I nearly missed the train, but today was supposed to be a "blogburst" in memorium of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The infamous Nazi death camp is perhaps a symbol for all of the Nazi concentration camps. Iron scroll above its gates read "Arbeit Macht Frei"--Work will set you free.

Unfortunately, labor never set anyone free at Auschwitz. At Auschwitz you pretty much went straight into the gas chamber unless they had a backlog, in which case you got to enjoy the hospitality until they could make room for you in the gas chamber, which was the basement of a former Polish Army barracks.

The exhibits at Auschwitz (yes, I've been there) spare nobody's feelings. It's raw "This is what happened here". The visitor views room after room--one contains luggage stripped from the victims, another their clothing. And last of all a mountain, and I mean mountain, of baby shoes. Baby shoes. A freaking mountain of baby shoes taken from babies that those monsters fed into a gas chamber.

The Nazis actually operated their concentration camps in several flavors. Dachau, for example, was a labor camp. There the Nazis worked and starved people to death. Not particularly pleasant, though I suppose at least at Dachau there was a hope of surviving.

I've mentioned Auschwitz before, taking to task those who compare Bush to a Nazi. Sorry, but if you call Bush a Nazi then you have no idea. None. You are incomparably ignorant.