By way of explanation im in Poland at the moment visiting Kracow for a few days. Beautiful city, and well worth a visit if anyone is thinking of it. We had already decided to visit Oswiecim and the Camps at Auschwitz & Birkenau (Auschwitz 2). Auschwitz itself is interesting, and serves as a future warning to what happens when the Wrong People with the Wrong Ideas get into power. Its rather haunting in some respects, but Auschwitz itself is somewhat sanitised by and large. Its an amazing museum, but the only places that really hit me where the piles of unprocessed human hair, belongings and more especially the Death House where the Nazis murdered thousands of "undesirables". Sorry I didnt get a picture of "The Death Wall", but even im not crass enough to pull out the camera and disturb the feeling of the place. People where praying, and though they allowed photography in there, I just didnt feel right taking photos.
After visiting Auschwitz we moved onto Birkenau, the camp that the majority of deaths occurred. Its what people really think of as Auschwitz. The camps are about 3km apart, and Birkenau was completely different. There is a sadness over the place, and as soon as you walk in you know it isnt going to be a "nice" day out. The camp is huge, I think about 2 miles end-to-end (might be less, but it cant be much). The conditions in the barrack blocks are very primitive, and its shocking to think that 8 to a bunk wasnt unusual. If you plan on visiting at any point then I would recommend it. I would however take some good literature about the camp, and NOT hire a guide. The guides seem to fly round in about an hour. We took over 3 hours and still didnt get to see as much as I would have liked. Mainly because me and my Father are both interested in this period of history, and he had a book that explained the camp. If you do visit either place then make sure you check the opening times. they close at 3 during this time of year, and that means CLOSE. They effectively boot you out. We spent about 2 hours in Auschwitz, but over 3 in Birkenau (and as said, didnt get to see everything I would have liked to.
Pictures are linked below. Ill be putting a proper gallery together when I get home, with as much explanation as I can for each photo. If anyone wants any of these then ill also be loading the gallery when I get back, and ill put the "full" 3Mpx pics up as well. All I have done with them at the moment is shrink them and adjust them so they are all the right way up. Not done any other post-processing at all. I also apologise because im not a great photographer, and its a credit to my camera that I got some of the ones I did!
http://www.zombiechorus.com/auschwitzhttp://www.zombiechorus.com/birkenau
