On Sunday, September 24, 2023, we started our voluntary memorial trip to Auschwitz early at 6. When we arrived in the Polish city of Oswiecim after about 8 hours, we visited the Jewish museum and synagogue. Also on the second day we spent time in Auschwitz doing a photo workshop "Oswiecim today", we learned that nowadays there is not a single Jew living in Auschwitz. The last Jew living in Auschwitz was Szymon Kluger, who died in 2000. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Oswiecim. In the photo workshop we talked about the present position of the Polish town and how the inhabitants deal with the past of their town. On Tuesday, 26.09.2023, we went to the city of Krakow, where we got a guided tour, among other things to get to know the old town and the very beautiful market square. On this day we also had a contemporary witness talk with Monika Goldwasser, whose parents died in the concentration camp. Afterwards we had the opportunity to explore the city a bit ourselves or to visit the former ghetto, Schindler's factory, the Jewish quarter Kazimierz, the concentration camp Plaszów and the Jewish museum. In any case, the city of Krakow is very worth seeing and impressive. At the end of the day, accompanied by traditional klezmer music, we had a Jewish dinner, which we enjoyed very much. The following day we were guests at the international youth meeting center. There we had a workshop about Sinti and Roma in the camp Auschwitz and the possibility to talk with volunteers, to learn their previous experiences about the concentration camp and Auschwitz. On Wednesday afternoon we went to Harmeze to a monastery and visited the exhibition "Pictures in the head". The exhibition of the survivor Marian Kolodziej left a very formative impression. He did not talk for a while about what happened to him and everyone else in Auschwitz. After some time he started to draw and this "cruel crime" is also reflected in his graphics. After this day, some of us also watched the movie "Schindler's List", which fits this theme, and which also had a very formative effect on us. On our last day, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, we went to the memorial. In the morning we had a guided tour of the main camp, which was larger than any of us had imagined. Nevertheless, it was very emotional and also made us think. What stuck in my mind the most was the book that had written down the names of all the Jews or victims of the Holocaust who were killed in a concentration camp by Nazi ideology. We all looked there for our last names and some actually found them and were very shocked. The gas chambers were also impressive and were able to give us a bit of an idea of the scale of this tragedy because of their size. In the afternoon we went to the memorial Auschwitz II - Birkenau. There our breath was taken away for a moment by how large this camp is, even though not much can be seen today, terrible crimes were committed there. The guided tour was very interesting and in between we were read texts or diary entries that described the situation at the time very dramatically. The memorial trip left a formative impression on all of us and that is why we also left a flower in the memorial on our departure day to think of the victims and the affected families. We all think that it is important that this trip remains voluntary, because there are many tourists who do not have or have not shown respect for what happened there. In order for something like this not to happen again in the future, it is only recommended to get involved and visit the memorial. We were helped a lot by the evaluation on almost every evening, where we talked about the experiences, emotions and events of the day and could thus process them. This trip touched us all very much and showed something that we all hope we will never forget.
Amelie Brazdil - AK24
