Poland Auschwitz-Birkenau (#2374)

The rail line from the upper floor of the guard tower, looking across the camps to the ovens at the end of the line.

Looking back and combining this tour with other sites I later saw, Auschwitz impressed upon me three things. One was the very strong evidence it provides for the magnitude of possible human evil. Second was how the process of extermination became increasingly a factory-like process of mass dehumanization. And finally, given the extent of the involvement in this factory of human debasement and destruction, what to do about the perpetrators and compliant others?

(Per Wikipedia, there were 7,000 SS employees, 12% of whom were convicted of war crimes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp)