The Concentration Camp 1

Hey again!

So I hadn't planned on writing again so soon, but I thought I'd just quickly share a few of the thoughts and impressions I have from visiting the original Auschwitz Concentation Camp today. Tomorrow we visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, the much bigger part later built onto the original 3km away.

I saw rows upon rows of photos of people who didn't last longer than a month in the camp.

I saw pictures of women and children who were experimented upon by Dr. Mengele, a sadist who did illegal medical experiments on prisoners.

I saw a huge cabinet of hair, people's hair, people who'd been gassed, or died, and I saw that it was used to make carpets and other things.

I saw the clothes and shoes of babies, who were sent to the gas chambers as soon as they arrived.

I saw quotations from Hitler and others that damn near made me sick.

I saw where the prisoners slept, what they ate, and an example of the ridiculously hard work thay had to do.

I heard how they had no shoes at the start, I heard how they got only 1700 Kcals for 12 hours work a day, 7 days a week.

I saw the gas chamber, where thousands of people were killed. Later, when we had our own time, I went back to the chamber. I coincidentally walked in on the spontaneous singing of a Hebrew prayer song by a group of 30-odd Israelites, singing for their fallen forefathers in the gas chamber. That God allowed me to witness that is one of the most incredible things I've ever had the privilege of.

"Opinions vary on the number of Jews killed in the camps. One Historian says it was 1.1million. Another says it was 1.5million. But the fact remains, whatever the exact number is does not matter. When one was killed, it was already one too many."