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Spain
Now living in l'Olleria, south of Valencia

Thursday 26 December 2013

Bergen-Belsen

Not a nice place to visit.


Jess hadn't been yet, so I took her. It is very near her house (we could even have walked, had the weather been better). This is not a place for everyone to visit, but I genuinely recommend it. I visited Buchenwald as a teenager and it left a profound effect on me. The things that people are capable of doing to others is astonishing.




We walked around the grounds in the drizzle. Although she know of their existence, I don't think she fully understood the nature of the concentration camps. Who possibly can - apart from those that witnessed first hand? I explained everything to her, as best as I could. There were several guided tours taking place. Most of the visitors were students. A sad thing to learn about your homeland.

At first, we didn't know where the museum was, and actually only found it by accident. It is a huge plain grey building. So austere, that I thought it was a private block of some sort. Even the doors looked forbidding. Thankfully, I understood the writing, and realised that the cafe was inside, along with everything else. We went in, and spent quite a long time inside. I don't know how many tears I shed that day, as I do again now, writing this.

Afterwards, we went to the railway platform where the prisoners were dropped off. There was a quote there; "And now the end begins".

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