Imposing Building at Auschwitz II-Birkenau
The weather was changing so quickly when we were at Birkenau. One minute it was bitterly cold with frozen rain coming down, the next minute it was blue skies. Eventually, the weather made up its mind to stay bad. At this point, our tour guide decided to call it quits. We were hiding behind some structure as he was describing the camp. The reason why we were all outside was that most of the barracks here were in very poor condition. When Nazi Germany was beaten, the soldiers abandoned the camp and left all the structures here. Over the years, they were cannibalized for construction material. You can see how bad the structures are for some which only have the foundations left.
Entrance to Auschwitz II-Birkenau
As a result, much of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau is fenced off. There is a crematorium at the end of Birkenau but because of the weather, we didn’t get a change to see it. We were told that it is nothing we haven’t really seen before. I think everyone agreed to leave since the weather was really bad. I really gave us an idea how bad life could have been here since the Birkenau camp was much more open. Prisoners would have been exposed to the elements all the time. I was fortunate that I have a choice to leave the place, unlike them. We were left to ponder this as we hurried back to our bus.
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