners that worked in the crematoriums and and were isolated in order to hide what the Nazis were doing to mass exterminate people from the rest of the camp. They organized a revolt that went wrong just before the scheduled time due to troops showing up and deporting the Sonderkommandos. One of the crematoriums groups revolted and two others followed after, but the fourth one was close to the first and were afraid of being shot and did not end up revolting. The first one set fire to the crematorium and burned it down, I believe with the Sonderkommandos inside. There was also the story of a polish soldier who volunteered to be sent to Auschwitz in order to form the resistance there. When the gestapo finally caught on to him, he escaped the camp and continued fighting until he was executed by the SS later I believe. These stories show that people fight even in the darkest of circumstances and were the sole light in a dark day visiting the camps.

The train track leading into the heart of Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Brian, Rachel, and Gabe next to one of the cars that would have brought people into Birkenau

"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews, from various countries in Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1940-1945"

The kids placed wildflowers on the top of these markers, which say, "To the memory of the men, women, and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide. Here lie their ashes. May their souls rest in peace." 

"On 7 October 1944, the prisoners of the Sonderkommando, a special work unit of Jewish prisoners whose task was to remove the victims' bodies from the gas chambers and burn them in the crematoria, organized the only armed revolt that took place in Auschwitz. As a result, Crematorium IV and gas chamber was destroyed. 450 heroic prisoners were murdered by SS men during the revolt and in the retaliation for organizing it." 

"The Crematorium V Building, which contained the gas chambers and a furnace for burning bodies. Tens of thousands of Jews were murdered here with Zyklon B and then incinerated: men, women, and children. Their bodies were burned along with the corpses of prisoners of various nationalities who died in the concentration camp..."

Crematorium V Building

After 4 hours, we finally started the long ride back to our apartment. 

We were very concerned with getting back before the reception closed at 10pm since then we wouldn’t have our luggage for the flight the next morning. However, we confirmed they would stay until we got back, and we got back at about 9:30 and finally got to bed around 10-11. In case it hasn’t been mentioned by this point, Gabe had a cold the week previous to this, then it passed to Rachel and finally to Michael, but Michael definitely got hit with the worst of it. By this night he was extremely miserable and just wanting to sleep as much as he could. Unfortunately, it was a short night since we had a 10am flight the next morning.