Auschwitz-Birkenau

We went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps today. I'll refrain from my usual attempt at humor for this entry, for obvious reasons.

The camps are about 1.5 hours from Krakow by bus. We decided against the guided tour, which saved money but probably lost a lot in information. Auschwitz is the first camp, but much smaller. Some of the barracks have been converted into information halls--each one pinpointing a specific topic or nationality affected by the war and the Nazis.

We ended up walking to Birkenau, the much larger camp. Most of the barracks have been reduced to just the stone foundation and chimneys and the crematoriums were now rubble (the SS had blown them up at the end of the war in a last-ditch effort to conceal their crimes). But the train tracks, barbed wire and ambience were definitely still there.

On a whole, the museum side of the camps could use some improvement. Signs are not as informative as you'd like. But in the end, I think just seeing it and knowing it was in use only 60-some years ago, is pretty damn daunting.