Week Thirteen: Krakow Poland

After so much train travel, getting on a plane was a nice break. One short flight and we were in Poland! This was an exciting part of the trip for me as I had a beloved mission companion from the northern part of Poland, and my dear cousin Olivia served her mission here. Cool story: My companion Sister Dura knew Olivia before she came to me (I was her first companion) in Connecticut, USA. Small world!

First order of business: Groceries! We found a nice little grocery store about 15 minutes walking distance from our Airbnb, and my favorite part?

Fresh brined pickles! My companion, Sister Dura, knew how much I loved pickles and would make big batches for me while we were serving together. It was such a treat to fill up a bag of these and share them with my family. They didn't love them quite as much as I did. More for me!😉 They tasted just like I remembered them.

The following day was Sunday. We woke up to this - our backyard for a few days. After living in the heart of city life for so long, having a little grass felt so good. This was one of our favorite Airbnbs - new, modern, and quiet!

We looked up directions to church, and this is where our Uber driver dropped us off. We searched high and low, but there was no sign of a church meeting anywhere—just a lot of businesses, most of them closed. After 15 minutes of looking and half of our group feeling like we should just quit, I finally said a prayer and soon after found an open bakery with two young girls working. Thankfully, one of them spoke English and directed us around the corner to an office building. We followed her advice and, to our relief, found this sign inside:

We were so happy! Up a couple of flights by elevator, we found a small meeting room with about eight missionaries and four members. We happened to come during their district conference. So, we got to hear from members and leaders via satellite TV.

It was so cool to (try to ) sing hymns in Polish. I wished I could beam Olivia and Boo (sister Dura) there to sing with us.

The following day, we headed out to the charming Main Market Square in the Old Town district of Krakow. This is Town Hall Tower. The Tower is the only remaining part of the old Kraków Town Hall, demolished in 1820 as part of the city plan to open up the Main Square.

We walked around and found The Kraków Cloth Hall, which dates back to the Renaissance and is one of the city's most recognizable monuments. Inside, it reminded us of the Spice Market in Istanbul, filled with fun trinkets and amber jewelry instead of spices and food.

We loved looking at everything but the amber jewelry was stunning!

Amber is known in Poland as "the gold of the north." "The oldest traces of amber workshops on Polish soil date back to over 6000 years ago and can be found in the Niedźwiedziówka settlement near the coastal city of Gdańsk (where Sister Dura is from and Olivia served).

"A popular Polish legend says that amber nuggets are the debris of the sea goddess Jurata’s palace. Her magnificent underwater residence, made entirely of amber, was shattered to pieces by the mighty god Perkun when he found out she was having an affair with a fisherman. 'For a year, Queen Jurata had been coming to the shore every evening to meet with her lover above the water, but when Perkun found out about this, he was infuriated that the goddess had dared fall in love with a mortal. One time, when she returned to her palace, he sent a lightning bolt from the sky, which split the tides and hit the queen’s residence, killing her and shattering her amber palace into little pieces.'"

Lucjan Siemieński, Polish, Ruthenian and Lithuanian Legends and Tales, 1845

When the wind gets strong, the sea throws bits of the palace – or amber nuggets – onto the seashore."

There is so much more to learn about the history of amber in Poland; if you are interested, you can check out this wonderful article.

We were all hungry, so we searched for a place to eat and enjoyed a Polish breakfast.

Yum!

I loved this place so much! It was just so beautifully decorated!

Ollie's find at the Cloth Hall Market. I tried to convince him not to get it. I thought it would be too big to carry around, but he loved it and still does! We saw this guy in every shop in Krakow. We later learned his name is Pou. I guess there are thousands of videos on YouTube and TikTok featuring Pou. What is the reason he's so popular in Poland? Because that's where he lives - Pouland. 😆

The horse-drawn carriages were so charming!

It was freezing outside, so we warmed up with Pączki—Poland’s take on a filled doughnut, though better than any doughnut I've ever had. They were delicious! After finishing our treats, we dashed into a store to buy warm gloves. We weren’t prepared for Poland in March. Brr!

Next, we headed to Wawel Castle to visit the Wawel Dragon and watch him breathe fire! The most popular fairytale version of the Wawel Dragon takes place in Kraków during the reign of King Krakus, the city's legendary founder. Each day, the evil dragon would beat a path of destruction across the countryside, killing the civilians, pillaging their homes, and devouring their livestock. In many story versions, the dragon especially enjoyed eating young maidens. The King wanted the dragon destroyed, so naturally, he offered his daughter's hand to anyone brave enough to kill him. Great warriors from near and far fought for the prize and failed. A cobbler's apprentice (named Skuba) accepted the challenge. He stuffed a lamb with sulfur and set it outside the dragon's cave. The dragon ate it and became so thirsty it turned to the Vistula River and drank until it burst. The cobbler married the King's daughter as promised and founded the city of Kraków. A metal sculpture of the Wawel Dragon, designed in 1969 by Bronisław Chromy, was placed in front of the Dragon's Cave in 1972. The dragon has seven heads, but people frequently think it has one head and six forelegs. To the amusement of onlookers, it noisily breathes fire every few minutes, thanks to a natural gas nozzle installed in the sculpture's mouth.

Next, we walked up Wawel Hill to the entrance of the castle. The Wawel Castle and Cathedral are considered to be one of the most important historical landmarks in Poland. With over 1,000 years of history, it has served as the residence for Polish kings and queens from the 11th century until the late 16th century. We also learned that Hitler loved this castle and that the main reason it is still standing today is that when German and Soviet forces rolled into Poland in the autumn of 1939, Krakow was chosen as the capital of the Western sector for security reasons. Hans Frank was installed at Wawel as the Governor-General.

"Frank was a consummate Nazi—in fact, one of the Party’s earliest members. In his days as a lawyer, he had argued that the courts served 'to safeguard the concrete order of the racial community'. As Hitler’s personal legal advisor, he had been instrumental in Hitler's initial rise to power within the Weimar Republic. Then, within the Reich, Frank was one of the strongest voices for the extermination of the Jewish and Eastern peoples.

He relished his new role at the Royal Castle. His domineering wife Brigitte immediately began styling herself as Königin von Polen (“Queen of Poland”), and Frank played at being King. At Wawel, he held a coronation ceremony of sorts, rolling up in a huge black Cadillac surrounded by swastika flags. He headquartered his administration in Kurza Stopa (the Hen’s Foot Tower) and adjacent rooms on the first floor of the Castle. He had an office building constructed for himself over important archaeological remains, which today houses the library. If you are interested in the castle's occupation during WWII, there's much more to read here.

We learned that over time, the castle was expanded and rebuilt by subsequent rulers, making it a mix of various architectural styles. We could see influences from the places we had already visited: mosque-style domes, Greek columns, Roman arches—it was just fascinating!

The style of the statues and the art reminded me so much of Sweden. The Slavic and Scandinavian styles seemed so similar, so I looked it up. "There is some evidence that Vikings explored and often settled in many parts of Europe, including territories of present-day Poland. Vikings established trade links with the local Slavic tribes, and there were instances of intermarriage and cultural exchange.

Archaeological finds across Poland, such as rune stones, Viking weaponry, and artifacts of Norse design, provide tangible evidence of the Vikings’ presence and interaction with the Polans." You can learn more here.

We entered the vast courtyard and then had our pick of different buildings to explore.

We got to see the following exhibitions: The Armoury (weapons … guns, swords, pikes, shields, body armor); Lost Wawel (archaeology … foundation, tiles, other excavated objects); and Art of the Orient, Ottoman Turkish Tents (see above!). I'm so glad we started our trip in Turkey because we've seen influences or actual relics from the Ottoman Empire everywhere we've been so far!

In the Armoury. The girls loved what looked like armor for a girl (we learned later it was for a small boy). Norah's holding her Wawel Dragon.

The Lost Wawel exhibit was so cool. These tiles were so inspiring to my pattern-loving brain.

We got to go under the castle to see all kinds of cool artifacts.

Outside, we wandered into the John Paul II Memorial. This monument commemorates the life and achievements of Pope John Paul II, who served as the head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 until he died in 2005. It is a tribute to one of the most beloved and influential figures in modern Catholic history. It attracts visitors and pilgrims worldwide who come to pay their respects and reflect on the pontiff's legacy.

There was so much more to explore—I wished we had more time! We’ll have to come back someday. Back at home, we prepared for the next day, knowing it would be a long one with an early start.

The next morning, we were up at 4 a.m. to catch our tour van to Auschwitz, about two hours from our Airbnb. With a tour guide strike the day before, everything felt uncertain; many guides hadn’t shown up, and retired guides were called in to help. We were so relieved when we arrived and found a guide available for our tour!

As we walked from the central meeting place to the concentration camp, we heard the names of some of the victims over a loudspeaker. Our hearts felt heavy as we prepared for what we would see.

Here's our tour guide. I wish I could remember her name! She came in to help out, having retired years earlier. She was SO knowledgeable but talked really fast and walked even faster. I felt like we didn't have much time to process all we saw until after our tour, which, in some ways, was a blessing.

The motto above the gate, Arbeit macht frei (Work Sets You Free), is one of the symbols of the camp. It was made by prisoners in the metalworking labor detail. The prisoners deliberately put the letter "B" upside down as a hidden mark of disobedience (sorry, my picture has the "B" covered). You can see it better and learn more here.

The Arbeit macht frei slogan was used not only in Auschwitz. The same motto greeted people arriving at concentration camps in Germany.

Prisoners marched out through the gate in rows of five each morning under the supervision of their capos. When they returned to camp, the prisoners carried their fellow prisoners who had collapsed from exhaustion or illness, as well as those who had been worked to death or murdered during the day.

Where prisoners stood each day (sometimes for hours), we were there in March, and it was freezing cold. We could only imagine how cold they must have been.

The Auschwitz Concentration Camp opened in former Polish army barracks in June 1940. Twenty brick buildings were adapted, of which six were two-story, and 14 were single-story. At the end of 1940, prisoners began adding second stories to the single-story blocks. The following spring, they started erecting eight new blocks. This work reached completion in the first half of 1942. The result was a complex of 28 two-story blocks; the majority used to house prisoners. As a rule, there were two large rooms upstairs and several smaller rooms downstairs. The blocks were designed to hold about 700 prisoners each after the second stories were added, but in practice, they housed up to 1,200.

The Death Wall (reconstruction). Located in the yard at the side of block 11. The condemned were led to the wall for execution. SS men shot several thousand people there—mostly Polish political prisoners and, above all, members of clandestine organizations.

Here, you see an officer "sorting." We learned that child under the age of 12 and their mother were sorted right away into a group that would be murdered right away.

Our guide explains where all of the prisoners came from to Auschwitz.

These containers held Zyklon-B pellets (hydrocyanic acid) that vaporize when exposed to air. Initially intended for commercial use as a disinfectant and an insecticide, the Nazis discovered through experimentation the gas could be used to kill humans. The brand of Zyklon-B used by the Nazis contained substances that gave the pellets a blue appearance and left blue stains inside gas chambers which can still be seen today in chambers that were left intact.

During the killing process, prisoners at Auschwitz were forced into the air-tight chambers that the Nazis had disguised to look like shower rooms. The Zyklon pellets were then dumped into the chambers via special air shafts or openings in the ceiling. The pellets would then vaporize, giving off a noticeable bitter almond odor. Upon being breathed in, the vapors combined with red blood cells, depriving the human body of vital oxygen, causing unconsciousness, and then death through oxygen starvation.

Glasses collected from prisoners.

Luggage

The children's clothing was especially hard to see.

This was an area where prisoners who needed extra punishment would go. They were forced to these dark cells where it was impossible to sit.

The SS men kept the people fated to die, unaware of what awaited them. They were told they were being sent to the camp but that they first had to undergo disinfection and bathe.

After the victims had undressed, they were taken into the gas chamber, locked in, and killed with Zyklon B gas. After they were killed, other prisoners dragged their bodies out of the gas chambers. They cut off the women’s hair and removed all metal dental work and jewelry.

Then they burned the bodies in pits, on pyres, or in the crematorium furnaces. (Until September 1942, some of the corpses were buried in mass graves; these corpses were burned from September to November 1942.) Bones that did not burn completely were ground to powder with pestles and then dumped, along with the ashes, in the rivers Soła and Vistula and in nearby ponds, or strewn in the fields as fertilizer, or used as landfill on uneven ground and in marshes.

Most people don’t realize that there are actually two camps to visit - Auschwitz I & Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Birkenau was the largest of the more than 40 camps and sub-camps that made up the Auschwitz complex. When construction began in October 1941, it was supposed to be a camp for 125 thousand prisoners of war. It opened as a branch of Auschwitz in March 1942 and served at the same time as a center for the extermination of the Jews. In its final phase, from 1944, it also became a place where prisoners were concentrated before being transferred to labor in German industry in the depths of the Third Reich.

This freight car has been placed here to commemorate the Jews deported from Hungary who German Nazis murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. More than 400,000 Jewish men, women, and children were deported from Hungary in similar freight cars. On arrival, most of them were murdered in the gas chambers here.

There were two types of barracks, brick and wooden, which housed prisoners in Birkenau. The brick barracks stood in the oldest part of the camp, known as sector BI, where construction began in the fall of 1941.

Inside each were 60 brick partitions with three tiers, making a total of 180 sleeping places, referred to as “bucks,” designed to accommodate four prisoners each. The SS envisioned a capacity of over 700 prisoners per block. At first, the buildings had earthen floors. Over time, these were covered with a layer of bricks lying flat or a thin layer of poured concrete. The barracks were unheated in the winter.

While they were leading the Auschwitz prisoners onto the evacuation marches and afterward, in January 1945, the SS (Schutzstaffel) started their final steps to remove the evidence of the crimes they had committed in the camp. They made bonfires of documents on the camp streets. They blew up Crematorium II and III, which had already been partially dismantled, on January 20th. They were surprised and unprepared for the Soviet invasion. When Soviet soldiers poured into Auschwitz in January 1945, they encountered warehouses filled with massive quantities of other people’s belongings. Eighty-eight pounds of eyeglasses, hundreds of prosthetic limbs, twelve thousand pots and pans, forty-four thousand pairs of shoes. Most of the people who owned them were already dead, but many were still alive. All of these things were evidence later for the world to discover what was really happening in Poland during WWII.

 "To the memory of the men, women, and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide. Here lie their ashes."

There are so many lessons to learn from this part of history. It was a humbling and life-changing experience that our family will never forget. As I said at the beginning, it was rushed, and we only understood half of what our guide was saying. It was hard to process all we saw - that what happened there actually happened. That people could do these things to one another. I worried that this may have been too much for our kids, but we've had many meaningful conversations since then, and I think it was a good thing for all of us to see.

"Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions."

Primo Levi, Holocaust Survivor

This was only the first part of our day. We ate the lunch our tour guide provided and then headed to Wieliczka Salt Mine. But first, we got pulled over for speeding 😁.

The 700-year history of the Wieliczka Salt Mine traces its roots to the 13th century when miners found gray rock salt in Wieliczka, a small town near Krakow, leading to the first shafts being dug. Commercial mining persisted until 1996, and over the years, the mine yielded about 7.5 million cubic meters of deposits. 

The mine's lowest point is about 1,073 feet below ground. We took over 400 winding stairs down to get to our first destination in the mine. By the end, we did over 800 stairs to reach the bottom. Luckily, they provided an elevator back to the top when the tour was over. We were cold outside, but we were very warm underground!

Dedicated to the legendary Princess Kinga of Hungary, who is said to have brought salt mining to Poland after she miraculously cast her engagement ring (which she had only recently received as a keepsake from Prince Boleslaw of Kraków) into a mine in modern-day Romania, only to retrieve it from the ground in Wieliczka after commanding the local miners there to dig in an unknown spot. Today, the mine’s stunning central chamber and working Catholic chapel are dedicated to Kinga’s miracle, which not only astounded the miners but pointed the way to the rich salt veins that ran their way under Wieliczka.

We were encouraged to lick the walls 😆

The mine has four chapels inside, with the Chapel of St. Kinga being the most popular. Meticulously carved from 20,000 tons of salt by the miners, the chapel spans over 400 square meters and can accommodate up to 400 people. Every element in the chapel, from the altar to the stairs to the chandeliers, is made from salt. It was unbelievable!

The carved statues took my breath away

You can see that all of the walls had carvings...just like the cathedrals we saw in Rome...they visually told the stories of Jesus.

The "tiles" are actually carved salt rock

Other areas in the mine showed characters from popular Polish folklore stories.

The tour ended at a cool blue/green salt lake near the bottom of the mine. They told us the water is so salty you can float without trying, so it’s impossible to drown. People like to make wishes here, and it’s also a popular spot for marriage proposals! We were glad we got to end our day on a lighter note and see the beauty created by amazing craftsmen and artists.

We drove the two hours back and stopped at a little restaurant in Krakow before heading to our Airbnb. We tried Red Borscht soup and of course...

Perogies! I remembered these yummy treats from when I lived with my mission companion Boo Dura, and they were just as delicious as I remembered them. We enjoyed both sweet and savory varieties. After we ate, we headed back to pack.

And got to the airport early the next morning which was also Ollie's 13th birthday. We officially have four teenagers! He loved seeing Pou garbage cans everywhere in the airport. It was a travel day, so we celebrated later. Thanks, Ollie, for being such a great sport.

Goodbye, dear Poland! We wish we could have stayed longer. We'll just have to come back!