Auschwitz-Birkenau

Alright, i've gathered my thoughts about the experience to Auschwitz, so it's time to write about it.

The main purpose of visiting Poland was to visit the infamous concentration/death camp: Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people died at this location, and I still felt the aura of fear in the air, especially when I went into the gas chamber and incinerators. As I was going in to the gas chamber, I felt a strong feeling of hesitation and nervousness. I had to gather some courage for a few moments before going in. I can only imagine what thousands of others felt, not knowing what their fate would be as they entered through that same door. The feeling of fear and death was imminent at the camps, I still cannot wrap my head around what happened, since so many crimes to humanity were committed.

What struck me was that there were a lot of tourists at Auschwitz. There were tour groups around the camp, mostly around mid day. In the morning, there weren't as many.

Auschwitz I was the smaller of the camps, it had the incinerators pictured above, as well as the "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes you free) gate. It also had the medical experimentation block, another tough (figuratively) building to go into.

blocks 11 and 10, medical experimentation blocks. 

There were so many reminders of death everywhere, it was such a sobering experience to walk where victims of the holocaust had walked; but I appreciated that I walked freely, and not in fear of my life.

Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was a much larger camp. I entered through the infamous gate:

It was an unbearably hot day, I had what seemed to me the luxury of carrying water and snacks while walking around in Birkenau. The heat was overwhelming, but more overwhelming were the barracks, guard towers, and barbed wire fences left behind from a reign of terror.

Block 16a- the children's barrack. 

One of the most saddening moments was walking into a barrack where children were held. There paintings up on the wall, of playful school children and of a child walking to school, a mockery, really, since children were the most helpless.

The barracks were small, the roofs reached no more than maybe 25 ft at its tallest point. They were designed to hold horses, but instead held hundreds of prisoners.

What remains now are the decays of the horrors that occurred in Auschwitz.