visit a concentration camp

Went to these places and it was a horrible but still amazing and necessary experience. I wouldn’t ever go back to Auschwitz but I’d recommend others do. I think the quote they had up on one of the walls explains it all… “He who does not remember history is bound to repeat it.”

anyone’ll do

It has always been a goal of mine to visit a concentration camp and pay respect.

Una de las experiencias más fuertes de mi vida, pero tenía que verlo con mis propios ojos. El campo, de mujeres, está junto a un lago donde tiraban las cenizas de las cremadas. No imagináis lo desolador que resulta. No puedo imaginar lo terrible que debió ser vivirlo.

In July last year I went to Terezin in the Czech Republic and Aucshwitz. The most heartbreaking experience and a number of us (me included) were just in floods of tears by the end. The experience is just undescribable.

DEEP…I visited DACHAU in Germany. It was heart breaking, eye opening, disturbingly sad, a great tragedy. I wish that had never happened. I highly recommend that if you can go, that you do…it will change your perceptions.

It was heart wrenching. I think it gives a person an idea of the scope and terribleness of the evil. Unfortunately, genocide continues today. Witness Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia (former Yugoslavia) but all we can do is work towards enlightenment.

I visited the concentration camp Terezin in the Czech Republic this summer. I always planned on visiting all of the camps in Europe. I think we owe it to those who suffered and lost their lives to witness up close what they experienced and make sure it is never allowed to happen again, although it arguably is occuring now in other parts of the world. During a trip to Prague I knew I couldn’t go and enjoy myself and see all the beauty of the city without witnessing it’s scars.

Terezin was a smaller work camp not a death camp but many people were sent to their death from Terezin. It was a very powerful and tragic experience to ride in along the beautiful countryside in an air conditioned bus and imagine the people who may have seen the same countryside from the slats in a boxcar on their way as prisoners.

Though it is described as small it was actually a very large compound. I imagined an untouched line of barracks in the middle of miles of rolling fields (perhaps from watching too many movies). Instead it was two complete towns, the big fortress and the small fortress, built inside battlements from hundreds of years before.

Some of the particularly touching features included the yellow archway marked Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Will Set You Free), the cafeteria where the Nazi’s ate which is now a commisary for visitors (sickening), the Memorial feild, the catacombs used before the forts were Nazi occupied, the museum with artwork children made while imprisoned there, and the firing line where the Czech soldiers scarred the wall with hundreds of high shots to avoid killing a group of imprisoned students before liberation.

Life changing. Very Quiet. I was there years ago and still remember what the dirt looked like. I am greatful for the opportunity to go.

my life is changed.