For Ever Let This Place Be a Cry of Despair...

and a Warning to Humanity...some words from the memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp (which is comprised of 3 massive complexes spanning 2 neighboring villages in Poland).

The sheer cruelty with which we humans can treat our own kind is appalling and disgusting and so many other things. Physically being at Auschwitz-Birkenau on a paradoxically nice Spring day left me speechless. I did not feel the need or want to talk, but only to try to absorb, to feel, to reflect on, what actually happened there.

This blog post is dedicated to the millions who were persecuted, tortured, and murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of its kind under Nazi Germany, as well as in the many other camps (and elsewhere under the Hitler regime).

This post is dedicated to the millions worldwide - past, present and future - who are persecuted, tortured and murdered because of their race, culture, creed, ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or other propagated reason....may their human lives be remembered...

Will we as a human race ever learn from such events, prevent future grave catastrophes??? I am not so optimistic on this point...

For photos from my visit, click here (I have put in titles to explain some things).

Yeah, so the post, or topic, may be considered "depressing", but this happened and similar atrocities continue to happen around the world, so instead of brushing it off as depressing for being a downer topic, face up to reality and reflect on our humanity for a bit...I am 100% glad I went, even on an Easter weekend - it was moving and memorable. I highly recommend that if you are ever in Poland, or in a country where such atrocities occurred, to visit the site and to remember those people who lived and who were persecuted, tortured or murdered because of something so immaterial...