Visited the Auschwitz Complex on Veterans Day

The sign for the Auschwitz I museum

The gate to Auschwitz I

"Work Shall Set You Free"

This was a very powerful moment for me because the site cannot be explained...it must be experienced. As a member of the Air Force I am duty bound to fight this kind of malice and hate.

A picture taken by the Nazi SS to showcase their processes and improve upon them. All of their pictures that were found were used to piece together the horrifying truth.

This Memorial Contains the ashes of some of the victims.

A sign breaking down the composition of the 1.3 Million men, women, and children who were exterminated there. This is merely the ones they could prove as the Nazis destroyed many of their records when they realized they were going to lose the war.

Almost all of the children who came here were killed immediately.

A picture of the selection process. The jews are the column on the right and 80-90% of them would die. None of them knew what was coming. The train tracks ran through the camp giving it an illusion of merely another stop.

The electric fence is visible from every window as a constant reminder of the imprisonment.

Canisters of Zyklon B recovered from the site.

This is Zyklon B. When exposed to hear and Humidity it releases Hydrogen Cyanide Gas. The Nazis, ever the peagmatists, made the people strip naked and herded them into rooms to power their own Demise. There is enough compound in this picture to kill 1,100 people.

The collection of prostheses taken from the victims. When the Nazis Abandoned the camp they set fire to their storehouses where all the belongings of the victims had been sorted and waited to be given back to the Germans for use in their own lives. The fires burned for 6 days before being extinguished and these are still what remained.

Eyeglasses...each one another tragedy

The people were told they would claim their luggage after the stop so they had to write their names. 23 different languages are present.

One of the watchtowers

As a father to 2 little girls, this room hit me hard. I can't imagine how helpless it was...

This is the "Court Room" in Block 11 where the Gestapo sentenced thousands to die for crimes as simple as missing a button on their Uniform. They were taken down the hall, stripped, marched outside and shot.

This was a road construction tool which was operated by people.

The execution wall of Block 11.

The gallows at the place were roll call was taken everyday. Anytime there was an escape, other prisoners were hung for it.

The guardshack where roll was called. The victims had to stand until all were accounted for.

The gallows from which Rudolph Hoss, the camps Commander, was hung after his arrest and trial following the war. He was forced to die looking at the terrible evil he had wrought.

Scratch Marks from inside the Gas Chamber

The vents through which Zyklon B was poured.

More scratch marks...each one a scream of unbelievable anguish

The chamber at Auschwitz I could "Process" 700 people a day but the crematorium could only handle 350. This led to the creation of Auschwitz II, Birkenau where the Nazis perfected their horrific processes.

A view from outside the gas chamber and crematorium

The death gate approached from the side.

One the last views from from outside world for so many

At 155 acres the second camp is huge and was never totally finished.

This is the view back to the gate from the beginning of the selection platform where the twitch of a thumb from a Nazi doctor meant death today or death in a few weeks

After the first camp I purchased a white rose to lay somewhere because the enormity of the tragedy was overwhelming and the onky way to grasp it was to do something however insignificant.

The Chimney you can see is the remains of one of Dr. Mengeles hits where he performed his ruthless experiments

I laid the rose at the memorial because it didn't feel right to leave it in the true historical parts.

This is the ruins of one of the Crematoriums and Gas chambers. There were 4 in total and all were destroyed by the Nazis in an attempt to cover up their crimes.

This is inside the Death Barracks where those selected to die were sent when there was too many already bring gassed. The people here were not fed or given water as they were going to die anyway. Some of them does from the cold, disease, and there are even reports of people being eaten alive by the rats.

The three level bunks inside the Death barrack

The wall was added to ensure the camp did not see the barracks. The extermination was kept secret as much as possible as a control tool. When people died here they were thrown outside and the bodies sometimes reached the levels of the roofs. This is truly a sight that must be seen. There is no way to describe it with any meaning. The place has absorbed so much suffering it is marked in a way that pictures or words will never convey. There were parts where photographs are not allowed and they contain unimaginable horrors. We must never forget this happens so that it never happens again. This is what hate leads to, this is what can happen when an entire group is dehimanized. As an American I see the beginnings of this in the fear of Muslims and foreigners my country struggles with. We must come together and vow that this will never occur again. Please find time to view it and tell everyone you know what you learn. It's something that must be seen to be believed and understood.