I have not decided whether or not I could tour one or more of these camps despite the value I find in learning from and remembering the past, even the worst of the world's past. I commend you on your ability to not only visit but keep calm when you became lost in such a ghastly place even if it is long separated from its original purpose and activities. Thank you for taking time to document and write about your experiences with care and compassion.

I have watched documentaries and read a great deal about the Holocaust, particularly stories of survivors. Most recently a book about a Polish political prisoner who's life was saved at Auschwitz because he was a photographer. The stories are difficult to process, but I believe essential for remembering and honoring the dead and preventing something like this from ever happening again.

It is sad to say, but from what I've read, including something specifically in the aforementioned book, that shooting deaths were considered a mercy compared to most of the other ways to die in these camps.

The photographer, Wilhelm Brasse, who helped take ID images of all the prisoners who were not immediately murdered, shares a story of meeting some Jewish men he knew from his hometown. He knew the men would not survive long, and found himself asking the man who would probably be their executioner to not make them suffer too much. The novel, based on his life and video interviews with him (https://youtu.be/dqcFzp5NTy0), describes not only the heinous other ways Jews especially were murdered, but how they were left to die when sick or experimented on -- he and his small team of men being required to photograph Mengele's "subjects" and cruel "experiments."

May we always remember this past so that we may never, ever repeat it.