Left hostel at 6 AM and rolling on the bus by 6:30 to arrive at the Nazi's largest concentration and death camp within minutes after opening. We feared difficulty getting in without being part of a tour group, but within minutes we were part of the crowd.
Only one word comes to mind of the entire Auschwitz experience: gripping! No need to blog gruesome pictures of the details of the Camp's atrocities. One pic will do, namely the illusion at the camp's entrance for new victims: "Arbeit macht frei" (work brings freedom). The numbers of lives lost in the holocaust are staggering, especially here in Poland which had nearly 3.5 million Jews before the war (the largest Jewish Community in the world) and only 300,000 survived after the war. 1.1 million from all over Europe were dispatched to Auschwitz of whom 90% perished. Gripping!
Afterwards, we headed north of our Via Regia by bus to Czestowka, Poland's major pilgrimage center as well as its Catholic Center whose monastery houses its famous Black Madonna. This is a site not to be missed by pilgrims! Tried to see her tonight, but couldn't get close enough. Thousands were chanting and praying to her. Have a look at a picture of the Jasna Gora Monastery, a very large complex.
