Auschwitz

On Monday Jim and I took an early train from Warsaw to Krakow, southwest of the capital. The Polish countryside features rolling hills, verdant farmland, and forests full of birch, oak, spruce and pine trees. After checking in to our hotel and grabbing a quick lunch, we journeyed to Auschwitz, an unbelievable site, by private car. Jim called it "sobering and surreal." It remains incredible that the Nazi barbarism and cruelty is stranger than fiction. The photos show: "Work Will Make You Free," the inscription over the main gate; rail cars used to transport a hundred prisoners at a time; the main gate and prisoner blocks; barbed wire fortifications that were electrified; prisoner blocks; pots and pans, possessions stolen from prisoners; a young man who perished at Auschwitz; one of the gas chambers; crematorium ovens; the main entrance to Auschwitz II (Birkinau extermination camp.) - Dan