and a magpie's wings; and tie 'em to your shoulders and your feet...

Today was probably the most emotional day so far for me. I ended up visiting Sachsenhausen, a WWII concentration camp just outside of Berlin with Frauke's parents. There are really no words to accurately describe such an experience. But here goes.
I used to believe that the term ''deafening silence'' was a serious cliche... It's amazing the effect one day can have on such beliefs. As you approach the gates holding the infamous saying ''arbeit macht frei'' (work makes you free) you begin to prepare yourself psychologically and emotionally for what you are about to see. But there is no preparation. You step through with the knowledge that thousands took those same steps and would never again see the outside world. To be able to walk so freely in and out feels wrong. Many of the barracks are no longer standing, but as you stand in the open area, you feel so enclosed, so trapped. And the silence. Everyone fears speaking in such a place as there are no appropriate words. And thus the silence encases you. Each step you take, you become fully aware that someone most likely died right where you stand, so you fear standing in one place to long.
There is a weight on your soul in any place like this. I stood before the monument in the centre of the camp and thought to myself, ''Here you are, all of 18 years old. So young and so dumb.'' We all think we are so smart, basking in the glory of how easy our lives have become. But how often does it cross our minds that there is a cost to all this freedom. I stood in front of the clothes of a 16 year old boy. He died there in 1944 because he had no food. And I couldn't help but thinking, ''Maybe he never kissed a girl. Hell, he'll never get to have sex.'' Such trivial things to think, yet look at the emphasis put on such things in today's society. But then it hit me. He died of starvation. It is still happening in our world today. Of course it is not in the same circumstances. But we feel such pity, such grief for those who were forced, so to speak, to stave to death, yet now we let it happen all on it's own because we are simply too lazy to acknowledge it. What the hell does this say about us?