Hey everyone!

Jill and I are back from Poland and completely SWAMPED in homework!! Ahhh! Because of this, I won't get too detailed about our trip because I think the pictures I added do a lot of explaining for themselves!

Overall, Poland was amazing! We stayed in Krakow. It is a really cute little town that seemed to be very safe and quaint. The people were incredibly friendly and the food was amazing! We ate Pirogues every night! Also, the dollar is really great over there so we were able to do some shopping. Poland is known for the Amber jewelry, so I bought a set for myself to have for years to come.

Okay, so on to what you really want to hear about...

Auschwitz was a really great experience! It was definitely worth the trip and the travel drama that came with the preparations for it.

Overall, it was much bigger than I had thought. Auschwitz is actually made up of three separate camps. Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II- Birkenau and Auschwitz III. Auschwitz II-Birkenau is the camp that most of you probably associate with the Holocaust.

The biggest differences in Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau was their purpose. Auschwitz I was a "concentration camp", whereas Auschwitz II-Birkenau was a "death camp". The difference between the two is slightly different. A concentration camp, although still meant to kill those in the camp, was meant to kill prisoners through excessive work. A death camp is a camp that prisoners are sent to where they are almost immediately put to death. Most of the Jews went directly to the death camp, where sometimes they lived for several months to provide labor before they were sent to the gas chambers. Other groups of people that were killed at Auschwitz were intellectuals, homosexuals, gypsies, and Russian prisoners of war.

Auschwitz I is where the infamous death wall is located. It is located outside of Block 11, which is a barak that was called the "prison within a prison". Block 11 is where solitary confinement was located. The death wall is famous for the extremely cruel executions that took place there. Envision people standing against a cement block wall with a group of gaurds in front of them and shooting them execution style. Even worse, it has been documented that this was done on families. The entire family would stand in front of the wall and hold each others hands as each person, one by one, was shot until they were dead. They normally started with the youngest children and then killed the parents last. There was a large brick wall around this area, which was supposed to keep the area as a secret.

Also in Auschwitz I were many displays of personal goods and items left over from the prisoners. These were all displayed inside the barracks and therefore I couldn't take any pictures of them. Some of the items that we saw were shoes (adults and children's) about 2 tons of them. Luggage was another item (from the families who thought they were "moving to a better life"), on the luggage were the names of the families and their past home location. Another astonishing item was the women's hair. When the women entered the camp their heads were shaven and all the hair was kept to use as fibers to create textiles. We saw about 2 tons of human hair. Some of the hair was still tied in a braid that looked as if it was literally cut from the top of the young girls head and thrown in the pile. Other items were home goods, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, clothing, Jewish prayer cloths, and handicap equipment for the old. These items were brought to the camp because the families were manipulated into thinking they were moving to a wonderful place to start a new life.

In Auschwitz I is where the first gas chamber was put in place, several months after the camp was opened. This was the gas chamber that we visited. It was actually, one of the smaller gas chambers but still killed a significant amount of individuals. The incinerators at this gas chamber could burn about 350 bodies a day. The prisoners were escorted into the gas chamber (unaware that it was a gas chamber), the door was closed, and then pellets of poison were poured in through the chimneys, which turned into a poisonous gas once mixed with warm air. The victims normally died within 15-20 minutes of being in the chamber. It was a very painful death; many times people would lose control of their bodily functions and suffocate.

The larger gas chambers were located at Auschwitz II- Birkenau. There are only ruins left of these chambers because the Nazi's chose to bomb these prior to the Russian invasion in order to destroy evidence of their crimes. These gas chambers had signs on the interior that labeled it as a shower and there were even fake showerheads in the room so that the prisoners would be manipulated and panic wouldn't break-out. The incinerators at these two gas chambers could burn 1440 bodies in one day. Each gas chamber had about half a dozen incinerators so this is where the vast number of people died.

Other things that I saw while I was there was the interior of a barrack and a bathroom. The bathroom is pretty self explanatory in the pictures. Disgusting. No running water. Very cramped. The same with the living quarters. The bunk beds were three high and three people were to sleep in one bed. This means that about 9 people were sleeping in each bed. Many of these people had starvation diarrhea and everything else for that matter because the lack of sanitation and the beds were almost to be considered as hazardous.

That basically sums up most of what I saw. I bought some literature about Auschwitz which I will be bringing home with me that has pictures of some of the things located inside that I was not permitted to take pictures of. It was a great part of history for me to see and gives me all the more reason to be aware of the cruelty and persecution that goes on in our world today.

On a lighter note, I will be visiting Milan and Venice this weekend with our school group! I will update you all with how my week goes. I'm doing my best to get ahead on all of my work so I have everything done before thanksgiving break and I can relax my last week and a half in Florence. Today is November 10, which means i have ONE MONTH until I depart from Italy! I can't believe it is all winding down. I hope everyone is great back home and I am getting very anxious to see everyone and listen to Christmas music!!!

Taryn- congrats to your football team for winning their game this weekend!! I'm so excited for you that you get to have a longgggg senior football season!

Christine- I'm sad you have moved to the back of Brady Electric & Sign headquarters, you are going to have to teach the secretary how to answer my skype calls and entertain me as I'm stressing about getting a real job someday.

Ryan- I heard Huss moved in to your apartment... so then where am I supposed to sleep when I come up to Cleveland for a night out on the town?? Your bed? Great! I'll buy you a great blow up mattress to use the nights that I'm there!

Love you and miss you ALL!!

Ciao for now,

Carrie :)