Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland

Poland was always very close to the top of my bucket travel list, and finally getting there was a dream come true.  I remember it clearly - a train from a Slovak border town north to Krakow in Poland.  

Entrance to Auschwitz

You can easily spend a few hours by the time you've seen both Auschwitz and Birkenau, and while the walk through the grounds felt unreal and eerie, I remember it wasn't until later when I printed my photos, that the weight of what Id seen sank in. And out of everything I saw and took in that day, what's always stayed with me since was the unforgettable image of a baby - one photo out of hundreds, of the many who'd died there.  

Crematorium 

From 1940–1945, over 1.1 million people were murdered here: Jews, Poles, Romani people, Soviet POWs, and others. Birkenau was designed for mass extermination, its gas chambers killing thousands daily. The railway line cutting into the camp, the endless wooden barracks, the barbed wire, the shower cells, the gas chambers and the many piles of personal items including suitcases, reading glasses and even human hair - such a tragic and moving piece of history.

Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau is confronting, but it’s a place the world must continue to visit. A reminder to humandity, of humanity, at such a dark point in history.