I have been in Krakow in Poland for a long weekend. Not long enough. It was a fantastic city. The weather was horrible. It was snowing almost all the time, and it was very windy. I had decided to take photographs whatever, but it was bitterly cold, and my hands went from red to almost blue. It is impossible to handle a camera with gloves. I took about 400 pictures, and I really wish I could share all of them with you. The greatest impact was when I visited Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2-Birkenau. It does not matter what you have seen on TV, or a film made about Holocaust. Being there, especially in these weather conditions, made me understand what the prisoners went through. When Birkenau was evacuated because of the Russians entrance to the area, the Germans wanted to hide their crime against humanity. They burnt the wooden barracks and a lot of documentation. Then they were going to move the prisoners to other concentration camps. It was 40 degrees minus, and all these poor people did not even have proper clothes or boots. It was a long march. They suffered from all kinds of illnesses, they were under nourished and nearly dead already. Only 10 % made it. I could write several pages about this. What really went on in these death camps, are beyond our understanding. I had tears in my eyes most of the time. We walked around for about 4 hours in wind and snow. The guide was really good, and made this to an experience I would not be without. I was freezing, but thinking about all these poor souls who had suffered so much, made me go through the whole trip. Many other tourists gave up when we went into Birkenau. After that visit it is still sitting in my bones . If you had been there, you would never forget it. It is difficult to choose which picture to send, and I am afraid it is going to be more than this one. I am dedicating this photo to all the people that suffered and died in these concentration camps between 1940 and 1945.The title "Arbeit macht frei" means "Working will make you free"