Auschwitz I and II - Birkenau

                                              Disclaimer:

This blog post is only as theological as you want to make it. I recently had the opportunity to visit one of the sites left from the Nazi Genocide that took place from 1933-1945. I also had the opportunity to walk back out of the gates of the concentration camp that 1.3 million died in. This experience was extremely real, extremely profound, and extremely moving. I have found no adjective for what I saw here. I have posted the photos that I took at Auschwitz I and II not to offend anyone, but to provoke thoughts and conversations. I truly hope that this indeed does scare you and cause you to question the world that we live in. Could this happen again? Is this happening today? What are we doing about it? This is not a hiccup in history that can be forgotten about and I find it specifically important for today's youth. It is especially hard for us (the youth) to fathom these almost surreal events that took place only a few generations from us; yet, we have more technology at our fingertips then Hitler could have dreamed of having. Technology is a tool or a weapon and genocide continues to happen today all over the globe.

one last note, everything that Hitler did was legal. Jews were not considered to be human during this genocide, just as babies are not considered to be human today.

                                            Auschwitz I

The gates into the concentration camp that most only walked through once

Urn with ashes 

Nazi letters

Inmate certificates

Heaps of hair that was shaved off of the victims after they were murdered in the gas chambers. This hair was then used to make textiles and sold in the markets. 

Everything happened under ground. Stage one: changing for a "shower"

Stage two: Gas Chamber

Stage three: Crematorium 

Yes, these are luggage bags from the victims with their actual names and addresses on them. 

This is the room of the General in each unit

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest who died as prisoner 16770 on August 14, 1941. When a prisoner escaped from the camp, the Nazis selected 10 others to be killed by starvation in reprisal for the escape. One of the 10, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, "My wife! My children! I will never see them again!" At this, Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and asked to die in his place. His request was granted. Maximilian Kolbe and the other three men in the prison cell praised the Lord and sang the Psalms constantly. they lived for two weeks with no food or water while standing in this cell.  

The execution wall where those sentenced to death by shooting were shot

People would be hung by their hands naked from these polls over night in humiliation

Outside of one of the gas chambers

Gas chamber. Pray  for the thousands of people murdered here. 

Crematorium

                                   Auschwitz II - Birkenau

Panoramic photo of the destroyed gas chamber/crematorium that the Nazis blew up a week before the war was over  

Ash pits that still have ash in them today and are now a memorial 

Five people to a bunk. Top, middle and Bottom.