I always wanted to learn more about the Holocaust, and I got the chance to travel with a tour group to Auschwitz. So, of course I took it. I’ve always wanted to go to Europe, and now it seemed I was able to. I was to fly out to Krakow Airport from New York. I was going to drive to NYC with the rest of the group to save money on a flight. The trip would take a total of 8 days. Excluding the time it took to travel. The trip was being funded by some big name historical association. Thier goal was to teach younger generations about the horrible acts of the Holocaust. I was going with a bunch of people from different states. One was from Maine, another was from Washington. One of the other tourist was even from California. We each …show more content…
I felt an eerie calmness as I looked up towards the sign. “Arbeit macht frei,” which means, Work makes you free. I was standing outside the entrance to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. I was in the country of Poland, near the town of Oświęcim. The last death reported here was January 27th, 1945. It was a windy day, it felt almost ominous. This is where over 1.25 million people had been murdered. Most were Jews, but some were political prisoners and Soviet POWs. I walked in with the rest of the tour group. We started at the roll call square. Here thousands of people were sectioned off. Those who were able to work were sent to one line. The others, who the guards deemed unable to work, were sent to the other line. They had just been sent to their deaths. The guide spoke of the process taken at this point in the camp. I already knew most of what he was explaining though. I’ve done extensive research on World War II and the Holocaust. The rest of the tour was kind of a blur. It was all so horrible. To think one man and his prejudice could have cost so many people their lives. I now see the point of this tour. It showed the human capacity for murder and desperation. If we don’t know our history, we are destined to repeat