Austria

Hello everyone!

So, I just got back tonight from a school trip to Austria to visit a couple concentration camps. It was an amazing trip. We took a 5 buses (a great 12 hours including 2 hours of breaks) from different schools around my area and traveled through Germany to get to Austria. 

The scenery was absolutely amazing. Everything was so green! 
It was so crazy to see everything in GERMAN! I mean, no offense to any germans, but it looks like the alphabet threw up! I honestly do not understand how some of the German words can actually mean something. It is such an amazing and interesting language! I would love to learn it someday. 
I was pretty proud that at dinner, I was able to understand a little bit of the menu because some of the words are similar to English words. 

At dinner, stores, and any museums we visited, I was the official "talker" because my English is the best. :P
I ended up not eating very much because every night the others ate at about 9 or later and I don't like eating after 9 pm, so I skipped out on the hot dogs and french fries. :P However, I can say that I have tasted REAL german/austrian hot dogs! :D

Now to the serious stuff. I visited the concentration camps of Gusen and Mauthausen. I learned so many facts and saw so many things. 

I met real men and women who were prisoners in the concentration camps. 
I saw a ton of memorials for all the countries with victims of concentration camps.
I stood in the showers were hundreds of prisoners were forced to shower in sometimes groups of 50 strangers ranging from 15-50 years old. 

I stood in gas chambers and crematoriums were thousands of people were tortured and burned in order to get rid of the "evidence." 
I've stood in graveyards with 10,000 people buried. 

I never really imagined that I would visit a concentration camp. I figured I would always just see pictures and see stories. 
I can really see now what happened during this terrible time; even though I wish it never happened. 

Seeing what I saw just concreted everything into my mind and even though it happened so long ago, I hope we never forget.

~Shelby Janae