My sister and father came back yesterday from an overwhelming twelve day journey to Poland.

For the past year, my sister has been working on a book project about a fascinating Norwegian person who had an impact on many. One of the threads landed her in the world of the SS Einsatzgruppen (paramilitary groups formed in 1939, who had a leading roll in the implementation of the Final Solution in conquered territories) stationed in Poland during the second world war, and there was some information that could only be viewed on site.

Much of the time was spent going through archives, finding out about the real people in this story and following their traces. It was also a journey of understanding the normalcy of a world so brutal we can hardly imagine. And yet it was there, so real, so well-organized - tidy in its horrors and brutality.

The interrogation room at the Gestapo headquarters in Warsaw looked so civilized, so correct. Yet in the corner was a bookshelf full of torture implements (see below) and the cells in the basement had a single hole in the door, used for shooting at the prisoners.

Inside the Gestapo Headquarters

The death camps showed a darker story, for here, mass murder happened in a most organized way. And I don’t know which part horrifies me the most; the mass murder or the preciseness of it all. It’s a part of humanity that I just can’t understand, and yet a part I must live with, for it happened. And it is our responsibility that it never happens again.

Treblinka was a death factory in a phase of experimentation and perfection.

It worked to the Nazis’ satisfaction and left few traces. It was shut down after a revolt in 1943, as the Russians were approaching.

I will never understand why a movement so proud of its evil went out of its way to hide its traces - but the grass clad pits still speak of the horrors that happened here.

Sobibor was no brighter than Treblinka.

The camp was set up in 1940, with mass gassing operations starting in 1942.

Trains full of people - men, women and children - would come in; and the people never came out.

“The Road to Heaven” (Sobibor)

Trains entered the railway station and the Jews onboard were told they were in a transit camp, and were forced to undress and hand over their valuables. They were then led along the 100 metre (109 yards) long “Road to Heaven” which led to the gas chambers, where they were killed using carbon monoxide released from the exhaust pipes of tanks.

Source: Wikipedia’s Sobibor Extermination Camp

The memorial reads:

The lane of remembrance ends here. Tens of thousands of people from many different countries were forced to go down this road. Men, women and children. Not far from this point, their lives were brought to an abrupt end. Who were they? The names mentioned along this lane bear witness to all those people murdered here in Sobibor during the Second World War. The names keep alive their lives and fate.

The Holocaust always leaves me speechless.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most visited extermination camp, and has long been on my to-visit list.

The sign at Auschwitz that we all know

The barbed wire

A drawing from an eyewitness

The ramps of Birkenau, where the selections for the gas chambers were made.

Most people who stepped out of the trains were gassed within hours.

As a teenager, I struggled to understand the Holocaust. The vastness of its evil deeds left me numb. Although I will never know what my role under a Nazi regime would have been, I know that we are all responsible for what we do. Every single action of good or evil, big or small, leads to consequences for other people. It’s a choice, every step of the way. Looking back at the Holocaust, where millions of people had to pay with their lives - I know that something went very wrong along the way. But it all started with the little things. It always does. Both the good and the bad.

We are all part in shaping history.

For other world contemplations this week, click here.