Auschwitz

Visiting Auschwitz was something I don't think Mrs. Carroll nor I will ever forget. 

You read about the Holocaust, you see the numbers, you look at the facts... but it doesn't really hit you the magnitude of this tragedy until you see it firsthand.

Auschwitz is located in the Polish city of Oswiecim, but it is still called the German name of Auschwitz because it was a German operation, and the Polish want no part in claiming responsibility for it. 

I can't blame them.

Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp, with over 1 million people dying here. 

Walking around the Camp, you can't help but feel the overwhelming sadness that still lingers here.  It's very silent, if that makes sense. 

The housing facilities have been turned into their own museums, as the amount of information gathered and documented by the Germans is intense. 

Each museum displays everything from housing, daily life, prisoner documentation, medical experiments, to one specifically on children.  I didn't go into that one.  By that point, I felt a little nauseated. 

Some rooms that we went into held nothing but thounsands of shoes.  Or mountains of suitcases. 

The room I lost it in?  The one with the hair.  HAIR.  They cut off the women's hair to sell as a luxury item.  Seeing those piles and piles of people's hair... was right about the time I lost it on Mrs. Carroll's shoulder. 

These last two pictures are the gas chamber and crematorium of the Camp. 

To say it was filled with overwhelming sadness and grief is an understatement.