A Powerful Reminder of Evil

Anyone who has come to this part of the world must, and probably has paid homage to the millions who were murdered at the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Although we've had the day trip on our master calendar and purchased tickets months ago, we felt a lot of anticipation of the impact it would have on us.

We opted to take the 0800 morning slow-train to the city of Auschwitz...about two hours away from Krakow. The train was obviously a commuter for local workers along the way but nevertheless was interesting and the scenery of the polish countryside was beautiful. Once there, the camp was about a two km walk. We had reserved the English tour at 1130 starting thru the Auschwitz camp. Many people don't know...as we didn't...but there were actually two Auschwitz camps as well as a third, and MUCH bigger camp that was the in-processing camp: Birkenau. We bussed over from Auschwitz to Birkenau...about three km away...as part of the tour. The tour was very comprehensive, professional and of course, very powerful.

Afterwards, we discussed at length how to address this blog verbage and decided that there's really nothing else that could possibly be said about the horror, the insanity of what occurred here. We can only just let the pictures tell the story of the millions that were murdered here. God bless their souls and may the people responsible for it roast in eternal hell.   

The Polish Countryside from the train

Auschwitz

The "welcoming" gate into the camp; it says:  WORK WILL SET YOU FREE

Prisoners were told to mark their luggage and it would be returned to them.  It was actually dumped out and sorted by its contents, shoes, silver, combs, glasses, pots and pans...etc.

Marked luggage

Cups, pots, pans. etc

This was a very powerful display;  mounds and mounds of shoes of exterminated prisoners. 

Combs and brushes

Living quarters:

Wash room; often there was only just a trickle of water.  

Toilets:  They were only allowed to use the toilet twice a day and often the que was hours long. 

Twin girls executed two months apart.

Birkenau Camp:

Box car used to transport the prisoners:  Over 200 people were crammed into one car that was big enough for 40 people. They went for days without food and water during their trip to the camp.

The platform of death. Some prisoners went straight from the train to death.  It depended on if the camp needed workers or not.

The gas chamber and crematorium

Pope John Paul visited here in 1979; he held a mass here and
 left a  candle in remembrance

 Pond with ashes of millions.

He should have been hanged over a million times.