One of the best ice creams I've ever licked and slurped and crushed was in a small quiet, little Polish town. On a warm April day a long time ago in 2007, we'd been walking around this town, taking notes, photographing as part of our university project about social and economical change in Poland since the fall of communism. The ice cream was something to do while killing time, walking around the cobbled streets, seeing the colorful buildings, the quirky little cars you only find in that part of Europe.
A castle sits on the edge of the town, just off the main street, it watches over the place and glimmers in the sunlight. It's fortunes raising and falling, it's population changing as the fortunes of Germany and Poland changed hands over the centuries.
The little town is named Oswiecim, located about 30 or so miles west of Krakow. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come near, drive pass but may never stop in the town ever single year. Why? Because they are on their way to the place that since World War 2, came to define the town more than anything, the place who's German name many also know the town by - Auschwitz.
Since 1945 the town, at least under it's German name, has been known the world round. The dark twisted horrors of the death camp that still lands outside the town, has become entangled with life in this small, Polish town. We visited the town, spoke to Jewish leaders, learn of the Jewish history before the German invasion. We walked around the streets, saw the homes the German commanders made home, we drove past the IG Farben factory before taking the drive out to Auschwitz.
Oswiecim had and still does have a life before and after the death camp, yet many don't separate them, the town was small, unremarkable enough, just a normal Polish town like any other. Even after WW2 the town continued, people lived there, made it their home. Yet those six years of WW2 define it more than any other. We don't hear of the Oswiecim of now, just the Oswiecim of then.
If you're ever in the area, whether your enjoying the sites of Krakow or you're paying your respects at Auschwitz. Take a trip to that little Polish town, enjoy an ice cream and walk along it's streets.
Oswiecim had and still does have a life before and after the death camp, yet many don't separate them, the town was small, unremarkable enough, just a normal Polish town like any other. Even after WW2 the town continued, people lived there, made it their home. Yet those six years of WW2 define it more than any other. We don't hear of the Oswiecim of now, just the Oswiecim of then.
If you're ever in the area, whether your enjoying the sites of Krakow or you're paying your respects at Auschwitz. Take a trip to that little Polish town, enjoy an ice cream and walk along it's streets.