Auschwitz

(I am choosing my words carefully for this post)

Truly the only thing I really sought to do this trip was to see Auschwitz.  I was able to do that today by taking a guided tour throughout both complexes in the small Polish town of Oswiecim which is roughly an hour and a half from Kraków by bus.  

I hopped a bus this morning (met a mother and daughter originally from Brazil and now living in Portugal) and arrived around 30 minutes before my tour was to start.  

Over two million people visit Auschwitz every year so the staff there help things run very smoothly.  I chose to sign up online for my tour, but I don't think that's completed necessary.  They offer tours in many different languages.  

As I sit on this bus back to Kraków, I'm still a bit in shock that what I saw was real.  It's truly unreal to me that well over one million Jews, Poles, Soviets and other political enemies of the Nazis were exterminated there.  I think the thing that struck me more than anything was how systematic the process was.  It's truly unbelievable how evil Hitler and the Nazis were.  

Several times our guide talked about the "selection" process which was where a German SS doctor would decide if a prisoner was to work or was I die.  It was a very matter of fact process.  

The presentation and preservation of these facilities is first-class.  I can't recommend enough for everyone to at least see this once.  And Wally from yesterday was correct.  I'll never want to go back. 

My words here do not do Auschwitz I and II justice.  I'm not going to post but one picture(the gate of Auschwitz II) and a picture of a suitcase I spotted in one of the exhibits.  The name on the suitcase is obviously very close to my last name.  Seeing it brought it home even more that these were real people, with real families and real lives and just because they were different, they were systematically exterminated.