Auschwitz-Birkenau

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Geo: 51.7292, 18.516

This is tough.

We spent pretty much the entire day at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the major concentration camp of the Nazi "final solution." The 1-1/2 hour ride back to Krakow was pretty much silent.

No words can describe what we saw, nor could ever do justice to our experience. It is something that one can only witness and process over time. I don't think it has really set in with us yet.

Barb shares that the one thing that made her feel hopeful was the large number of people from all over the world who come to this site of atrocity to honor the lives of the 1.5 million who were murdered here.

Jeannette was completely moved by a group of Israeli students who were gathered along the side of the railroad tracks near the "point of decision," a place where SS doctors determined whether someone from the cattle cars went to work or to death.

Rich thought that the presentation given by our tour guide was appropriate for the place. Without sensationalism or propaganda, she stuck to the cold, hard facts about what happened here. Sometimes the facts do speak for themselves.

Jake felt a combination of emotions: deep sorrow, anger, and fear. What a horrible, indescribable glimpse we had at the geography of human cruelty. How did so many not stop this from occurring? And what can be done to prevent the human race from future atrocities? He leaves with more questions than answers.

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Comments

[Sarah Metz Wood]

To see this place of horror has to be almost impossible to endure. It is hard to understand how it could have happened and then allowed to continue as long as it did. I truly don't know how the people that did this were able to live with th
emselves, and then the turmoil they lived in for the rest of their lives. Unfortunatley, there is still much cruelty in this world.

[patrice]

It's teachers like you that will remind them to NEVER let this happen again...and yet here in London we are experiencing a third night of mob violence out on the streets...I feel like that Jesus statue from last week, and ask myself, when w
ill we humans learn to respect our differences and learn to love?

[Patti]

I don't normally comment on the blogs you write, but I had chills all over when I read this one and saw the pictures. It's almost too much to imagine that this horrible event took place. Not sure I could have saw all that and kept it toge
ther. Have a safe trip home!