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Home -> Travel Blogs -> Krakow 16 Sep 06 - 19 Sep 06 Pg 4
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Auschwitz was initially built in 1940 to house Polish political prisoners who were considered to be a threat to Hitler's Third Reich. Located at a railway junction in southern Poland, the concentration camp was supported by "good" infrastructure (it was easy to transport the inmates straight into the gas chambers). Being 3 Kms away from the town means it was rather deserted. These conditions were ideal for the Nazi to commit atrocities of such enormous scale.

As I walked around the camp grounds, I realised that the 20 odd blocks were organised in very orderly fashioned. The buildings were very well maintained and offer (probably) a good insight of what the camp was like in the 1940s (minus the camp inmates). By looking at the camp guide (3zl), one will understand that there were various exhibitions in different blocks. Blocks 4 to 11 were used to house general exhibitions on the holocaust and general camp happenings. Blocks 15 to 21, 27 were used to describe life of the Jews and other Camp inmates that got deported from different occupied countries (i.e. Holland, France, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia). The remaining blocks were either closed or were used as offices for the museum staff.

Although I can literally feel extreme pain and sadness immediately upon entering the camp compounds, there were several exhibits which I want to particularly point out because they left an extra special impression on me:

Block 4, Room 4: Cyclon B & The Hair Exhibits
If a small can of crystals can kill 50 people in 20 minutes, how much does life cost to you?

Between Blocks 10 & 11: The Wall & The Death Block
Was there ever light at the end of the tunnel, when all you can see was a wall?

Block 11, Cell 18: A Cell For My Dear Father (a Polish Priest)
How many tears did his captors shed, when he gave up his life to save a fellow human being?

I had attempted to take pictures whenever I could; not to show any disrespect, but I feel that it is important to document the experience I felt at that PARTICULAR moment. In some cases, I simply couldn't; it was all too heavy to carry on.
   
You can say it was just a shoe for a child. But where is he now? Was he gassed? Did he die the way like how other children die when they entered the gas chambers? Perhaps he survived the Holocaust and is standing beside me, walking around in dismay?

Questions like these fills my mind. I don't think there were any answers.

A walkway of photo portraits. They were the privileged individuals.

The inmates who arrived later were simply issued with a number (tattooed on their forearm). That is to assume that they were lucky to escape the gas chambers immediately after arrival.
They say a picture says a thousand words. But does it offers any clues on whatever that had happened to her?
It's just another flower among the portraits of the inmates. How many more flowers will there be?
Wooden shacks filled with hay. The inmates go to sleep on it every night thinking if they will get to sleep here again tommrrow.
The Wall (in between Blocks 10 & 11). Camp inmates were summarily executed killed or punished on this spot.
Memories of the departed and dreams of peace.
A row of trees growing in an orderly fashion. Auschwitz I may be mistaken to be some mountain resort.
I feel the sufferings of millions - Anne Frank, 15 July 1944
Perhaps it was just a name among the millions. But every one of them serves as a painful reminder to how insane human beings can be.
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