Auschwitz

While I could insert a few antics, sing a song, or insert a bit of comedic relief, that wouldn't do Auschwitz or its history justice. Instead, I'll provide a few facts and comments but mostly let the pictures below speak for themselves.

I was thoroughly impressed with the tour at Auschwitz. The tour guide didn't try to break the tension, force you to draw anything out of it, nor did she try to make this experience out to be anything less than it was; instead, she simply gave facts and led us through.

"Arbeit Macht Frei," meaning "work frees oneself" or "work makes freedom," was a common phrase used by the Nazis at the entrances to their labor camps. This particular entrance was to Auschwitz I - Auschwitz was actually comprised of three camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), and Auschwitz III (Monowitz). Auschwitz I was the original camp, used mostly to hold Poles and Soviet POWs. The camp is actually smaller than I thought it would be. Starting with only 8 buildings (referred to as blocks), the prisoners here built others to hold the increasing numbers.

In between two of the blocks was the "execution wall," used for individual executions of prisoners of Auschwitz I. Today, it is kept as a memorial to those individuals.

We then went off to the death camp of Auschwitz II - Birkenau, named for the birch trees surrounding the camp. Right after getting off the train, people were separated into the few "lucky" who got to live and those who walked down the Road of Death to the gas chambers disguised as showers.

The train tracks to Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

At the end of the Road of Death is now a memorial to those killed at Birkenau. Plaques in every language spoken at the camp line the current end of the tracks:

FOR EVER LET THIS PLACE BE

A CRY OF DESPAIR

AND A WARNING TO HUMANITY,

WHERE THE NAZIS MURDERED

ABOUT ONE AND A HALF

MILLION

MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN,

MAINLY JEWS

FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES

OF EUROPE.

AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

1940 - 1945

As a last try to cover up their tracks as the Soviets were about to liberate the camp, the Nazis blew up the gas chambers that had been disguised as shower facilities.

The rest of the pictures can be found here.