" My friend's daughter woke up in the middle of the night crying. She dreamt that her doll was deported too."
- written on the wall at Auschwitz I.

My father decided long time ago that he wanted to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau.This plan was somehow forgotten until I brought it up this week. We made a plan and traveled there. I am used to send many postcards to my friend all over the world, but this time do not expect any postcards from this place. I simply could not sent anything from such horrid place, where died so many people.
We managed to get there despite quite horrid roads, we got lost a bit due some traffic diversions and it was quite fun to ask locals for direction. Our car was parked and we went to see the camp. It looked almost nice and neet from outside all those barracks behind bushes and trees, but then we got closer and it started to show its true face, which was the total opposite. There is free admission to the complex and for movie some fee. My dad wanted to see the camp first. The gate with "arbeit macht frei" sign was filled with Poles in uniforms taking pictures and I was surprised how the place was crowded. Incoming people were chatting, but as they went deeper in the complex the chats and talks died out and there was silence everywhere. Nobody talked, people just walked around and watching the exhibitions. There was still something in the air, which crossed the time.
The barracks are well kept and almost each holds an exhibition, which is connected to the people who were living and dying in this camp. Several barracks are made as commemoration for victims from various European nations, who were deported to the camp. Every nation has different way how to express all terrors, which was held in camp. One example from all, barrack was all dark and occasional false fire lit the place, the sound of heart beat was broadcasted. There was also one sculpture, which enhanced the impact of the place. It was pavement with three pair of empty shoes male, female and child in a manner that you simply knew that they were family and murdered together. Darkness, occasional red light, sounds of heartbeat and this sculpture made you really dragged in to it. There was also wall dedicated to Anne Frank
There were barracks with displays of daily life and death of the prisoners. The daily routine, hygiene and sleeping conditions to the various cells which had only one meaning to make number of prisoners lesser. The corridors between the rooms were covered with photos of the prisoners - name, number, admited and died.There were thousands of such photos in corridors men, women and children alike. One important thing, children prisoners were selected for "medical" experiments and those who not...I think you know what happened with them right after deportation. Some of the pictures were made before and after imprisonment and those are the most striking. Those people were guilty only because they were labeled to be guilty and to be killed not because they did something bad, it was because they were whom they were. Some of the pictures had flowers around them. History is connected to our time and I think there is no family in central Europe which is not affected by war.
There was another barrack labeled evidence of the war crimes. We went in and there was huge pile of spectacles, huge pile of shoes male and female alike, huge pile of luggage labeled with name of their owners yet the worse was to come there was also huge pile of shoes so small that they could belong only to children (perhaps thousands small shoes were there), the next room was filled with hair cut from prisoners head. Just imagine room filled almost to the ceiling with human hair. Nazi led utilization of their prisoner to the detail, hair were used in textile industry. There was an example of such things.
The last stop were gas chambers and crematorium. When we walked there trough the gate made trough the barbed wire the sky was almost black with clouds heavy with rain. It was like the nature was giving the proper setting to the place.
Yes there was a pond with grayish water, so unnatural...I asked guide why it is so gray and he told ...madam they used to throw ashes of cremated prisoners there and still the water is so gray after all those years.
My father after that decided not to go to see the movie about camp. I was glad that he did not want it...it would be too much.

When we were leaving the place we were wondering what types of people worked there as a normal personal. The question is, would you work there and happily participate in mass murder?