On Saturday we went to Auschwitz I and II. We started at Auschwitz II Birkenau, the larger of the two camps. It was incredible to see just how big it was and imagine life for all those innocent people. We spent nearly 3 hours walking the grounds and taking it all in.
It was humbling spend time in a place where over a million people, no different than you and me, were murdered. After making our way around Birkenau. We drove to Auschwitz I.
There we went on a guided tour. While waiting for our tour to begin, we had a little fun with our super stylish headsets.
When the Germans took over Poland during WWII, they acquired this Polish Army Base. The blocks were already build and The German Nazis turned it into a concentration or work camp. Later a gas chamber was built and Auschwitz I became an exterminate camp as well. When the camp became too small Birkenau was built.
On the tour we walked through the gas chamber. The most upsetting part for me was seeing scratches from finger nails on the walls. It clearly illustrated how painful their death must have been.
It's hard to imagine a numbers as large as million. There is a whole hallway filled with shoes taken from people were killed at Auschwitz. All the shoes in this hallway is just 5% of the shoes collected. This picture shows maybe a quarter of the hallway. Seeing these shoes made it clear how many people's lives ended at Auschwitz.
It was an informative day and forever changed how I remember The Holocaust.
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