My thoughts on the trip to Poland

As I mentioned in the post about The white buses and Auschwitz, last year, my class and I visited Krakow. In this post I would like to share my thoughts on the trip to Poland, my home country.

We were over 50 students plus 5 or 6 parents. We were divided into five or six groups and we had one or two parents who took care of us. We landed at the airport in a city near Krakow and then we took a bus and drove to the hostel we stood at. To be honest, the hostel was the last place I would take my Norwegians friends to. It wasn't placed in the center of Krakow, it was placed in some dirty alleys, about 15 minutes from the center of the town.  But after all, I didn't care that much about the place, the atmosphere was amazing! All the trips to the old town, shopping and trips to Auschwitz, salt mine and the common dinners we had together. 

I've learned so much about WW2 and some facts about Wieliczka (salt mine). 

Have you ever been in Poland? What's the best memory you have from your trips?

Christmas

Christmas is a remembrance of the birth of God's son, Jesus. It is also a holiday celebrated on 24th or 25th of December, depends on where you live. 

Typical elements of Christmas celebrations are family dinners, Christmas trees, traditional food, presents and carols. Angels, Santa Claus and stars are some of Christmas most popular symbols. 

As wee speak about traditional Christmas food, I would like to write what we eat in our home. My parents and I are from Poland, so we only eat Polish Christmas food, although we live in Norway. Here are some main courses as 

- Pierogi

- Beet borscht

- Uszka (little ears)

- Carp

As you can see, we don't eat meat, except of the fish of course. Except from the food, we celebrate Christmas as people in Norway do; spending time with our families, sharing gifts and eating great food.

                                                          How do you celebrate Christmas?

Memories of Auschwitz POW Camp

I read a short story written by a young girl who has described her grandfather's life during the WW2. Her grandfather was w young Polish boy who was 19 years old when he joined the Polish army to fight for his country. She describes how the Germans captured her granddad and how his life was during his five years in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Her grandfather was a smart boy. During his tough years as a prisoner, he learned how to survive and he also learned many languages, which helped him stay alive. He also had very hard and difficult jobs, such as digging out the mass graves and sorting out the Jewish people's belongings.
The story was written by a normal person, not  a writer, and that's why in my opinion the story didn't have a right structure, but after all it was very interesting and easy to read.

Memories of Auschwitz

The White Buses and Auschwitz

''The White Buses'' was an operation led by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte at the end of the WWII. The main idea was to save Scandinavians who were prisoners in the German concentration camps.

The buses were painted white so they would not be taken for military targets. On the side, roof, front and back of the vehicles there were painted red crosses and Swedish flags. 

Over 15.000 prisoners were saved in the March\April 1945. The first half of the prisoners were Scandinavians and the other half were non-Scandinavians, like prisoners from France or Poland.

The operation was described as a great success, many lives were saved, but it was also criticized for being only directed towards Scandinavians and that they not helped prisoners of other nationalities in the same degree as they helped Scandinavian prisoners.

Holocaust Victims

- over five million Poles (16% of the Poland's population)

- 9.500 Norwegians (0.32% of the Norway's population)

- 418.500 Americans (0.32% of U.S.A's population)

On the Fall Break 2011 my class visited Krakow. In our plans there was a trip to Wieliczka Salt Mine, a trip to Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau and exploring the old town. Here are some pictures my friends took when we visited Auschvits camps.