Krakow visit - Auchwitz

Whilst in Krakow we went on the tour around the Auchwitz concentration camps. Not what you'd call a barrel of laughs but that's not really the point of it. It was a very moving experience to realise you were walking around an area where numerous thousands of people were put to death simply for not being perfect Germans (it was not just Jews sent here, also Russians, Poles, Romany gypsies, homosexuals etc.) .

You might not be able, gentle reader, to visualise the scale of this operation. By visiting the site and being stood in front of displays which contain just a fraction of the suitcases, spectacles and childrens toys which were brought to the camp by the 'visitors' really brings it to life.

By visiting the Birkenau sitewhere most of the prisoners were housed you can not only see the dehumanising conditions they were subjected to, but also the incredible size of the camp (approx 1 mile long by 1 mile) which they were cramped into.