Wednesday 4 April 2007

jog in the park

Went for a jog on Saturday. It was the first boost of physical activity since morbid flu recovery. A warm sunny day, lungs conking out at about 1km. Not fit. Yet. The place of choice for a quiet jog? My local concentration camp! The rolling green clearing down the road from my place is now a reserve and memorial park for what was once the Plaszow concentration camp for the Krakow ghetto Jews (it was a holding depot for the prisoners awaiting transport to Birkenau and the like). There is a monument erected and buses drop off Israeli school kids coming to light a candle. But there are also park benches, mums with prams, dogs being walked and young boys kicking the soccer ball around. At first I was a bit thrown as to the use being made of this public space, expecting people to walk around with bowed heads and in silence. But now I think the recreational option is more preferable. E.g. ball falls out of bounds, you must retrieve it out of the still existent yet rusty barbed wire fence and you think – shit all those poor people back in WWII. See, footy and history lesson! And it’s better than catching the train to Auschwitz with fat loud tourists. Or watching The Pianist.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went to Dachau last year. This coincided with the World Cup, so all of Dachau was full (full) of australian tourists wearing head to toe green and gold and rousing slogans such as 'we call it soccer, mate' etc. It was one of the more interesting juxtapositions I've witnessed.

Tabitha said...

That photo of the red bike is both a) fantastic and b) spooky.