Auschwitz

If you prefer not to read this, I'll understand.  I've tried to express what I learned, witnessed and saw with detail, but in a sensitive way.

I cannot fully express in words how it was to go to Auschwitz.  We (the entire staff from YWAM Skien) went to Poland for part of our staff training.  The last day we had some free time and about 15 of us went to Auschwitz, for a tour, since we were so close. When we arrived back I was asked by a couple of staff members how it was and I honestly found it hard to verbalize my thoughts and feelings.  This may help, a couple weeks later someone had the movie "A Boy In Striped Pajamas" and since I had not seen it, I decided to. (side note: someone on the tour asked our guide if this movie was true and he declared it was not). So I knew it wasn't a true story, but I did know other things such as, the Nazi general of the camp did live near the base with his family.  The Nazi government tried to hide the horrors happening in the camp. Many people mostly women and children were almost immediately put in the gas chamber upon arrival.  The people coming to the camp really thought they were going to be taken care of, not murdered.  Therefore, while watching the movie I recalled the truths I had heard on the tour.  I did not cry at the end of the movie, but my stomach felt uneasy.  I went to my room and another staff, Marit, came into my room.  I asked her to pray for me as it was late and I was going to bed and it had been the last thing I had seen.  Then I tried to verbalize what I was feeling as I began to cry, this is what it came down to: I no longer see this as entertainment it had become too real.  I had seen the rows of pictures of people.  I had seen the bags they thought they would recover or the toothbrushes and other personal items they brought with them to the camp.  I had seen the hair, that was the most gut wrenching, there still was human hair that was found at the camp because they had taken it to make cloth. 
I guess the thing that I kept asking God was how; how could people be so angry and do this to other people.  It is so sad to see hate, sin, lies lived out. (That in part is why I do what I do, speaking truth and love into peoples lives.)  If you ever get the chance to go, take it, but know it isn't easy. Below are some pictures, there were some places you were asked not to take photos, like the place they had the hair and the "shower room".