Arbeit Macht Frei

"Work shall set you free". Which I suppose is the slogan of Hitler's Final Solution, as it was also marked on the gate at Dachau (see "Four Super Boys").

In trying to write this blog, once again, I am at a loss of words. Dachau hit pretty hard: standing in the open courtyard where hundreds of thousands of prisoners lived the end of their days, watching a documentary and seeing rooms with piles of bodies and then actually entering these very rooms, seeing the untouched crematoriums, or entering the 'showers' which were never used, but were intended to be.

Auschwitz is by far the most famous of the 'death camps', and its size geographically, and in lives lost, looms over Dachau. While at first it almost seemed like a tourist attraction with the large groups of teenagers texting and laughing and eating popsicles, certain aspects certainly kicked in over time.

There are several books on the Holocaust, World War II, and the plight of the Jews that would make for an excellent source of information on Auschwitz. Wikipedia, is also a fairly reliable source that could sum up the events and the site rather well. (In fact, check out Penner's blog at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Penner/ for additional pictures). But to me, just standing looking at the photos of those people lost struck rather deep. A couple families even have an entire wall dedicated to telling their story.

However, ruin and books can only tell so much. But seeing the pictures, the countless pictures of the millions that were lost in this insane crusade and then being in the very location where it happened is a real grounding experience.

We spent most of our day at the major camp (Auschwitz II, Auschwitz-Birkenau) but managed to visit the museum (Auschwitz I) which was the original camp before overcrowding took place. Both sites were extremely daunting and I'm glad I took the time to visit both, even though it got rather depressing.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the tale as we move forward to Prague, the home of Jaromir Jagr's mullet...

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