Auschwitz, Poland

The visit to Auschwitz can only be described as chilling. Those that have been there know what I mean. I had seen pictures of what happened at concentration camps so I know how cruel the Nazis were, but what surprised me was how much effort they took to track every thing that was done to each person when they intended to kill all of them anyway. Even the smallest punishments were documented. The other thing that shows how sick the Nazis were was how much thought was put into designing a place to make the process of killing people as efficient as possible. The 2nd, and bigger, of the compounds around Auschwitz is a HUGE complex with the infamous railroad tracks leading right into it so they can send the people directly to the gas chamber. The insanity of the Nazis in thinking that they can actually exterminate a race and to actually build a place specifically for that purpose!

There were many disturbing and shocking exhibits, and the one that I think is most disturbing is the one where there is a window running the length of the room, and on the other side of the window you see the floor piled with human hair that was shaved off of the dead people after they've been gassed. There's even an example of how the Nazis use the human hair to weave into textile which were then used to make various things (sacks, carpet, etc.). Just writing about it is giving me goose bumps. Sadly there were many similar rooms each filled with articles taken from the Jews that were killed: glasses, shoes, suitcases, etc.

Photos were not allowed inside the buildings. In any case, being there made enough of an impression that I don't need pictures to remind me of it (and truthfully, I'm not sure I want pictures to remind me of it). I did take a picture of the front gate just for this blog. The words above the gate says “work brings freedom”. How ironic... and sick.