Auschwitz, Oswiecim, Poland
The systematic killing of millions in Europe during the Holocaust continues to horrify, generations after the last concentration camp closed. Survivors of the Holocaust are becoming fewer in number, leaving only records and places like the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to tell of the horrors they endured at the hands of Nazis. Visitors walk through original buildings and see where victims slept, ate, and worked.
Clothing and volumes of human hair stolen from the heads of the people forced to the camp gives visitors a sense of the volume of victims. They walk among the sparse barracks and gas chambers, and cremation ovens. Auschwitz-Birkenau museum director Piotr Cywinski says “…younger generations raised on TV and movie special effects need to see and touch the real thing.” Understanding and seeing how the Holocaust happened, and what happened at Auschwitz will, hopefully, help prevent it from ever happening again.