Eastern europe day 6

This is the dreaded Auschwitz, a name that brings anguish to millions of people around the world. While there were many concentration camps, for some reason, Auschwitz is the most famous of them all. Why? I'm not sure, I'll have to find that out after i get back. Many, if not all, the original buildings still stand. Barb wire lines the perimeter of the entire compound. The guide at Auschwitz took us to see the original living quarters, the punishment rooms, the so-called court room, the killing wall and the gas chambers. Along the way we saw the room with 2 tons of human hair, many photos of those who were imprisoned and those who died. We also saw hundreds of thousands of luggage bags, spectacles, brushes and lots and lots of shoes... contained in them are the destroyed hopes, dreams and lives of millions of people of 28 different nationalities. Most of those who were imprisoned in the camp were not jewish. Our guide explained that they guides usually speak of them as two separate groups because in general the Jews were not brought to Auschwitz to be imprisoned, they were brought there to be exterminated. It was a dreary day and even though it did not rain while we were visiting Auschwitz, it was still overcast and sad, quite fitting weather to be visiting this most tragic of places. What i find interesting about Auschwitz is that it is very different from other similar exhibitions I've seen. Maybe our guide didn't bring us to view the gruesome photos, i don't know, but i certainly didn't see any. It certainly took a different approach from that of the WWII exhibits in Singapore or the really hard to stomach exhibition on the Vietnam War in Vietnam. However, this doesn't mean that this was less effective. In some ways, this seem more effective as it is not so much a sense of horror that filled me, it was a sense of sorrow that filled me. It was not a sense of numbness that filled me, what filled me was a sense bewildrment that a tragedy of this magnitude actually occured, it was a sense of distaste for war, for cruelty, for evil. No one should have to lose their lives like that ever again. Sadly, am running out of battery. Will have to cut short my thoughts and end it here for now.