WHY EVERYBODY SHOULD VISIT AUSCHWITZ

This is where he stood. The man who decided who was killed and who kept living. It all happened quickly, he just pointed left or right. Only the strongest ones survived. Pregnant women, children, people with any kind of disabilities - killed. 

I'm standing at the same point where he stood all those years ago. It's a sunny day, I feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. Still, I feel very cold inside me. I can't understand how all of this was possible, how all of these people lost their lives, how they died working, starving, or by illnesses. It's surreal.

Auschwitz is located about one hour drive from Krakow, Poland. Lots of companies organize day-trips to the concentration camp for tourists. You can also go there by yourself but I recommend going on a tour. We had a local guide who knew everything there's to know about Auschwitz. We visited two concentration camps - Auschwitz one and Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the first one, we were able to go inside the buildings where the prisoners lived. The second one was a lot bigger but we mainly did the tour outside since most of the buildings were destroyed.

I think that most of us have learned about the Holocaust in school but it's nowhere near the same experience as actually visiting those places where the horrible things took place. I had previously seen photos of these camps but all the horror really came to me when I saw the hair and shoes of over 40,000 people. That's only a small part of the victims as there were at least 1.1 million people killed in Auschwitz.

I think that it's really important for everybody to see these things in real life. It reminds us of the past and its terror. I hope, that by remembering the Holocaust we avoid the same kind of tragedies. If we forget the victims and all the pain they had to go through, there might be a place for this kind of thing to happen again. We have to educate our children.

Auschwitz is a hard place to visit since everyone reacts differently to those horrors they see there. For example, by the end of the day, I felt only numb and cold. It was a horrible feeling. Some people might cry, get anxious, see nightmares, and so on. Therefore, I wouldn't bring children under the age of 13 there.

When you visit Auschwitz, please be respectful. It's a place where over a million people lost their lives. It's not a place for your children to play, you to take funny selfies, or make jokes about Jews or Holocaust.

I recommend visiting Auschwitz so you can understand what really happened and how brutal it actually was.

- Tua