Getting to Strzegom I asked (or tried to ask) where to find the connection I had planned to take – but apparently it wasn’t available. I had the opportunity to engage my very (very) limited German, which I am about 10 times more proficient in than my extremely limited Polish when the information attendant asked if I spoke German. Instead there were two options for buses that would reduce my distance to Gross-Rosen to 2 km. Taking a bizarre looking three axle Mercedes unit, I arrived at Kostrza then wandered down a rural road past a granite operation until I arrived at Gross-Rosen; enacting part of one plan to get to Treblinka in 2010 that was never executed – that is walking down a rural Polish road.
Gross-Rosen was interesting though largely devoid of people. Focused as a work camp rather than a death camp, one significant function of the camp was to operate a granite quarry. Of course, the conditions were poor for the internees and there were significant deaths. There was an interesting 30 minute film for all of 2 PLN but no donation bin. I won’t belabour the concentration camp – of course it was a place of poor conditions and suffering; I don’t think my words would do the experience or its victims justice.
Somewhere along my journey someone coined the term “death trip” for this part of my travels – which I suppose makes sense with the ossuary in Kaplica Czaszek followed by Gross-Rosen the next day and Chernobyl planned for just two days from now. Oh well, a few may think me crazy; it seems quite a few Europeans do for the interest in visiting Chernobyl. I find the ossuaries to be quite interesting monuments, exposure to the worst elements of humanity necessary to be truly “human,” and Chernobyl has always fascinated me.