A visit to Auschwitz is not the most fun excursion during a holiday, but when you are so nearby you can not ignore such an important piece of human history. So after our visit in the morning to Żywiec we drove in the afternoon towards Oświęcim, the place of the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. We left Ciska this afternoon with Gerda because a visit to Auschwitz is not suitable for a five-year old girl. At the entry of the former concentration camp there is also a sign saying: "Children below the age of 14 do not belong here", although it is not forbidden. In all of the world, Auschwitz has become the symbol of the terror and genocide of the Nazis in the Second World War. It is the largest murder-factory in the history of mankind. You enter the camp through the gate with the cynical text "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Labour Liberates). In a number of the former, rebuild, barracks there are exhibitions showing all what happened in the camp during the war. The walls of the corridors in the barracks are full with thousands of pictures with the names of the victims. Very impressive was also the room with hundreds of suitcases bearing the name and sometimes birth date and residence of its owner. There is also a room with thousands of shoes, from small child's shoes to wooden shoes. A room containing thousands of hairbrushes, shaving-brushes, toothbrushes, etc. All personal belongings of people that died a cruel death in this camp. It is really unimaginable. Beneath some of the barracks there are long corridors with prison cells to lock up the people that were condemned to death . There are also 'standing-cells', a small dark room of less than one square metre that could hold up to four people who had to stand in them for hours or even days without light and fresh air. You can't imagine how it was like for the prisoners in those cells, really degrading conditions. Outside the barracks you then sometimes see people, sitting on the ground or a stair, crying from all emotions. Next to some of the barracks also one of the crematoria has been rebuild with next to it a mortuary that could also be used as a gas chamber. While we were there, there was a group of Jewish people standing at one of the incinerators, doing a memorial for the many Jews that died in this camp during the war. Besides the camp of Auschwitz there is also the much larger camp of Auschwitz II - Birkenau. We didn't go there because a) it was already late in the afternoon and b) we already had seen enough human sufferings. So after we left the camp through the infamous gate we drove back to Kalna. There Ciska had a great afternoon picking black currants and strawberries in the garden of Villa Kotlina and baking cake with Gerda. She also helped her making the lasagne for dinner.

On our last day in Poland we went to the largest town in the region, Bielsko Biała, not far from Kalna. This day we first had a sleep out, because the last days we could as we had to get up early because of the long driving times in Poland. Bielsko is not a large city from a tourist point of view, so after a short time we had seen the most of it. We walked around on the Rynek and admired the house with the frogs (Pod Żabami). Via the castle and the cathedral (not very interesting) we went to the Weaver's House. This one we also visited, it's an old house with tools that were formerly used in a weaving-mill. After visiting the weaving-mill we went to a bakery to eat some bread for lunch. Somewhere arounf three in the afternoon we were back in Kalna. Back home, Ciska helped Gerda with the preparations for dinner this evening, pancakes, normal and Polish ones. The latter ones contain a sausage and have cheese on them before they are put in an oven. You then eat them with ketchup on them. In the evening Kees and Gerda had planned to have a camp-fire in the back of the garden, but during dinner it started to rain, so the camp-fire could fall to the ground. But it was only a short shower, so later that evening, after it had turned dark Kees started the fire and we had really good sausages. Ciska didn't dare to put her sausage above the fire, so Kees did it for her. We really had a nice evening around the camp-fire in Kalna before we would set off for Slovakia the next day.