Auschwitz – Birkenau

Crossed into Poland quite quickly this morning. The countryside is quite picturesque compared to Czech land. Roads have been really good too. Diesel £1 per litre! Got to Birkenau just after lunch – you can just walk in. It is beyond massive – a totally unbelievable scale. The horror you can only imagine, but the sun was out and lots of guided tour groups about so it didn’t feel too eerie. At the very top of the camp there were some teenagers from Israel singing in Hebrew (we think) – was very moving. The two sites are 3km apart so once we got back to the van we decided to go and park at the Auschwitz site so there was more chance of getting in early in the morning as it’s Saturday. The woman on the gate seemed doubtful about tomorrow unless we go with a guided tour, so we went in this evening and saw some of it. The piles and piles of hair used to make cloth and shoes (lots of children’s) are just diabolical! It was getting late and some bits closing so we’ll try and see the rest tomorrow. We’ve walked six miles round the place and haven’t even seen it all! Parked for the night in Auschwitz car park – didn’t ever expect to be saying that.