The shame that has impacted the World ...Auschwitz
Trip Start
??? ??, 2008
1
15
23
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Oswiecim,
Poland
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Hitler hid his atrocities from the rest of the world, providing a propaganda campaign, not only to the rest of the world, but to the Jews, who thought they were being relocated from their homes, to work camps until the end of the war. In truth, Hitler's plan was first to imprison, then to massively exterminate them. Most Jews knew nothing of what they were in store for, the whole atmosphere was one of deception, where the Jews, were selected as they got off the train to die or to become slaves
Work Will Set You Free... (a lie)
.Hitler's campaign started by building Auschwitz I and then when the camp got overcrowded, Auschwitz-Birkenau (a much larger and less built-up complex) was built approximately 3 km away. The whole purpose? To systematically control and murder off those that Hitler saw as "different."
Experiencing the scene of almost a million murders, words cannot describe. All you can do is absorb a part of the torture and brutality that occurred. Your mind cannot wrap itself around how human beings could do that to others just 60 years ago.
The pictures here are of the outside only as we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the buildings. I must say what was the most moving is to just think about the sheer numbers of people that were murdered in these camps, and how that has forever changed the history of the world (in those people that were innocently murdered, we perhaps had the cure for cancer, the next world-class athelete, etc.)
As we stepped through the hallways with the nameless faces (they were only given numbers - and some weren't even given that dignity, rather they were sent straight to die in the gas chambers)
Original Signs at Auschwitz
. We visited areas of extreme torture, and the actual crematoriums and gas chambers where thousands and thousands gasped for their last breathe.In all, the single most symbolic terror that we witnessed was the mounds and mounds of human hair that was put in a room that was close to 2000 square feet. Mounds of it, clipped off right before the women entered the camp. This room represented only a fraction of the people...
This is truly a blemish on human-kind and in visiting this place of terror, we can only hope the world can learn from this and never allow this to be repeated.
Comments
nice
good for you guys in making sure to check out the camp.