Let Us Never Forget

This year, for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I am going to do something different.

Rather than writing about my experiences at Auschwitz I and at Auschwitz-Birkenau, I am going to share some of the images I captured during my in-depth visit to these camps. If it's true that pictures are worth 1,000 words, I hope these images will convey some of the reality of the horrors that took place there in a way words cannot. I am including captions to explain each photo. All photos are copyright Ann Sullivan Nature Photography and are the photographer's intellectual property. Please note that all photos were taken with great respect and in areas where photography was allowed.

Let's begin in Berlin, where the 'final solution to the Jewish question' began.

These so-called stumble stones were place in front of homes where Berlin's Jewish population lived before being deported. The shiny bronze plaques commemorate the victims of the Nazis in some 1,100 locations in 17 countries. Each one lists the name, date of birth, year of deportation, and place of death. I photographed the ones seen here in Berlin, heart of the Nazi terror.

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered by members of National Socialism. Then known as gypsies, as many as 500,000 members of these groups were rounded up and put into concentration camps before being executed.

In this villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, top Nazi officials met in January 1942 to discuss "the final solution to the Jewish question." Representatives of several government ministries, along with members of the SS, attended. After the meeting, attendees enjoyed a nice meal. This building, set on the shore of Lake Wannsee, is now a Holocaust memorial.

Plaques along a no-longer-used train track -- track 17 -- in Berlin note the number of Jews, the date of deportation, and their final destination. This track was used to transport Jews from Berlin to various concentration camps. This plaque indicates that on February 2, 1945, near the end of the war, Nazis were still deporting Jews from Berlin to Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen. Only 23 Jews were in this shipment, as nearly all of Berlin's Jewish residents had been killed, had fled or were in hiding. Visitors had placed a rose on most of the plaques in memory of the victims of the Nazis. Being there for just a few minutes and remembering what took place there was chilling.

From Berlin, my group traveled by bus to Oswiecim (Auschwitz), Poland.  We stayed in a former monastery a short walk from camp. On the way, we passed train tracks that had been used to deliver millions to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The following photos are from Auschwitz 1, the original concentration camp. It was originally built as a Polish army barracks. When this camp became full, 49 subcamps were opened. The most famous of them is Auschwitz-Birkenau, a couple of miles away.

Historians believe that around 1.1 million people died in Auschwitz during its 5 years of operation. Around 1 million were Jews, 70,000 to 75.000 were Poles, and about 20,000 were Roma. About 16,000 Soviet POWs and 10-15 thousand prisoners of other ethnic backgrounds (including Czechs, Belorussians, Yugoslavs, French, Germans and Austrians) also died there.

Over the gate to Auschwitz is a sign that reads 'Work will set you free.' The only thing work in the camps did was cause the deaths of countless people forced to work until they died of exhaustion, starvation or disease. Only then did work set them free from the horrors of life at Auschwitz.

Three-tiered beds in one of the buildings at Auschwitz. Multiple people 'slept' on each bed, with possibly a single, thin, lice-infested blanket. Originally designed to hold 700 prisoners, they held as many as 1,200 as the roundups continued.

The campus of the original Auschwitz looks deceptively peaceful. Brick buildings, trees and wide streets gave the impression of a lovely, quiet town. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the buildings, known as blocks, hid a variety of kinds of torture, including heinous experimentation.

One of many wooden guard towers at Auschwitz 1, with double electric fences. To the right behind the tower is a reconstruction of the gallows on which prisoners were hanged. Camp commandant Rudolf Hoess was hanged there after the war and his conviction for war crimes.

The home of the camp commandant during most of the war years, Rudolf Hoess, is seen behind one of the guard towers. Hoess and his family, including his five children, lived in the house most of the time Auschwitz was in operation. Camp inmates worked in the house and garden as slaves. The house is still in use to this day.

This suitcase, labeled with its former owner's information, is one of hundreds displayed in the main camp. Conservators work daily to preserve (not to restore) all the items left behind when the camp was liberated by Soviet soldiers. There were suitcases, eyeglasses, toothbrushes, eating and cooking utensils, shoes, toys and many more personal objects.

Crutches, artificial limbs and other devices previously belonging to Jews who were sent to Auschwitz provide a stark reminder of the scope of those who were murdered at the camps. Anyone unable to work due to age, illness or infirmity was sent immediately to the gas chamber.

Empty canisters that held deadly pellets of the cyanide-based pesticide Zyklon B. The pellets were dropped into an air shaft from the building's roof. The pellets turned to gas when exposed to air. Those locked inside the gas chambers suffocated.

Cups and other personal items that belonged to those murdered at Auschwitz. 

Of all the reminders of the people murdered at Auschwitz, this large display case of shoes hit me the hardest. These shoes once belonged to innocent people as they went about their lives. The red shoe in a sea of brown really stands out. It makes me wonder about the person who once wore it. What was she like? Did she like to have fun? Did her red shoes reveal a lively and vivacious person?

The gas chamber and crematorium at Auschwitz 1. Several hundred people could be killed at a time. The Nazis were all about efficiency and maximizing the number of people they could murder at one time. Before operations began, the Nazis experimented to find the most effective chemical agent and to work out the proper method for its use. About 600 Soviet POWs and 250 sick Poles were killed in such experimentation from September 3-5, 1941. The original crematorium was destroyed by the Nazis as the war approached the end. A replica was built in its place. It still holds haunting memories of all those murdered within its walls.

Double rows of electric fences surrounded the camp. Prisoners who could no longer tolerate the inhumane conditions and abuse of the camp staff committed suicide by throwing themselves against the fence. Poison was another popular method of suicide.

Reconstruction of the wall where Auschwitz prisoners were executed by being shot. Known as the 'wall of death,' it saw the execution by SS firing squad of thousands of prisoners, the majority Polish political prisoners. 

The photos that follow were taken at Auschwitz-Birkenau, about 1.2 miles (2 km) from the original Auschwitz death camp. The first image shows the main gate of Birkenau as approached by rail. This train track, in operation from May to October 1944, led to barrack, gas chambers and crematoria. 

Birkenau was the largest of the 40 camps and subcamps in the Auschwitz complex. The camp sat on 346 acres, and included 300 barracks and other buildings, 10 miles of barbed wire, and four gas chambers with crematoria. In August 1944, there were 90,000 prisoners and 908 guards. 

View of the tracks from Birkenau's administrative
offices on the second floor.

One row of wooden barracks as seen from the second floor of the main building.  There were 36 bunks in each barrack, each holding five or six inmates, for more than 500 prisoners in each barrack. There was no insulation from cold or heat, and the roof often leaked.

Barracks for Birkenau prisoners were adapted from a German army horse stable. Designed to hold 51 horses, 
each barrack held more than 400 human prisoners.

Prisoner bathroom. No privacy, no paper, only a couple of minutes at designated times to take care of business on the toilets.

A cattle car like those used to transport Jewish residents from Berlin and other cities to Auschwitz sits on a track. Each locked and windowless car held up to 150 prisoners, so packed together there was only room to stand. Prisoners were given no food or water during the journey, which could take days.

Personal items on display at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The personal nature of these items really brought home the individuality of the prisoners. Someone once wore these boots and carried this suitcase. The victims were so much more than mere numbers.

A memorial candle, flowers and ribbon rest on the remains of Birkenau's infamous gas chamber and crematorium 5. It was destroyed by the Nazis toward the end of the war in an attempt to remove traces of their crimes against humanity.

This is the death barrack, where women deemed too sick to work were sent to await their deaths. They waited without food or water, often for several days. Many died as they awaited their trip to the gas chamber. When the barrack was full, additional prisoners selected by the SS for death were kept outside in a locked yard surrounded by brick walls.

At the conclusion of our extensive tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau on a cold, rainy and somber day, I was wandering around and noticed that someone had placed flowers on the train tracks that took so many to their deaths. The main gate of the camp looms in the background directly ahead of the main track.

A strand of barbed wire, a brick building, a light and a 'block' (or building) number symbolize the terror that was Auschwitz 1.

Thank you for reading this lengthy blog post. My visits to Auschwitz and Birkenau were both incredibly enlightening and horrifying. As the threat of fascism and anti-Semitism increase both in the US and in much of Europe, I hope that learning about the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and other fascists will encourage people to be aware of its dangers and work to stop its spread. Sometimes photos tell more than mere words can.

Momma's Here!

I don't know what brought this about, but I had a most unusual thought the other day.

Somewhere between being asleep and awake one early morning, I was envisioning myself on my death bed, and wondering what my final words would be. And then I knew.

"Benny!!! Momma's here!" Those are what I imagined and hoped would be my final words as I leave this life.

These words will mean that my best boy, Benny, who died last summer, will be there to greet me at the Rainbow Bridge. It will mean that he and I, and my other dogs, will get to spend eternity together. Benny, never a dominant dog, will lead the pack as it rushes to me.

This doesn't mean I have received a devastating medical diagnosis, or that I plan to move to the next stage of my life any time soon. It simply means that I miss Benny so very much I miss him more than I have ever missed any of the 14 dogs I have adopted.  I still call my newest dog, Jett, by Benny's name from time to time without realizing.

So I hope that when the time comes, whenever that is, I will be greeted by this happy face, wagging tail and short legs running into my arms with all the speed he can muster.

Until then, I will miss him every day. 

Until we meet again, Mr. Ben.

Strangers No More

This is the time of year when I change the batteries in my four smoke detectors. 

Changing batteries is a task that is not difficult, but I’m not a fan of climbing on a ladder and trying to balance myself while I struggle to replace the batteries. Every year I have taken care of this simple chore myself … Until this year. This year, as I stood on the ladder looking up at the smoke detector on the ceiling and trying to reattach it to the short cable (my smoke detectors are all hard-wired into the house's electrical system, with battery back-up), I decided that I wasn’t comfortable doing this. If I fell, there would be no one in the house to help me. That was a risk I wasn't prepared to take.

So I decided to ask for help, something not easy for me, or for most people, to do. I put a message on NextDoor to see if somebody would change the batteries for me. I had new batteries, and I have a stepladder. All I needed was somebody to actually change the batteries.

I quickly got a response from a few people offering to help. I certainly wouldn’t have minded paying someone a reasonable amount for this service. But then I got a response from a woman named Amy who said she would change the batteries at no charge. What a nice surprise that was!

I got in touch with her, and she and one of her daughters, who is learning to drive, soon arrived at my house. I had asked her to give me a minute to get my dogs into the backyard before I let the people into the house, as my dogs get overly excited when we get company. But she said not to worry about it, because she has a couple of very excitable dogs as well.

She quickly replaced the batteries and reattached one of the smoke detectors. Somehow we started talking about photography, she asked what I like to photograph, and I replied that my most favorite subjects are African wildlife. So I showed my guests my favorite leopard photo, as well as one of elephants and a cheetah peering into the back of our safari vehicle, all of the photos hanging on a wall in my office.

She said I should hold onto her phone number in case I need help with any other small things around the house. She has five teens and young adults living in her house, and either she or one of them would be happy to help. I think she is doing a great job of raising kind young adults. When she introduced her daughter to me, the teen quickly reached out to shake my hand.

Amy is setting a great example for her children how to be a good person and to help people, even strangers, with no expectation of anything in return.

I texted Amy my thanks (I also thanked her a couple of times while she was here). She replied that "We are ... neighbors, and we aren't strangers any more. It just seemed silly to have to pay someone for something so quick! And we got to see photos of leopards and elephants and those big cat eyes, which made my day." The cat eyes belonged to a cheetah sitting on the spare tire and peering into the safari vehicle in which I was riding.

In a world so filled with hate, greed and selfishness, it did my old heart good to see that there are people who are willing to help others.

The Clock Is Ticking

 The clock is ticking.

We all know that our time on this planet is limited. Most of us don't dwell on that fact, but sometimes something happens to remind us.

I am at the age where I no longer need an external reminder. My vision isn't what it used to be. I have arthritis that flares up often, causing pain in my fingers. I don't have the strength or the stamina I once had. I don't have the energy I used to have.

And then Tina Turner died. She was older than I am, but still, she died. She had high blood pressure that caused a stroke and that damaged her kidneys. Tina Turner, with her hundreds of millions of dollars and worldwide acclaim, died of maladies that afflict many people. Her money and her fame couldn't save her.

My blood pressure has been a bit high recently, so I made an appointment with my doctor.  I now take a daily pill to control it. I also take a daily pill to lower my cholesterol. 

So yes, the clock is ticking. I have more years behind me than ahead of me.

But I'm not focused on the past. And I'm not focused on what may lie ahead. Instead, I try to focus on what I want to do with whatever time I have left. I want to do as much as I can in the time I have left. I want to travel as much as I can afford to. I want to do as much photography as I can. I want to help make the world a better place by donating to causes most important to me.

And really, that is all any of us can do. Live life with no regrets.

Did Smart Plugs Make My Dog Sick?

I read something online recently that gave me pause.

A woman had written that her dog -- I believe it was a Jack Russell terrier -- suddenly began panting and refusing to eat. After a while, she took her dog to the veterinarian, who ran tests but could find nothing obvious wrong with the dog.

Then she began to wonder whether the family's smart plugs were distressing her dog. She removed the plugs, and the dog resumed eating and stopped panting. As a test, she put the plugs back into the sockets, and the symptoms returned.

That made me think about my beloved dog Benny. He would pant constantly unless he was asleep. He grew disinterested in food. I tried a variety of foods -- different kinds of kibble, a variety of brands and flavors of canned food, ground beef and steak, even meat baby food. Nothing worked. I took him to see our veterinarian multiple times over the course of several months, perhaps a year. We ran blood tests, did x-rays and physical exams. I spent thousands of dollars seeking an answer to what was making my precious dog sick.

Now, after reading that article, I have to wonder whether it was the three smart plugs in my house that caused his symptoms. There is one in my bedroom, one in my office, and one in the living room. 

Could something as simple as removing the smart plugs and their high-frequency sound have given 12-year-old Benny an additional year or two of life? He was hard of hearing, but otherwise in good health. 

I have seen nothing online other than anecdotal 'evidence,' so I am skeptical of the claims, but not dismissive. Given the lack of any other reason for Benny's illness, I won't rule out the smart plug angle.

Part of me questions whether his decreased hearing could have detected the high-frequency sounds emitted by the smart plugs. But I wish I had known the plugs might have been the problem so I could have removed them to see if they were the culprits.

Benny was the absolute best dog, and I would have given anything to spare him discomfort. 

A Dark Day in American History

 January 6, 2021, was an absolutely horrifying day. 

I remember watching the crowds of protesters on television, smashing windows, macing police officers and forcing their way into the US Capitol building, where they did $1.5 million in damage. Members of the US Senate and the House were hustled off to safe places to protect their very lives. Protesters were calling out 'Where is Nancy?' as they searched for then-speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. They constructed a gallows on Capitol grounds, ostensibly for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to delay or prevent certification of the votes. More than 140 police officers were injured in the riot. Some committed suiOcide in the days following the attack. Attacking America's leadership and congressional building is not making America great again. One would have to be stupid, brain dead or brainwashed to believe this is the way to make a nation great.

All of this was done at the behest of the outgoing president of the United States, in an effort to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote confirming that he had lost the election. Despite frenzied calls from members of his staff and administration to call in the National Guard to restore order, the outgoing president refused to lift a finger to stop the protest. Eventually the vice-president called in the Guard after several hours. The outgoing president reportedly watched the riots and the protest on television with great glee.  He also refused to call off his goons that were attacking the US capital.

I am a 23-year retired employee of the federal government. I spent the majority of my working life as a federal employee. Watching these goons attack our government buildings and elected officials, with the complicity of the outgoing president and some members of Congress, infuriates me to this day.

He is in my opinion guilty of inciting an insurrection. Protesters reported that they showed up because the president told them to. The protests were well organized in advance. This was not a spur-of-the-moment gathering. And they most certainly were not, as one congressional apologist stated, simply a group of tourists vising the nation's capitol. Certain members of Congress were, to one degree or another, complicit in the insurrection, having taken some of the insurrectionists on tours of the Capitol building the day before the insurrection.

This was not about protecting our freedoms or defending America as the traitors claim. It was about trying to overturn a free and fair election so the outdoing president could remain in power. He simply could not accept that he was defeated at the polls.

The riots of January 6 weren't about making America great again. They weren't about patriotism. They were, and still are, about a childish, spoiled narcissist who has never been held responsible for anything in his life throwing a temper tantrum that resulted in the deaths and injuries of many people.

January 6, 2021, was a very sad and very frightening day in American history. More than 1,200 protesters have been charged with crimes related to the events of January 6. Nearly 900 have pleaded guilty or have been convicted of crimes. Some have been sentenced to several years in prison.

It's time for the instigator and ringleader to face the same punishment.

A Year of More

It's January 1, the first day of 366 days in this new year.

I'm wondering what I can do to make this year better than others. I know there will be stress, hurts, disappointments and failures. Every year comes with its own particular assortment of challenges we would rather not have to deal with. But those things are part of each and every life. They can be opportunities for growth and learning.

But each new year also comes with endless opportunities for success, fun, growth, adventures and other things I haven't even thought about yet.

I can't just sit around and hope and wait for the good things to come. I need to dream, to act, to plan, to make the good things happen, and to be open to new things, new experiences, things I have never tried before. 

Today is page one of a 366 page book, whose pages are waiting for me to write upon them. I remember when I was a child looking forward to the start of a new semester. I remember looking at my notebooks filled with blank lined pages and wondering what I would write in those notebooks in the semester ahead. 

I want to make 2024 the year of more. More trips. More photography. More adventures. More peace. More gratitude. More kindness. More living. More patience. More time enjoying this world’s natural beauty. More giving. More wandering with my camera. 

Many thanks for this suggestion about the year of more from the Facebook page of Jeffrey, the Positively Peaceful Pit Bull. And many thanks to photographer and blogger Linda Stager for the inspiration to write this post.

What do you write want to write in your 2024 edition of the book of life?

An Audience of Nations

The year 2023 saw visitors to my blog from several new countries.

I welcomed visitors from the following countries, in addition to the United States.

Australia, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand,  Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland,  Tanzania, UAE, United Kingdom, Venezuela

That's quite a variety of nations. I appreciate visitors from each and every nation, and I hope to see you again in 2024.

New Year Thoughts

I saw something online recently that asked a simple question. 

At the beginning of this new year, what word describes your thoughts about the year ahead?

Several people replied hope. Others said retirement. Some mentioned kindness. I thought about several words: adventure, peace, hope, health. Hope is my top choice.

I hope we will see an end to war in the Middle East. I hope the United States can begin to heal the massive chasm that divides this country. I hope we will finally begin to get serious about climate change and start taking steps to address it before it’s too late.

What are your thoughts about this new year? It will bring us 366 days to enjoy or to endure, to thrive or to just muddle through. For most of us, I suspect the year will bring some of both.

Our world is so divided: immense wealth and horrible poverty. Peace and war whose most likely victims are innocent people who have nothing to do with planning or carrying out war. Great progress in medicine while so many are unable to get the most basic of health care. An epidemic of obesity as starvation is present in much of the world. A fight to retain democracy in the world while fascist governments proliferate. Those who believe in science as others refuse to believe its findings.

Whichever side of the divide you are on, I hope this new year brings you hope, peace, happiness and fulfillment.

Happy New Year, everyone. Let's make it a good one.