The Most Amazing Way to Travel - Auschwitz Salt Mine Trips, A Day
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After the defeat of the September Campaign of 1939, when Polish soldiers had attemptedto repel the German invasion, the city of Oswiecim as well as the surrounding areas were incorporated within the Third Reich. Concurrently its name was changed to Auschwitz. By the end of 1939, on the SS and Police Headquarters in Wroclaw (Braslau), the idea of establishing a concentration camp had also been proposed. The state justification because of this plan scaled like the overcrowding of the existing prisons in Silesia, and also on the need of conducting further waves of mass arrest on the list of Polish inhabitants both Silesia along with the most German-occupied Poland.
Several special committees were convened, whose task it turned out to take into account the most favorable area for such a camp. The best choice fell upon the deserted pre-war Polish barracks in Oswiecim. Situated far out of the piled up portion of the town, they may very easily be expanded and isolated externally world. Take into consideration not without significance was the convenient position of Oswiecim - an import and railway junction - inside the existing communications network.
An order to proceed with plans to found a camp was presented in April 1940, and Rudolf Hoss was appointed its first commandant. On June 14, 1940, the Gestapo dispatched the 1st political prisoners to KL Auschwitz - 728 Poles from Tarnow. Initially the camping ground comprised 20 buildings - 14 at walk out and 6 having an upper floor. In the period from 1941 to 1942 a supplementary story was included with all ground-floor buildings and eight new blocks were constructed, while using the prisoners because the employees. Altogether the camping ground now contained 28 one-story buildings ( excluding kitchens, storehouses etc. ) The average quantity of prisoners fluctuated between 13-16.000, reaching at one stage ( during 1942 ) a record total of 20.000 people. These were accommodated in the blocks, where the cellares and lofts were utilized for this purpose.
Because the amount of inmates increased, the area covered by the camp also, grew, until it was turned into a gigantic and horrific factory of death. The monstrosity in Oswiecim - KL Auschwitz I - became the parent or "Stammlager" into a whole generation of the latest camps. In 1941 the making of another camp, later called Auschwitz II-Birkenau, was commenced within the village of Brzezinka 3 kilometers away as well as in 1942 the camp in Monowice near Oswiecim-KL Auschwitz III-was established on the territory in the German chemical plant IG-Farbenindustrie. Furthermore, through the years 1942-1944, about 40 smaller branches with the Auschwitz complex came to exist these fell within the jurisdiction of KL Auschwitz III and were situated mainly in the vicinity of steelworks, mines and factories, where prisoners were exploited as cheap labour.
The camping ground in Oswiecim ( KL Auschwitz I) as well as in Brzezinka (KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau) are actually maintained as museums offered to people. The most important constructions and objects in Birkenau would be the remnants of four crematoria, gas chambers and cremation pits and pyres, the special unloading platform were the deportees were selected and also a pond with human ashes. In Auschwitz this type of construction could be the "Death block."
Furthermore in both camps are very preserved blocks as well as a portion of prisoners barracks, the primary entrance gates on the camps, sentry watch towers and also barbed wire fences. Some of the constructions destroyed by the Nazis were rebuilt from the original elements - for instance the ovens within the crematorium I. Some objects were completely destroyed with the SS obliterating the traces of these crimes. Within the installments of special importance the constructions were reproduced by the museum and put in the same area as they were in the information on the Auschwitz camp. Above all these are the "Death wall" and also the collective gallows on the role-call ground.
The prison blocks in the camp at Auschwitz contain exhibitions portraying a history of Auschwitz or hearing aid technology torments of the numerous nations whose citizens were murdered here. Over the main gate at Auschwitz - by which the prisoners passed each day on their way to operate (returning 12 hours or more later) there is a cynical inscription: "Arbeit macht frei" (Work brings freedom). and also on the small square by the kitchen the camp ground orchestra would play marsches, mustering the 1000s of prisoners so they really could possibly be counted more effectively from the SS.
This is a short specifics of a camp and just what you may expect when you go there.
Salt Mine in Wieliczka is another part tours in a day.
Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow remembers the changing times from the Middle Ages. It one of the world's oldest salt mine in the world. This is actually the only mining facility on the globe functioning continuously since the Old for this, allowing the evolution of mining technology in different historical periods. Wieliczka Salt Mine is about 300 km of excavation on 9 levels, the initial of which - the degree of Bono - goes to a depth of 64 meters, while the latter lies 327 meters under the surface. Total length of sidewalks, connecting about 3000 excavation (sidewalks, ramps, service chambers, lakes, wells, shafts), exceeds 300 km. The tourist route is 3 km, consists of 20 chambers at depths from 64 to 135 meters.
To read more about Zakopane tour from Krakow check out our new web portal.
Several special committees were convened, whose task it turned out to take into account the most favorable area for such a camp. The best choice fell upon the deserted pre-war Polish barracks in Oswiecim. Situated far out of the piled up portion of the town, they may very easily be expanded and isolated externally world. Take into consideration not without significance was the convenient position of Oswiecim - an import and railway junction - inside the existing communications network.
An order to proceed with plans to found a camp was presented in April 1940, and Rudolf Hoss was appointed its first commandant. On June 14, 1940, the Gestapo dispatched the 1st political prisoners to KL Auschwitz - 728 Poles from Tarnow. Initially the camping ground comprised 20 buildings - 14 at walk out and 6 having an upper floor. In the period from 1941 to 1942 a supplementary story was included with all ground-floor buildings and eight new blocks were constructed, while using the prisoners because the employees. Altogether the camping ground now contained 28 one-story buildings ( excluding kitchens, storehouses etc. ) The average quantity of prisoners fluctuated between 13-16.000, reaching at one stage ( during 1942 ) a record total of 20.000 people. These were accommodated in the blocks, where the cellares and lofts were utilized for this purpose.
Because the amount of inmates increased, the area covered by the camp also, grew, until it was turned into a gigantic and horrific factory of death. The monstrosity in Oswiecim - KL Auschwitz I - became the parent or "Stammlager" into a whole generation of the latest camps. In 1941 the making of another camp, later called Auschwitz II-Birkenau, was commenced within the village of Brzezinka 3 kilometers away as well as in 1942 the camp in Monowice near Oswiecim-KL Auschwitz III-was established on the territory in the German chemical plant IG-Farbenindustrie. Furthermore, through the years 1942-1944, about 40 smaller branches with the Auschwitz complex came to exist these fell within the jurisdiction of KL Auschwitz III and were situated mainly in the vicinity of steelworks, mines and factories, where prisoners were exploited as cheap labour.
The camping ground in Oswiecim ( KL Auschwitz I) as well as in Brzezinka (KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau) are actually maintained as museums offered to people. The most important constructions and objects in Birkenau would be the remnants of four crematoria, gas chambers and cremation pits and pyres, the special unloading platform were the deportees were selected and also a pond with human ashes. In Auschwitz this type of construction could be the "Death block."
Furthermore in both camps are very preserved blocks as well as a portion of prisoners barracks, the primary entrance gates on the camps, sentry watch towers and also barbed wire fences. Some of the constructions destroyed by the Nazis were rebuilt from the original elements - for instance the ovens within the crematorium I. Some objects were completely destroyed with the SS obliterating the traces of these crimes. Within the installments of special importance the constructions were reproduced by the museum and put in the same area as they were in the information on the Auschwitz camp. Above all these are the "Death wall" and also the collective gallows on the role-call ground.
The prison blocks in the camp at Auschwitz contain exhibitions portraying a history of Auschwitz or hearing aid technology torments of the numerous nations whose citizens were murdered here. Over the main gate at Auschwitz - by which the prisoners passed each day on their way to operate (returning 12 hours or more later) there is a cynical inscription: "Arbeit macht frei" (Work brings freedom). and also on the small square by the kitchen the camp ground orchestra would play marsches, mustering the 1000s of prisoners so they really could possibly be counted more effectively from the SS.
This is a short specifics of a camp and just what you may expect when you go there.
Salt Mine in Wieliczka is another part tours in a day.
Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow remembers the changing times from the Middle Ages. It one of the world's oldest salt mine in the world. This is actually the only mining facility on the globe functioning continuously since the Old for this, allowing the evolution of mining technology in different historical periods. Wieliczka Salt Mine is about 300 km of excavation on 9 levels, the initial of which - the degree of Bono - goes to a depth of 64 meters, while the latter lies 327 meters under the surface. Total length of sidewalks, connecting about 3000 excavation (sidewalks, ramps, service chambers, lakes, wells, shafts), exceeds 300 km. The tourist route is 3 km, consists of 20 chambers at depths from 64 to 135 meters.
To read more about Zakopane tour from Krakow check out our new web portal.
