This wasn't easy - AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

Many people might question, why go to a concentration camp when on a vacation. Is it worth a day trip from a lovely European city like Krakow? Shouldn't we just go to Zakopane which is gorgeous place? My thoughts were no different. However, I decided to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau this July. Did I regret it? Absolutely not. Did it leave an impact on me?  Hell Yes!! For me the trip to Auschwitz was a one that I may never forget.

My exposure or knowledge to the events of World War II was limited. I hadn't even watched movies on the Holocaust. For some reason I had always avoided this topic.  The word was familiar but I had no clue of the magnitude. They say ignorance is bliss. And in this case it certainly was. 

When you enter Auschwitz the first sign that welcomes you is "arbeit macht frei" or "work sets you free". I think the Nazis should have reworded it to "Works sets you free from life" or even better "If you can't work, we set you free from life". This is just the beginning of the horror.

The atrocities committed on Jews and other prisoners here are appalling. Before I even get to the atrocities, the statistics send you in a shock. And trust me, from here it is just more shock, sadness and helplessness. 

This place is like a well-defined procedure to kill people in cold blood. Think of it like a factory producing cars using Six Sigma, except that this systemic process was used to kill Jews, Poles, Gypsies and others. They were systematically brought in. All their belongings were taken by the Nazis to fund the war. People were then sorted out if they were capable to work or not. If not, they were asked to strip and sent to a chamber assuming that they are going to take a shower. Except, there was no water. They showered in a deadly gas "Zyklon B" and then their bodies were burnt (after removing hair and teeth). And this included children. The exhibits of bundles of hair,luggage and shoes stare you in the face.

And this was one of the better ways to kill people, the other methods included starving people to death by putting them inside a room, making them stand for hours in small blocks, injecting lethal injections, hanging people on their shoulders till their hands broke. 

The Nazis started with Auschwitz and then expanded it to a larger and more efficient Birkenau, a site you must have seen in Schindler's List and other movies.

What infuriated me, were the tales of German doctor "Yosef Mengele". This doctor conducted ridiculous experiments on Jewish and other kids especially twins. And by ridiculous I mean amputating limbs, conducting surgery without anaesthesia (castration and organ removals). But this one tops his evil deeds.     

You want to think what goes around comes around, but Mengele escaped and was never caught after the war and successfully escaped to South America. I read somewhere that he wasn't even guilty of the crimes he committed.

I witnessed a place that stood testimony to one of the most brutal crimes and took the lives of almost 1.1 million people. 

It took me weeks to come to terms with it, and I still haven't and perhaps I never will. No one should be able to come to terms with something so horrific. 

As Auschwitz turns 70 today, my heart still weeps for every soul that was brutally murdered there. I may not categorize this visit as one of my 'joys of travel' trips but definitely one of those trips that will stay with me for life.