Today was a big day! We left krakow at 6:00am and we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was one of the most depressing things I've ever experienced! Just being there and the smell brings sadness. You walk around the concentration camp and in the buildings and our guide told us about their lives, living, torture and treatment. In one of the buildings it shown all the belongings of victims that were killed there were rooms filled with thousands of suitcases, shoes, kitchen ware, brushes and the worst being the room filled wig tonnes and tonnes of hair! After they were killed there hair was cut off and used to make material. It was absolutely horrible. They took us in to the prison and shown us the rooms and cells - their living conditions were appalling! They also had stocks and a shooting wall to kill prisoners. It is said that over 1 million people were killed in the camp. They also took us through the small gas chamber and crematorium located on camp. It only killed around 300-350 a day because they had to keep the operation secret. In the same area as the chamber was a house where a family lived - there children would get all the toys of the children. Not only were Jews put in the camps it was also gypsies, soldiers and others. They kept the healthy and children, elderly and the weak were sentenced to death straight away. After we went through the camp we moved a few kilometres up the road to Birkenau where the prisoners arrived. You can just imagine it when you see it. The Nazis would cram 100's of people in to these little carriages - many didn't make it and would die before reaching the destination. The area is a massive field with big barn houses on either side and a train track leads in to the camp splitting the area in two. The train tracks go for about 1km to the end. Up the end is where the gas chambers and crematoriums were located, but before liberation they were destroyed to hide the operations taking place. The train would pull up bringing 1000's of people and they would all be assembled in this big dirt area where selection took place. They were separated in to female/children and males and then the best were kept and the other half taken for a 'shower' at the end of camp. All their belongings were taken and they were walked to the end of camp. They were taken in to a room that was the 'undressing room' and then taken in to the 'shower' where gas was released. Once that had taken place there hair was cut off and the bodies were cremated. We were told a story about an 8 year old girl who is the only known survivor of the chambers. When she got in there she fainted and all the bodies fell on top of her, so she didn't breathe was much gas in. When the Nazis came in to get the bodies they found her and thought it was a miracle but the general took her in to a room and shot her because she was a witness to their operations. Living conditions were dreadful! They had 9 people in one bunk and had 3 minutes to go to the toilet twice a day and worked 11hours a day of hard labour. When liberation happened they found children that weighed 5kgs and women coming in to camp weighing 75 and dropping down to 25kg - if they weren't killed they died from labour or health. After our tour we hopped back on the bus and drove a few hours before stopping for lunch. When we got to the hostel we went down for dinner and then got ready to go out. Prague has a 5 story nightclub! It was pretty amazing! Each level had a different theme. Simon and I got home just after 3 - it was a fun night!