Auschwitz-Birkenau

Heading back to Olomouc from Krakow, we stopped at the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Normally I would complain about the cold, rainy weather we have experienced everywhere we go but I wasn't going to complain that day. In my opinion, no matter how chilly I felt, it was the perfect weather for the atmosphere. Plus I felt that while I was there I had no right to complain. It was actually sort of ironic because the weather had been so warm and nice the day before but so cold at the camp.
We arrived at Birkenau first and as soon as I stepped out of the bus, I'm fairly certain that I slipped into a slight state of shock as I saw the brick barracks and barbed-wire fencing. It felt so real, which I think is the only time that has really happened to me in Europe. People say that on a trip like ours, you find your "Aha!" moment or a moment when what you're doing really strikes you. I saw the Colosseum, all those ancient ruins in Rome, I walked several times over the Charles Bridge, saw tons of castles and cathedrals and it was all amazing, but nothing hit me as much as being on that concentration camp. For me the scene of Birkenau was like a movie coming to life and I was actually there.

Fences of Birkenau

The Entrance for Trains Carrying Jewish People

 As the caption of the photo above mentions, the Jewish People were carted in to Auschwitz-Birkenau in trains. They weren't comfortable trains, but just carts filled with probably more than a hundred people each. No room to move. Once they arrived they were separated into two groups. Those who would die immediately in the gas chambers and those who would be worked to death. Our tour guide kept saying that these camps were not set up for people to work, they were strategically developed "death camps". The book I read afterwards, Night by Elie Wiesel, said the same thing. That everyone sent there was meant to die in one way or another...it was hard for me to be there and wrap my head around what had taken place there.
Those who were lucky enough to make it through Selection got to live in these lovely buildings

Brick Barracks, Mainly for Women and Children

And they had to sleep on these

The only thing they had on here was straw.

No heating, no air condition, no bathrooms, and they rarely got to wash themselves. And these were the nicer barracks. The men had to live in wooden ones on the other side of the camp.
I'm not sure what else to say. There's a lot I could mention about how they were treated, what happened to them before, during, and after the camps; but I'm sure there's lots of better information somewhere else and I'm really only writing this to share my thoughts and opinions (and pictures). It's just hard to think that people could be so terrible. That so many people would agree to do whatever it took to exterminate one group of people and that it would be kept fairly quiet for so long. It was extremely saddening to stand where it all took place and see the evidence, but for some reason I'm not really able to explain, I feel fortunate to have experienced it. I hope that people are able to see what happened here and not allow the same thing to happen again....

Entrance to Auschwitz--"Work Makes You Free"

Barracks at Auschwitz

Among the suitcases; Orphan Hana Fuchs

The Execution Wall

How it all began....