This is one of those blog entries that I am not really looking forward to writing. As part of our last big trip during the Easter break, we knew that when we went to Kraków, we would be within just a few kilometers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps. The distinction was one made numerous times by our guide - the purpose of the camp was for people to die. Whether the death was "natural" - i.e. overwork on starvation rations, or through the selection process which sent 75% or more of people arriving in the camp directly to the gas chambers, the sole aim was non-survival.

We arrived through the now infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Liberates") gate. You may remember that the concentration camp in Dachau had the same motto on the gate. Something that I learned - if you look closely at the letter B in the work Arbeit, you will note that it is installed upside-down. The story is that it was a form of protest by an inmate of Auschwitz.

Auschwitz I (as differentiated from Auschwitz II - also known as the Birkenau camp) was originally a Polish military barracks before the nation collapsed in 1939 - crushed between the invasions of German and Soviet armies. The buildings here are not much different than barracks in which I have lived when I served in the military - brick construction, large rooms, insulated. Relative luxury compared to the barn-like buildings you will see at Birkenau.

Everywhere barbed wire - this is the killing zone standing before two walls of electrified wire.

This is a reconstruction of the execution wall for those prisoners that were shot outright for whatever violation of the rules was perceived. The windows on the barracks situated on either side of this courtyard were boarded over to keep the prisoners from witnessing the shootings.

Many of the barracks in Auschwitz I were used for museums - we couldn't take pictures inside of the barracks rooms, so I can only describe in words the feeling of seeing piles of suitcases - each one carefully marked with the name and address of souls lost in the hopes of being relocated. The flood of 40,000 pairs of shoes - childrens, mens, womens, wooden shoes. The shock of literally tons of human hair laid out behind glass walls. It was sometimes beyond words.

We rode the three kilometers from Auschwitz I to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) in silence. The guide emphasized the enormity of the extermination camp at Birkenau. These rail tracks were installed rather late in the life of the camp to help facilitate movement of inmates - before this, those condemned to the camps had to walk from the rail siding a kilometer or so from the front gates.

Of the nearly 300 barracks built by Auschwitz I inmates, somewhat less than 20 are still up. Most of these have been rebuilt for the memorial site but are strictly modeled after the originals. The brick stacks you see in the background are the remains of the rudementary heating systems of the original barracks and the only thing left standing.

The guides at Auschwitz-Birkenau all work for the memorial - they do not allow outside guides to take groups through the camps. The guides are well trained and must take tests periodically to prove their expertise. Here, our guide stands in front of the remains of cremetorium I which was blown up by the retreating SS guards before the arrival of Soviet forces.

This is the entrace where untold numbers walked to their death. The area immediately in front was the changing room before entering the "showers". As people disrobed, they were reminded to memorize the number above the cubbyhole into which they had hurridly stashed their clothes and belongings so that they could reclaim them after the shower. This helped keep down the panic.

All Polish children living in the vacinity of Auschwitz-Birkenau (including all from the Kraków area) are required at 14 years of age to visit the extermination camps. There were several groups there on the day we visited. This was the road from the selection platform to registration. For those selected to be fit for work, this road led to the area where they were registered, tattooed and assigned a barracks. Many lived for only a few months before being literally worked to death.

Our visit that day was a tough one, but it is one that we knew we needed to make. I wonder if we have learned the lessons of this place.