It Really Makes You Think...

This past weekend we made the trek up to the Struthoff concentration camp. This is the only camp in France. It took the place of a gorgeous ski resort. When we arrived and got all settled and things, we made our way to the front gates of barbed wire and iron bars. We had to walk through the actual gate that the prisoners actually went through during WWII. For me, walking through it made my stomach knot up. It was hard.

Our tour was very informative, although most of it was pretty easy to see on our own as we looked around the camp. One of the hardest buildings we went through was the crematorium and prison/execution rooms. In the prison section, they had these small rooms... Too big to stand in and too small to sit comfortably in. The Nazis claimed they were used to heat the prison, although there is not a single piece of evidence to support such claims... The Waffen SS would put 3 to 4 people in these extremely tiny rooms. Most would die excruciatingly painful deaths due to the contortions of their body for so long and lack of nourishment.

Walking into one of the prison cells made my heart feel like it was 2,000 pounds. There were scrapes in the wall, the floor was discolored in areas, and you could tell of some attempted escapes. There was only 1 successful breakout recorded at this camp.

The next room almost made me want to throw up. It was the execution room... The floor was slanted inwards towards a floor drain... It was for the blood. They would fire 1 shot into the neck of a prisoner, so that they would suffer for a while before they died. It was very hard to think about. We also looked into the operation room, where 'doctors' would perform medical experiments on live and dead prisoners. Some of the pictures we saw of this were very hard to look at... They would experiment with all sorts of chemicals on and in the body, as well as other things...

We also visited the crematorium. I shouldn't have to say much about that... It was difficult to look at.

We left with spirits not so high, but very informed with eyes wide open at what really happened during these hard times. I feel like my outlook on life has shifted a little. It was a good, but sad experience.