Holocaust Experience

Words: 1112
Pages: 5

“They say hope was the last thing to die in Auschwitz”.
I find it extremely hard to write in simple words, what I witnessed in three hours during my encounter in the death camp of Auschwitz.
I distantly glance out of the window during my journey to Krakow, the window that our fellow brothers and sisters witnessed on their way to the concentration, labour and death camps… We all look out the same window and see the same things despite it being nearly 70 years later with buildings being established, trees destroyed BUT… the same distinct forests rest next to the roads that millions of Jews took to reach their FINAL destination.

Surreal…Unusual …Bizarre

Entering the gates of death, I knew immediately this was not going to be an experience I can ever explain in words. No learning can ever prepare you for this day. It seemed all my knowledge on the Holocaust and World War 2 vanished and I was placed inside a time machine, back to the days when my brothers and sisters marched their way to death. I automatically felt detached from society, placed in a box of death and hatred. Walking
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I see shoes of all shapes and colours; shoes with a story; buckles, some polished, some with bows or white laces. I connect to these shoes, not because my shoes I am wearing right now have laces and not because I get my school shoes polished. BUT for the very reason that I have never been able to walk in their shoes. When I was 5 the most tormenting experience for me would have been hearing thunder or worrying about ghosts in my cupboard. I never had to worry about mature concepts such as, hiding my identity, losing loved ones daily and being placed in a camp with no freedom or childhood! I connect because I too was a child, with the same thoughts of dolls, teddy bears and being loved by my parents. Only I got to experience this