If the Trees Had Eyes

 Welcome to the Auschwitz II- Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in Oświęcim, Poland. Here, more than 1.2 million people were executed from October 1941 until the camp's liberation in January 1945. While roughly 80% of victims were Jewish, 20% were Sinti, Roma, POWs and other ethnic groups who were deemed equally worthless by the Third Reich. [2] 

The air at Birkenau remains heavy and mourning. If the trees had eyes they would weep forever. Wind rustles slowly through countless lonely buildings, buildings that remember their desperate inhabitants from several decades ago. Millions of innocent and beautiful human beings who lost their souls and ultimately their lives for no reason at all but the fancies of a twisted regime. 

Their spirits will always live here in Birkenau. In many other hearts as well, but especially here. To remind us every second of every day why we need to say Never Again. Why we as people need to see the world how it is, how history has shaped it, and respond to it with mindful behaviors and treatment of others. In relation to religious issues, race issues, gender issues, class issues... all lives matter. Let's demand it so.
 



Photo credit: Isurvived.org
[2] http://chgs.umn.edu/museum/memorials/auschwitz/