Visiting Auschwitz- Sobering and Surreal

One of the things I knew I wanted to do while in Poland is visit Auschwitz. It is only an hour and a half outside of Krakow so it seemed like a good opportunity. My whole life I've been interested in history and the stories behind the people who make it. Going to Auschwitz was sobering and surreal.

I've studied the holocaust over the years in school. I've been to the musuem in Washington, DC, I've heard a holocaust survivor speak and I've read multiple books and diaries... but until you see in person the horrific place and retrace the steps of the people who lived and died there it just doesn't sink in.

Marta and I arrived in the city Oswiecim and started walking toward Auschwitz... how anyone could live in this town is beyond me. It was overcast, dreary and cold- the perfect day for the event we were partaking in. We got to Auschwitz and watched a short film that was a breif recap of WWI and the events leading up to WWII and the camp itself. Some of the images were terrifying.

We began at the entrance where the sign read "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means "Work brings freedom"... right.
We continued on and walked through the buildings where people lived and mostly died. We saw the "hospital" where Josef Mengele did his experiments on children, he was more commonly called "the Angel of Death". The pictures were something I will never forget.








We went into one building where they had the confiscated items from all of the people that were brought to Auschwitz. Piles of glasses, suit cases with names and addresses on them, piles of shoes all the way up to the ceiling... shock set in. Then I came to one display. Piles and piles of little shoes, shoes from all of the children. I wept. It was completely overwhelming. It is beyond me how someone could justify the wrong that they were doing... especially on such a grand scale! Some of the children there were little gypsy children from Romania. In the pictures they looked the same as they do now. It definitely stuck a nerve.







I was thankful to leave all the confiscated articles... it just made it too real. I wanted to escape reality for a moment. We headed outside and went to the Death Wall. Not too much relief. I stood where the S.S lined innocent people against a wall and shot them. Very sobering to say the least.








We moved on and went to the gas chamber and crematory, it was the only one the Nazis didn't destroy before leaving the camp. It was a small place and somehow they manage to kill over 800 people at once. It was tiny and sad... we walked through in silence and it was strange to think only 60 something years ago thousands of people were killed in that little building. There were so many ashes left over they used them to build the streets we were walking on....

Because the Nazis were bringing so many people to these death camps they had to expand the camp to make room for all of the people. We went to Auschwitz II and Birkenau where there were the biggest gas chambers and crematories. This is where the train would arrive and people would get off and be selected for work or for death. I walked down the railroad tracks down to the remains of the gas chamber and crematory. I saw where the people "lived".
Here are a few pictures from Auschwitz II and Birkenau: