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Got picked up at 9am by the minibus seekrakow tours and set off on the 1.5 hour journey to the first camp Auschwitz I accompanied by footage from the russians who liberated the camp which was well horrendus, info about prisoners being injected with lepracy, TB etc and castrated all in the name lf science, yeah right. 'Arbeit macht frei' work will set you free the sign on the front of every concentration camp during the second world war, aparently a way to spur on the people being forced to go there :/ cant help but think if i was forced out of my home there wouldnt be many words that could help me feel better.
Once they arrivedat the camps they were sorted....aka good to work on one side and old, women and kids to the other side to go to the gas chambers, they were removed of all there belongings and shaved all these things being collected. Which a percentage of were put on display within one of the buildings within the camp which was rather erie but obviously thats why there on display. There were also a lot of pictures around the camp which to me kind of desensitised the buildings and the horror which went in inside.
We headed out way over to the shooting wall which is pretty self explanitarg people were shot against it, only the one there was a replica, why anyone would choose to replicate something like tht is beyond me if the information of it being there not enough? The buildings in Auschwitz I were not what i expected at all to be at all i thought theyd be all delapedated and wooden but they were solid brick and looked well insulated and stuff i think theyve done some rennovations for tourists which again i totally dont see the point. We finished our tour by visiting the cremotirium which was closed well before the camp was liberated as the commendant who lived close by diddnt like the smell. We got back in the mini bus to the main Auschwitz - birkenau camp with the infamous gates which wernt as huge and imposing as i had thought they would be. The size of the actual camp on the other hand was insane!!! I never thought it would be anywhere near the side it was i literally could not see the ends if it. We visited the crematorium 4 which was destroyed before the camp was liberated and they had just left it in the state they found it, i will point out at this point tht quite unknown to most after the russians 'liberated' the camp they actually continued to run the camp for a year, not quite the hero's there made out to be. We went to a brick barracks which again unknown to me had a form of heating and went to a sinitary barracks aka the toilets 210 toilets all open and next to each other for 2000 people im not sure id like to imagine the smell but we were told of a guy who only managed to survive the camp because his job was to clean the toilets so his job was undercover. We finished our tour there and im not sure what i thought the video on the bus on the way there was a more shocking and real portrayal of the camp then the camp itself, i think the fact its such a popular tourist destination means there have been a lot of small rennovations etc and due to obviously kids being visitors throughout the year it was quite PG i feel the true horrors of the camp should have been shown a lot more, not tht id enjoy tht or anything i just feel the monstrositys should be outed more so there is never a repeat.
The horrors are unimaginable and may those who died there rest in peace.
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