Auschwitz-Birkenau

Before we left Poland, we took the opportunity to travel down to the quiet town of Oswiecim. It was here that in 1940 the Germans established the camp known as Auschwitz with the initial intent of imprisoning Polish political prisoners, but by 1942 it had become one of the largest of the Nazi death camps. In the height of the camp's population, towards the fall of 1944, 400,000 prisoners were registered here, most of them Jews. This number does not take into account the much greater number of men, women, and children who, upon arrival, where immediately sent to the gas chambers. Those that did pass the initial 'sorting' into the camps faced many enemies there, including starvation, brutalization by guards, sickness, exhaustion, exposure, torture, cruel medical experiments and other horrific conditions. Thus, the life expectancy for these innocent people was only a matter of weeks or months at best.
We have all heard about the Holocaust since grade school, but for me the experience of being there at these camps, of standing where they stood, where they lived and where they died was supremely moving. The myriad of emotions that I felt all seemed to culminate at several key points in the tour. One of those was in the children exhibit with a picture taken at the time of the liberation of one of the prisoners, a two year old boy. My heart literally felt as though it was torn from my chest as I looked at his pain filled eyes. I thought of my own precious little boy and I couldn't stop from crying. I cried as I thought of this baby boy's mother, of his father, and of the pain that he must have gone through. I will not post his picture here, but please take the opportunity to see him and to read more about the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and history at this site :
http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/index.php?option=com_ponygallery&func=detail&id=1460&Itemid=17
Many books have been written about the horrors of the Holocaust and the experience of life and death at the Nazi concentration camps, there is certainly too much to catalog it all here in this post. I do want to say how important I believe it is to not turn away from this part of history. Yes it is horrifying, yes it is sad, but that is no reason to forget these people, their suffering and most importantly their humanity. I know many people today that would rather not hear about it because it is too painful, but I encourage us all to find a way in our own individual capacities to pay tribute to these ordinary people, to remember their lives and to learn of their experiences.
I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have of a kind Father in Heaven that loves each one of us and of our Savior that suffered every pain and affliction in order to love us more perfectly and who died to make a way for us to live again. I know that He knows each of us individually and completely. He knows me and He knows my little boy, and He knows and loves each one of His children.