No matter what happened
at any .. or all .. of the other
Concentration and / or Extermination Camps
this Auschwitz - Birkenau center
was
" HELL " . . on EARTH
A Network of 40 + close - by camps
Away from . . suspicious eyes
Hidden . . in a forest of trees
Hidden . . in a forest of trees
About 45 minutes west of Krakow
Close proximity to . . many . . bordering . . neighboring . . countries
made train transport of prisoners from distant locations
easy and efficient
➤ For anyone arriving HERE .. ( whether they knew it or not )
. . Life would soon END . .
( . . Under the . . pretense . . of )
➤ "police protection" ( & ) ➤ "health care"
( as the . . guilty . . World Press . . reported ! )
( . . Under the . . pretense . . of )
➤ "police protection" ( & ) ➤ "health care"
( as the . . guilty . . World Press . . reported ! )
All trains .. headed to ☛ AUSCHWITZ
( would you ever have believed . . FROM THIS MANY PLACES ?? )
Meanwhile .. Around the Globe .. Life went on ' as usual ' . . .
☛ ( . . . Let some of these numbers sink in . . . )
Listening to our . . Guide's Commentary
We are all so .. silent .. We hear everyone's footsteps crunch on the gravel
Surrendered . Stolen . Confiscated
Anyone who has been here . . never forgets
➤ the giant piles of . . GOODS . . taken from . . the prisoners
now to be sorted and stored in warehouses
Or the .. SHOES .. each pair revealing a hard life
Or the .. BRUSHES .. grooming doesn't matter in this place
Or the .. BRIEFCASES .. Sachels .. Books .. Diaries
Or the .. Cooking Utencils and .. DISHWARE
Or the .. CLOTHING
Or the .. EYEGLASSES !
( Lots of reflective distortion, sorry ! )
.. Or the enormous mounds of .. HUMAN HAIR ..
( they asked us NOT to photograph )
During the war .. Many were .. ➤ 'HUNG' . . .
After the War
.. " Rudolph Franz Ferdinand " HOESS ..
( one of Hitler's ' inner - circle ' )
.. was ' hung ' HERE ⇣ ..
as a result of .. trial verdict against him
HOESS had played a key role in the . . Theory of the . .
"Final Solution" = ( . . "KILL ALL JEWS" )
The .. RAIL LINE ..
leading to what the Nazis referred to as The 'FINAL SOLUTION'
The Birkenau Location
dealt with
nothing but
extermination . "mass murder"
( We walk the RAILS . . to the Gruesome . . other . . END )
➤ One of the uncounted numbers of BOX CARS that arrived full of prisoners
.. mostly Jews
( standing room only .. many miles .. many hours )
Many died enroute
The MEMORIAL site
( at the far end of the RAILS )
evidencing
' CREMATION ' . . OVENS ( on top )
Victims ( below )
and a
Grave Stone
Carved in the Language of each Country's
" DEAD VICTIMS "
" Forever let this place
be a
CRY of DESPAIR
and a
WARNING to HUMANITY "
➤ Fields . . full of . . ( turn-'em-to-ash ) ' OVENS '
.. Naked bodies piled high ..
24 / 7
( On the opposite side ) .. Heaps of . . boney dead beings
➤ HEADS . . 'CUT OFF'
➤ Handier . . for taking Gold and Silver . . from the TEETH !
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Cambodia's ( Mass Murderer ) . .
" P O L P O T "
probably studied the
Nazi Holocaust of World War II
as a young 20 - something student on a Paris campus
when ( 1949 ) he joined the PCF ( French Communist Party )
a combination of leftwing "ISM" groups
( with Communist . Marxist . Socialist . Maoists ideals ).
Polpot ( real name . . "Saloth Sar" ) became obsessed with
" creating a perfect society " ( echoes of . . Naziism )
Accomplishing that feat required . . "cleaning house" (echoes of "final solution")
getting rid of all HE considered un - desirable ( echoes of Hitlerian obsession )
It took a while
but
by the 1970s in his OWN Country
Khmer ( Cambodian ) . Rouge ( red Communist )
Polpot went into full . . ' Killing Field ' mode ( echoes of . . Birkenau mass murder )
( . . in Hitler - esk maniacal frenzy )
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It was hard to decide when to show our group -
at the Beginning . . or . . at the End . . of this blog
because the smiles don't match the severity of Auschwitz - Birkenau
These 2 Brits were also with us at the Salt Mine
The one on the right is particularly comical
These smiles actually represent our sense of 'family' almost ..
having endured together . . for 6 hours . . probably the most sobering site
any of us had ever seen .. or .. thought about
and we're recalling how quiet we all were those first couple hours
Running into each other in Kraków the next day
was a hugging experience
Too settled into the Van to get back out for the pic . .
Rusty and Wrinkles are no doubt not the only ones needing to .. 'lighten up' .. a little
Pope John Paul II .. ( next )
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