While in Krakow I had the opportunity to visit the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and Birkenau Extermination Camp. While it was not a journey I looked forward to per se, I did think that it was an important visit to make while in the area. Reflecting on my visit there, I am surprised by my reaction. I expected to feel a weighty feeling of grief however the strongest emotion that I experienced was that my presence there was wrong. In a way that's difficult to express in words, I found that something about the hundreds of tourists trooping over the place where hundreds of thousands suffered and died felt jarring and intrusive. I think Holocaust education is extremely important but should there really be a cafe for tourists at Auschwitz? There are no easy answers.
There really isn't much to say about the pictures I took. I'm going to let them speak for themselves.I'll end with the oft repeated German phrase concerning the Holocaust. Nie wieder-Never again.
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| Translation from German: In memory of all those who died. Rest in peace. |
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