Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

 Today I visited a concentration camp that is about an hour away from where we live.  Rick watched the kids while I spent a good part of the day with some friends at the site. This camp was a "workers" camp where the Jews, POWs, gypsies, and homosexuals were used as slave laborers.  The largest percentage being Jews.  

 After it was liberated and the prisoners evacuated, the British burned down the camp to prevent the spread of typhus.  But the "mass grave" mounds are still there and they have built a wonderful museum honoring those who suffered/lived in the camp and exploiting the Nazi regime.  

 "mass grave" mounds.  Each mound has a stone slab with the number of bodies in that grave: never less than 1,000.    

 This is the concentration camp where Anne Frank and her sister Margot died only weeks before it was liberated. The gravestone does not mark the exact spot where they are buried but only serves as a memorial.  People put rocks instead of flowers, rocks never fade or die, on the monuments and gravestones to honor those who died and suffered in the camp.  

I can't remember exactly what was written on this monument.  But it basically honored the 30,000 Jews that were killed here and that their blood will stand as a witness to the wickedness of the Nazis. 

 I debated as to whether or not I wanted to go on this visit only because the concentration camps depress me so much.  It was definitely a very sobering experience.  I had the hardest time watching testimonials of people who lived in the camp.  I had a hard time even taking photos.