Auschwitz

The extermination camp in Poland called Auschwitz-Birkenau was notorious for being the worst of all the camps. This camp was also the largest of the extermination camps. Some of the concentration camps that were built earlier in WWII were turned into extermination camps later. Auschwitz was built to be a place for the Nazis to work the Jews to death or to immediately kill them upon their arrival there.
When I lived in Germany I visited Dachau and Auschwitz. Even at only eleven years old I was hit hard emotional by what I saw there. I had no idea what to expect and just thought it was another part of the places that we would visit on that particular trip. Nothing could prepare me for what I saw and the first hand narrative that I heard from a survivor there. I would not suggest that a parent take their child there before they are old enough to comprehend what took place at Auschwitz. I am twenty six now and still can not comprehend how people to treat a human being in the way that Jews were treated at these camps.
Primo Levi's novel Survival in Auschwitz is very important for people to learn about the actual accounts of what took place at this camp. It is novels like these that should be required in high school. While I understand a parent wanting to shelter their child from the knowledge of these atrocities, I think it is very important to learn these things for the development of a persons understanding of the world and its evils. The world is not all fun and games as many children grow up being taught. We want our children to live with the knowledge that people are inherently good, but this can not be achieved without learning about those who were inherently evil. People must learn about these evils in order to mold themselves into a good person. Good people are good because they know what is evil or bad and what is not. Learning about our past and the evils that occurred in it helps future generations to not allow things like this happen.