Last year I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau. A harrowing experience, and not one I want to repeat, but now, more than ever, these places should be visited.

The train tracks of Birkenau concentration camp in Poland lead off to the front gate. The camp is only a 5 minute bus journey from Auschwitz, along a road bordered by a train track. It’s surreal passing by homes, businesses and people walking about living their lives next to these places. Tourists gather around the…

The Commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, lived in the large house at the end of this road. It sits right outside the concentration camp where so many people were put to death, but a family lived here, and they are the subject of a 2023 movie, The Zone of Interest. When I visited the camp…