Auschwitz-Birkenau
Walking around the infamous pinnacle of the Nazi's death camps was something else. The pictures will do more than I can put into words but I'll give it my best. We started in Auschwitz II. Here we saw the Wall of Death, a small cement wall where thousands of prisoners were shot; the solitary confinement cells, where prisoners were tortured by the SS; piles of sorted clothing and belongings taken from the prisoners by the Nazi's; and most iconically, the only remaining gas chambers and crematorium. The gas chambers were set halfway underground in cement bunkers. On the roof were square holes where the soldiers would drop in the Zyklon B. Inside were empty cement rooms. There were a few flowers and two solitary candles burning here. It was possible to see scratch marks on the walls. The crematorium was directly next to the chambers. We then drove down the road to Birkenau. This is the area that you most often see in pictures and in movies and is somewhat incorrectly referred to as Auschwitz. Here was the iconic brick archway with the train tracks running through into the center of the compound. The curved electric fences ran in every direction, containing the barracks where the prisoners "lived." Most of the original barracks were destroyed, either by Nazis attempting to cover up their crimes, or Poles trying to remove the memories attached with that place. As a result, the vast majority of the camp was a wasteland of brick chimneys, some of which were attached to the remnants of ruined cement foundations. We entered a few of the still standing barracks and saw the three levels of wooden bunks. It was a very beautiful day, which added a surreal juxtaposition to the landscape.
If there was one time I highly encourage you to view the photos in the PHOTOS tab it would be here. One can only explain so much. The comment section below has been fixed so feel free to ask questions about the content of the photos.