http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
On the way home, we stopped at Auschwitz to tour the concentration camp. I dropped off Robyn and the younger kids (Ellie and new kids) at a mall in the town because the camp is not age appropriate for young kids.
At the Visitor Center, not many directional signs to help you figure out where to go. We first went to the small bookstore that sent us to the ticket office that sent us to the tour office that sent us back to the bookstore. We had arrived after the last English speaking tour had left but we had already planned to just do a self-tour. It just took us a while to figure out to first stop at the bookstore to buy the self-touring guide (in English) and then simply head out to the camp. You do not have to purchase a ticket. It was about 2 PM when we started and the camp closes at dark so we only had about 2 hours to tour which was good since we had half our crew at the mall just hanging out. The pocket guide provided us with directions on where to go. I am sure a guide would have been great but there is so much to read in each building that it paints a good picture of everything.
Thankfully the tour was not too graphic but still very emotional. To see piles of children's shoes, eye glasses, suitcases, etc...and to think that over 1 million people died at this camp alone is hard to put into words. Random thoughts: many pictures of men, women, and even children...Wall of Death where some prisoners shot...so many people piled into bunks and stacked on top of each other...sign at camp entrance "Work Makes You Free" was such a lie...gas chamber and the crematorium.
We then drove about a mile over to the annex of the concentration camp. The building here were mainly built of wood and destroyed at the Germans pulled out of the area at the end of the war. Yet, it was amazing to see how big the complex had been. The train tracks ran right into the middle of the camp. Most people here were off-loaded off the train and sent immediately to the gas chamber. Again, very emotional and hard to understand how the Nazis could be this evil.
So glad that I took our older kids to see first hand such a moving and historical place. I was also glad that we did not take the younger kids.
Entrance Sign "Work Makes You Free"
Klement suitcase among the huge pile on display
Hardest display for me to view (baby shoes)
Tucker looking at the Wall of Death -Firing Squad Area
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