Where do you start on this subject?  Firstly, what happened here should never be forgotten so that in the future if any one Dictator or Country ever tries to do this kind of thing again, then the other Nations of the World can step in early and finish it quickly (unfortunately we did forget, Pol Pot in Cambodia, the Hutu's in Rwanda and Mugabe in Zimbabwe.  But I digress).  Secondly, this place should always remain in the state that it was left in back in '45.  And thirdly what happened here is diabolical and everyone should read up (or visit if you can) so that they can get a good understanding of it all, no matter how horrible it may be.
Arriving at around 14H30 to Oswiecim, the Polish town that Auschwitz I is in, Audrey and I were both surprised at how small it looked considering all the photo's that we've seen previously.  We waited until the 15H00 cut-off time for mandatory tour guides as we were quite happy to wander around at our own pace and read the signs that are posted.  Being told that we still needed to book a time regardless, we wandered over to Auschwitz II - Birkenau instead.  Now it became obvious where most of the photo's have come from as this is a really huge area.  A lot of the Barracks have been destroyed to ground level but there are still enough standing to get a true sense of the enormity of the Camp,  Some of the wooden Barracks have been rebuilt but that really is the only thing that has been added to the site.  The first thing that you see upon arrival is the Guard House and the train tracks that enter through it.  So, so many people went through this gate, over those tracks that never saw another day in there life.  Even by this stage you could feel the present of all the victims and you start to feel heavy with sorrow and sadness.  Continuing in you walk and walk and walk just wondering how on Earth something like this could occur all the time looking about and shaking your head.  Like a lot.  The most confronting parts for me personally were the stories that were told about the experiments that were going on throughout the Camp's life, mainly from one Josef Mengele, one of the most sickest people every to walk this planet (and from my research later, found out that he eluded capture his whole life and eventually died in 1979 without facing a courtroom) and the sites of the Gas Chambers, all 4 of them.  The Nazi's knowing blew them up to conceal evidence of what was happening here.  By doing that they had a complete and utter understanding that what they were doing was flat out wrong yet they still did it.  This is just something that I can't comprehend.  We spent the rest of the afternoon slowly walking around the site without much talking, just glad to be living the life we do.
That night I booked for 8H00 the following morning, the earliest possible time so that we could have a chance to see the place without the throng of people that you would expect in Summer.  And it was good to be there early.  Auschwitz I is different to Birkenau as it has been setup as a history lesson about the Holocaust here.  Not all the Barracks, but a lot, have been turned into little Museums depicting stages of life at Auschwitz.  Some barracks have been given to Nations that lost Jews in WWII, like Hungary (some 500,000 Jews dead) and France (which included some high ranking officials in the previous French Government).  There was a smaller gas chamber here also which still contains the finger nails scratches on the walls from the victims struggling after the gassing.  There is a reconstructed wall in one of the courtyards that was known for it's executions.  There is a bar still in place that was often used for public hanging.  And of course the famous sign over the entrance gate that says "Arbeit Macht Frei" - "Work Makes You Free", probably the most deceitful sign in the history of Earth.