Auschwitz-Birkenau

In the middle of our Krakow wanderings we made the haunting and humbling trek to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Amidst other european tourists snapping and smiling away, I felt like papping the place was beyond disrespectful. I took only these three photos to aid my teaching of 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and stood shaking for most of the rest of the day.

At first glimpse the work camp, standing eerily quiet, looks like a college campus and halls of residence during the quiet summer months. From the outside, the buildings are uniform and ordered. Inside, each block has been turned into a memorial for a different country or ethnic group. Lots of people walk around with that similar glazed look. It's awful.


The sister camp to Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the extermination camp, lies 1-2km up the road. The sheer size of Birkenau is daunting. Its proximity to nothing is also scary. The atrocities that took place are unspeakable. And anything else I say will just sound even more cliche.
train tracks leading into nowhere. nothingness.

What else can I say?
We went to Auschwitz to remember.
And hopefully I can pass that remembrance on in one way or another.