Auschwitz

This afternoon we went to Auschwitz - a concentration camp and Nazi German extermination camp. Horrific things happened at Auschwitz, and about 1.5 million people died there in the early 1940's. It consisted of 3 main parts and today we visited 2 - Auschwitz I, and Auschwitz II (Birkenau).

It was not my idea to visit Auschwitz - to me it seems wrong that it's a tourist attraction. But Shanon was eager so off we went. And therefore I personally hated visiting Auschwitz I due to the sheer number of tourists and school groups there. We found ourselves fighting for space everywhere we went. Possibly we were just there on an exceptionally busy day, but it was ridiculous and just seemed plain wrong and disrespectful. One woman in our group even snacked on chips as we walked around! Our guide was excellent though, and it certainly was interesting (but extremely disturbing) to learn about the shocking things that went on at Auschwitz.

Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is what you probably think of when you hear the name Auschwitz and was a much better place to visit in my opinion. More interesting and with a lot less tourists. It is the site where hundreds of thousands of people were imprisioned or killed. The majority were killed in the gas chambers and it was a freaky experience to walk the same route that those people would have walked on the way to their deaths. Fortunately for us we got to walk back again.