Auschwitz and Elton John

The impact of travelling to Poland to experience Auschwitz and Elton John in one day.

Breaking away from America, we are jumping ahead several years to the time I travelled to Poland and visited Auschwitz and attended an Elton John concert all in one day.

When Elton John announced his “Yellow Brick Road” tour, I knew it was one I had to see. While I’m not a big concert person, there are some shows that you can’t miss. Elton’s farewell tour was one of them.

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Living in London at the time, I already knew that I wouldn't even try to get tickets to see Elton there. It would have been expensive. But I was next to Europe, and the UK was still just under a year away from officially leaving the EU. I messaged a friend and said, "Do you want to go on an adventure and see Elton John in Europe?”

We narrowed it down to three cities. Poland, Denmark, and one other that I can't remember. We decided to go to Poland because the tickets were reasonably priced for really good seats, and the travel costs to and from Poland were also manageable. I also decided that after the concert, I would travel by train around Poland before flying to Austria to see a friend of mine who used to live in London.

Once everything was booked, I started planning what I would do during my time in Poland. And this is where, me being me, decided to make my adventure a little more memorable. 

I decided to travel to Kraków the day before, visit Auschwitz in the morning, and return in the afternoon in time for Elton John. I also decided to skip the group tours that would take me to and from Kraków and instead catch the train myself to do the tour at Auschwitz. This way, I could manage my time more easily and avoid being late.

I prebooked my ticket for the Auschwitz tour in advance. The morning of the tour, I headed to the central train station and booked a train to Oświęcim, just under an hour outside of Kraków.

The first thing I noticed on my journey wasn't the beautiful, peaceful scenery. The trees and grass were green, and the skies were blue, but now and then, on the edge of a forest, there would be a wooden tower. An outpost used by Nazi's. The harsh reminder of the past in amongst the calm, scenic present.

After arriving at the station, I had to walk about 15 mins down to the entrance of Auschwitz I to start the tour. Walking through the town of Oświęcim was like stepping back in time. The train station was small—no cover, just one platform, and the ticket machine was outside and away from the entrance. While I didn’t get the chance to explore the town itself, from the little I saw, it was quiet, peaceful and unassuming. 

There is a lot to say about the amazing work that the people at the Auschwitz museum do to educate and remind us of the true horrors human beings can do to other humans. I know that nothing I will say will do it justice. My only advice is to go there yourself. Walk through the gate at Auschwitz I-Main Camp, where it says "Arbeit macht frei" (in English, it translates to "Work sets you free"), and think about the people who walked through those gates believing the promise of freedom of a person who enjoys working. Only to quickly realise that freedom would only come once they had died, their soul leaving through the chimney.

Experience walking through a room filled with shoes, glasses, suitcases, and other personal items, illustrating the real number of people who lost their lives. Go down into one of the bunkers where they did experiments on people, and then walk straight out and stand where they would hold executions via firing squad. Travel to the second site, Auschwitz II, and enter through the historical gate, walking along the railway lines. Stand next to the destroyed gas chamber, where you look around and see the open green fields where flowers bloom. Think about all the people who died; their ashes scattered across the same fields, and the flowers that now bloom are their spirits now at rest. At peace. You will walk away with a newfound respect for the hardships those who survived went through, grieve for those who lost their life, and hopefully feel more resolved in wanting to ensure that an event like this never happens again.

Although I wished I could have taken more time to absorb my surroundings, I walked back from site three to the train station. But while walking over a bridge towards the station, I had to stop abruptly. Because the bridge I was walking over had several different railway tracks beneath. All leading to Auschwitz.

The final reminder and humbling experience of these railway lines was that for the majority of the men, women, and children, this was their final destination.

I suddenly realised the time and raced to the train station. I bought a train ticket (this is how I know it was far from the entrance of the station because of all the running). The train driver, thankfully, waited for me to get on (I owe this man a drink). And before we knew it, we headed off to dance the night away with Elton John.

As a side note, the concert was worth it. Elton John played all the hits, got us to our feet and provided a night that will be hard to forget. Upon returning to the hotel, I was able to reflect on the day's events.

That day, I had spent my time in two very different worlds, a complete 180-degree shift in emotions. All within an hour's distance of each other. The morning was one of sorrow, loss, and heartache. The evening was one of joy, laughter and hope. 

Poland's history, like that of many other countries, is messy, complex, dark, and at times cruel. But standing in a stadium with thousands of Polish people singing Crocodile Rock, Your Song and Rocket Man, I admired and appreciated the journey Poland and its people had been on. The sorrow of what happened during the Second World War, the fight for independence from the Soviet Union, their determination to educate and remind the world of what happened and their perseverance to prosper despite the hardships they had faced to be able to find joy and celebrate the ending of a lustrous career of someone they barely knew.

However, with everything that is happening in the world today, there is one question that I can't help but keep asking myself: With everything that has happened and I learnt during my time in Auschwitz, why does it feel like the rest of the world has forgotten?

Why does it feel like we are moving backwards?

To learn more and support the work at Auschwitz-Birkenau, please head to their website.