*** Warning: Extremely disturbing images below ***
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps, is now preserved as a Memorial Museum. Located in the Polish town of Oświęcim (fifty kilometers West of Krakow, Poland) the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex is more accurately called an extermination camp, designed by the Nazis in order to systematically eliminate “undesirable” elements on an industrial scale. It is estimated that over one million people were killed at this site alone.
Before presenting the photographs, I feel compelled to share a thought: The confluence of bigotry, scapegoating, blind obedience, and conformity is still producing horrific violence and injustice in our world to this day. And my pilgrimage to this place of horror and sadness invited me to ask: What am I doing in my daily life to ensure that this happens “Never again”? At the least, I can start by getting to know those who are “different”, by rejecting blind obedience to “authority”, and by resisting blind conformity with the herd.
That said, some of the photographs that follow are beyond disturbing, but I feel strongly that this is a history that must be preserved… in order to remember, to honor, and to teach. I will allow the images to speak mostly for themselves…
The false promise (loosely: “Work brings freedom”) 
A very small sampling of the plunder from millions of innocents… 
The notorious Block 11, site of countless tortures and executions. Block 11 in particular filled me with a whole range of feelings… from a deep sadness beyond grief… to intense anger (when I was dropping expletives under my breath so that I did not punch something)… to the most intense admiration and humility when I read stories of prisoners who risked so much out of love for their fellows (notably Maximilian Kolbe, who sacrificed himself in order to save another prisoner). 
The Black Wall, site of thousands of executions by firing squad… 
Real Human Beings… 
“Medical Experiments”… 
Real children… 
The Gas Chambers… 
The Crematorium… 
Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II… 
The dividing platform, where families were torn apart forever… 
The Latrine, where prisoners huddled in order to find just a moment’s peace amid the filth and stench where the Nazi guards dared not go out of disgust… 
Liberation… 
Wow, they allowed pictures. Thanks for providing such a rare glimpse, very moving.
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Thanks for visiting, Danielle. All the best to you. Peace.
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