Auschwitz: Drone video of Nazi concentration camp

At first I felt the use of a drone was cheapening the significance of Auschwitz, but I found this footage very touching.

Drone video shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today – 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet troops. The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year. Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people – the vast majority of them Jews – died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army.

Railway tracks into Auschwitz-Birkenau – Trains filled with victims from throughout occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost every day between 1942 and the summer of 1944.

Ruins of wooden huts at Birkenau – Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) was erected in 1941 solely as a death camp, the wooden huts are now in ruins with only brick fireplaces and chimneys remaining.

Entrance to Auschwitz I -The wrought-iron sign over the entrance bears the words Arbeit Macht Frei – “Work sets you free”.

Auschwitz I – The brick-built buildings were the former cavalry barracks of the Polish Army.

Courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 at Auschwitz I – Block 11 was called “the Block of Death” by prisoners. Executions took place between Block 10 and Block 11 and posts in the yard were used to string up prisoners by their wrists.

Auschwitz Birkenau is now a museum run by the Polish Culture Ministry, and a Unesco world heritage site.

Posted in Interesting, Touching | 1 Comment

Bag of Randomness

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  • The season three premiere of ‘The Americans’ aired last night and some sort of self-improvement program called EST was featured.  That’s one part of the 80’s that I never heard of, but I think it’s some sort of thing that’s commonly parodied in fictional television and cinema.
  • Letterman had Ben Schwarts on as a guest last night.  You may know him best from ‘House of Cards’, ‘Parks and Recreation’, and ‘House of Lies’.  He actually started his career as a page for Letterman and then moved his way up helping to write jokes for Dave’s monologue.  What a grand moment that must have been for him to be a guest on the show last night.
  • A lot of news outlets had a fascination with the guy that kept the Boston Marathon finish line clear of snow.  I guess the Dallas equivalent would be that white X on Elm Street in front of Dealey.  #DallasStrong
  • I took a quiz on celebrities and their education yesterday, and had no idea that Montel Williams was the first African American enlisted Marine to complete and graduate both the Naval Academy Prep School and Annapolis.  And while I knew Cindy Crawford was the valedictorian of her high school class, I wasn’t aware she studied chemical engineering at Northwestern University, albeit just for one quarter, which leads me to believe that Northwestern doesn’t use the traditional semester schedule.
  • Barry over at LiberallyLean had a post about a Facebook ad that displayed after viewing the product earlier on another website.  Too bad he didn’t watch the ‘Parks and Recreation’ episode that aired the day before the post, he would have gotten a good laugh.
  • I saw a clip of Oscar Isaac in his new movie A Most Violent Year and he looked just like Al Pacino.
  • Damn you Sony Pictures for keeping Spidey from the Avengers – ‘Visual Guide to Marvel Character Movie Rights’, An Infographic Showing What Movie Studios Own Which Characters
  • Excluding Fords, the most popular car in Texas is a Mercedes.  Check out other fun automobile related stuff here.
  • Wreck ’em – Giant snow penis demolished at Texas Tech University as students protest
  • I like Katy Perry’s music, it’s just real fun, but I have a feeling people will be complaining of a lot of lip-synching during her Super Bowl halftime performance.
  • I bought a Weber charcoal starter cannister and was amused that the UPC looked like a Weber grill.
  • Some people would prefer to say “UPC code” but that would’ve been redundant, because one would actually be saying “Universal Product Code code”.  And that reminds of a long series of angsts my friend Jimi would go into about people who say such as ATM machine and PIN number.  It wasn’t until yesterday I learned there’s actually a name for that, RAS syndrome.
  • Jimi would also take the redundancy to another level.
    • Tuna fish – do you need to put fish at the end, is there any other kind of tuna out there?  I mean, it’s not like there is a tuna vegetable or animal that it can be confused with.
    • Cheddar cheese – Is there another kind of cheddar that’s not cheese?
    • Hot water heater – It just needs to be water heater.
  • Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
Posted in Personal | 10 Comments