Auschwitz and Birkenau

Having seen the Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, I found Auschwitz to be interesting, but simply another atrocity on more or less the same level. In fact, maybe Terezin is more chilling, as it's not too crowded, and one can walk all alone along the same "death march" as the victims: through a dank, cold and shadowy tunnel to the execution hill.

But then getting of the bus and walking into Birkenau... astounding. The sheer size of the grounds really brings home the extent of the Nazi exterminations.


The following is part of the memorial at the back of the grounds -- there's an English version too, but the French version has been worded so much more nicely:



May this place where the Nazis have assasinated one and a half million men, women and children, the majority of which were Jews from various countries in Europe, be forever to humanity a cry of despair and a warning.