POLAND: Auschwitz/Birkenau

I saw Auschwitz and Birkenau today. It was, appropriately, raining. A thick, dark cloud hovered over the camps-only over the camps, but blue sky and sunshine could be seen in every direction just outside the bordering fences. [The outside world was glowing; the inside world was dark.] Abandoned by all but ruins of the buildings to which they were once so attached, endless rows of lonely chimneys still stand tall, scarring the horizon with memories of destruction and unspeakable brutality.

Beautiful, wild grasses dancing freely in the afternoon breeze give an illusion of peace but seem horribly out of place on these haunted grounds they have now overtaken. [Trees…eerily lining the boundary…no hope of hiding or help to escape…].

Puddles collect rain, turning the sandy dirt to mud. Mud, crawling up the fabric of my jeans, seeping into my shoes, making everything cold and damp. Something in me wants to lay on the ground, sink into the mud, so that the dirtiness will become a part of me, engrained in my skin and forever in my mind…because they could not remove it-they became it.