This will be the last of my entires about my trip to Poland.  I am still working with my pictures, but that won't involve posting those pictures here on my blog.  I am making a DVD Slideshow of the trip and also arranging and labeling a photo album.  I love to do that after I travel - combining my love of travel and of photography!

Anyway, my last entry for the trip is about visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau.  What an experience!  To think of all that happened here is almost more than you can comprehend.  I have heard people say not to go here because it is just too sad, but I think it is an important place to see.  How can we learn from history if we don't acknowledge it?

The grounds were very peaceful on the day that we visited.  There were trees, green grass, and brick buildings nicely lined up.  You could almost think you were on the campus of a small college, but obviously that wasn't the case at all.  The train tracks and barbed wire reminded you of what really happened here.  The tour is done in a respectful manner and gives you lots of information.  I think the thing that impacted me a lot was that as we walked up and down the steps and on the pathways, we were following the footsteps of so many people who died there.  I looked at the photographs of victims on the wall and hoped that I wouldn't see one of the last names that is in my family tree.  I didn't --- but I do not have much information on the Polish side of my family tree.  Even not seeing the names doesn't mean that no one in my family was killed there.  Many Polish people were arrested and sent to Auschwitz because of the political situation at that time.  Not only the Jewish people fell victims.

One of the pictures I wanted to include in my photo album is our group walking out of Auschwitz.  When Auschwitz was an extermination camp, very few people walked out of there and we are extremely lucky to live in this place and time.