Today was one of the most difficult experiences I've had throughout our journey. While Alex and I both agreed we were mentally prepared for Auschwitz, armed with prior knowledge of the horrors that occurred during the Holocaust, walking through the site of so many atrocities was all at once powerful, eye-opening, devastating and ghastly.
"Work makes you free."
We visited both Auschwitz I and nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau and I am finding it very challenging to describe what we saw. How can you properly ascribe meaning to a room full of thousands of shoes stolen from people before they entered the gas chambers? Or the way it felt to walk around the ruins of human ovens and crematoriums that soldiers tried unsuccessfully to destroy before the war ended? I'm not sure I can really convey all of these feelings properly, but there were a few photos and quotations that stuck out meaningfully to both of us.
Looking down the double, electrified fences.
"Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity" (Holocaust memorial).
Nazi railways dropped off prisoners directly at the camps.
Often hundreds of passengers would be crammed into these cars, nestled on top of one other for days (sometimes weeks) without access to food or toilets; many died before arriving at the camps.
The shooting wall, now a memorial to victims. “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness” (Elie Wiesel).
Throughout the day there were a few thoughts that kept playing on a loop in my head.
First: How? How did this happen? There really just isn't a way to comprehend the unimaginable acts perpetuated by the Nazis. I was moved by the following quote captured within the museum "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (George Santayana) but saddened to put those words into the broader context of the world today. Genocide is not just a horror of the past and humans remain capable of great tragedy.
Second: I am lucky. My great-grandparents were murdered here in 1943 and were it not for their careful planning, my grandmother would not have been sent to England, then later Cincinnati, where she met my grandfather and had my dad. As I mourned for their loss I tried to remain grateful for their sacrifice.
Last: Never Forget. We must remember what happened here and what we as humans are truly capable of. Over 11 million people were exterminated during the Holocaust and each of us must honor their memory but making sure we never repeat such heinous acts against one another.
"Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart" (Anne Frank).