Aushwitz: Part 2

Behind the gas chamber is the gallows where Rudolf Höss was hanged. He was the only person hanged in this gallows.

Höss was given the order by Himmler to devise a method of mass extermination of the European Jews. Höss turned Auschwitz into the most efficient extermination camp in the Reich.

Höss's house is directly behind me. I was unable to take a picture of it. They had fences up and were renovating it. He lived less than 100 feet away from the gas chambers with his wife and children. His wife described Auschwitz as the most beautiful place on earth and said she couldn't imagine living anywhere else.


We weren't allowed to take pictures inside any of the buildings. The buildings all had information and exhibits on Auschwitz. It was inside these buildings that I finally started to understand how many people died there. Piles of shoes, personal effects, and hair was a testament to the number of lives lost. What was even more incredible was the personal effects were only from people executed in the final days of Auschwitz's operation that weren't destroyed by the Nazi's when they left.

At one point during the visits to the exhibits my brain just shut off my emotions. At some points I felt physically ill. I don't have the words to describe the crime that happened and how it felt to be in the place that crime occurred.