Day 11: How are human beings capable of such destruction?

How can human beings inflict such destruction and misery on other human beings? By choosing to not see them as humans, but as rats, as a virus, who will infect society and therefore, must be exterminated.

Today I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. I do not possess enough words in my vocabulary to express what the experience was like. I am appalled at the propensity of evil that man is capable of.

As an empath, I felt it all. And yet, it wasn’t anything compared to what the victims of the Holocaust experienced.

It’s one thing to be a history teacher. It’s another to visit the historical places which you teach about. My pedagogy will never be the same.

May the memory of all who perished and survived be eternal.

At Auschwitz. ”Work will make you free.” It was a slave labor camp.

Watchtower at Auschwitz

People were publicly hanged at the entrance as a message to others.

Barracks

View from the barrack window.

Cans of Zyclone B used to gas victims.

Hair was shaved and collected to use for textiles.

Eyeglasses

Cups, plates, pottery that they carried with them.

Luggage

Children's clothing items

Shoes

Straw mattresses

"Washroom"

Bunkbeds

Area where hundreds of Poles were shot and killed.

The Book of Names. Contains the names of every person who perished.

Where the Gestapo Headquarters was located. Later became where Rudolph Hoss,

 first commandant of Auschwitz was hanged on April 16, 1947.

Ovens used to incinerate bodies

Where corpses were placed prior to the oven

Birkenau entrance. The largest death camp. Look at the ominous clouds above it.

Endless rows of barbed wire.

Inside the barracks

Bathroom “facility.” Only allowed to visit twice a day. No toilet paper, sink, water or soap. Women had no sanitary napkins. Sometimes children would hide inside of latrines.

On the inside. Three train tracks to maximize deportation.

Ruins of crematorium 3. You see those stairs? Led to the showers, where people were told to get undressed to be disinfected. They were brought to the gas chambers. There were 5 crematoriums in total.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial

This plaque is in 26 languages representing all the countries where Jews were deported from. This one represents England.