Prior to traveling to Krakow, Poland this past weekend, I didn’t know much about it.However traveling there has made history and is definitely something I will never forget.

My group and I started off the trip by visiting Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp in World War II. I imagine everything about this experience will shake most people to the core. The first part of the Auschwitz I tour is a short video, which struck the 60 people from my group completely silent from its magnitude.

The gate to Auschwitz I reads “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which translates to “work makes one free.”

This was something that the Germans placed as a tool to manipulate the psyche of the prisoners. All throughout the Auschwitz camps are phrases in German that are positive, but in a cynical way, much like that one.

Now I’ve learned about World War II throughout my life in history classes, but those lessons are no preparation for actually going to the camp.

Upon arrival, people were immediately stripped of all their belongings, which the Germans kept. Their shoes, brushes, pots and pans, shoe polish, toys, glasses, hair and luggage, which had their names, birth dates and dates of arrival on them, were taken from them. In the cases of women with longer hair, the Nazis kept it and made cloth from it.

When the liberation of the camp occurred, there were still massive piles of these objects that had yet to be put towards anything purposeful, other than causing suffering of innocent individuals.

The living quarters were less than poorly acceptable. Something that really shook me was the stairs in the blocks where the prisoners were kept. So many people have walked over the stairs that they are worn down by about three inches on the sides. Everyone in my group felt clearly affected after visiting Auschwitz.

After the afternoon of Auschwitz we had the evening to ourselves, and we broke off into smaller groups. The people I was with decided to go to a traditional Polish folk restaurant. We all had pierogies for dinner, which are a Polish dumpling, filled with anything from cheese, potatoes and meat to strawberries, apples or raspberries with rose.

Saturday morning began with a walking tour of the city, when we heard the news that Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others were killed in a plane crash in Russia.

This news immediately changed the mood of the city and our tour. People started hanging black flags, and thousands gathered for Mass to be held in mourning for the lives that were lost.

While it was a tragic two days, the response from the Polish people was a really beautiful experience to behold.

On Sunday our group left Krakow and headed towards the town Wieliczka, which is home of the world’s oldest operating salt mine.

The tour for this lasts for a couple of hours, and the sights are magnificent.

Chandeliers hang from the ceilings with carved salt crystals that shimmer, and there is a church inside.

When the guide told us that some people even get married there, I made a joke to a fellow Tennessean friend about how it sounds like “I’m gonna take my baby to the coal mine and we’re gonna get hitched.” However when I actually saw it, it was breathtaking.

Krakow, Poland is a wonderful city, even though we had a somber weekend there.

I would still go back. However, Auschwitz is something I will not visit again.

I recommend that everyone should go visit and take the tour, but once is enough. I enjoyed the Polish food, the people and the compassion they showed in the midst of their time of tragedy.

My next stops include Paris, Barcelona and Madrid.

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