"I wish that budgie in that house would have shut up, it was doing my head in." Gerry commented as they walked into the office.

"Budgies are very interesting actually." Brian replied.

"That's because you have an obsession with the past and they were so important in history."

"No Gerry, you're thinking of the canary."

"Magnificent." Gerry replied sarcastically.

"Actually Esther is booking a trip to Oświęcim and to get the tour you need a bigger group than two, so she wanted to know if any of you wanted to come?"

"Where?!" Sandra asked.

"Auschwitz, but the cities called Oświęcim but the German's changed it to Auschwitz as it sounded more German." Brian informed them.

"Yeah, I'm in." Sandra told him, "I've been interested but never had the chance to get over there and I never fancied it on my own."

"Brilliant. Gerry? Jack?"

"Yeah, Caitlin went with school and really recommended it."

"Jack?"

"Why not."

"Brilliant, I'll ring Esther and she'll book it."

"God, how much could you possibly need for a weekend Sandra?!" Gerry asked as Sandra walked into the airport to meet them with a suitcase.

"This much, how you've only got hand luggage is beyond me."

"Let's go and check in guys, its check in desks 17-20." Esther said as she returned having found the correct check in desks.

Not long later they had gotten through security and were first to board the empty plane. "Smashing! A window seat" Brian smiled as he sat down with Esther and Jack next to him and Sandra and Gerry on the row next to them.

"Did you bring something to do Brian? You know how sick you feel if you aren't concentrating when you move."

"Yeah I brought the bumper book of all things Auschwitz."

"Brilliant." Gerry whispered. "He'll be reading them out for the next two hours." He said to Sandra.

"Well let him, this weekends about learning." Sandra began as Brian interrupted her.

"Did you know Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau II were only a fraction of the Auschwitz complex as there were over 40 smaller Ghetto's and work camps?"

"It's unbelievable what the Nazi's did." Esther said shaking her head in disgust.

"Did you know Jews from the British Isles were deported to Auschwitz?" Brian said not 40 minutes later.

"Did you know it wasn't just Jews there but political prisoners, Soviet war prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals and the worst German prisoners?"

"Did you know the equivalent of £125,000,000 was generated from labor in Auschwitz?"

"Did you know of 7,000 staff at Auschwitz only 750 were caught and punished?"

"As interesting as your facts are Brian, can you please stop? You're going to leave the poor guide with nothing to tell us." Sandra said gently.

"Fine."

"Hello, I'm Lena and I'll be your guide for this weekend. This is Auschwitz I and was the original camp in Oświęcim, it was built here due to rail links and several buildings were already here as it was previously an army barracks." Lena said as the group put the earphones and radio boxes in so that they could hear their guide.

"Here are the infamous gates with the phrase 'Arbeit Macht Frei' which translates to work will set you free, which of course was not true and never would be true for anyone deported here." She told them before leading them further into the camp. "This is where selection took place, women, children and the elderly were in one line and men in the other. Anyone fit for work were taken to be sterilized, which meant a shower, given a uniform and branded with a tattoo, while anyone unfit for work were sent to the gas chambers." Lena told them as the rain they'd all been expecting began to pour. "Come this way please and we'll go into block 7, the sleeping barracks."

"I told you I should have brought a coat Gerry." Sandra said to Gerry as she was getting wet.

"Well we're going inside now, it'll be fine." Gerry replied.

"Gerry camps were built as cheap as possible because the SS officers didn't care. There'll be holes all over the place." Brian pointed out.

"What was that?" Sandra asked as she saw a flash again, the first few times she'd dismissed it as a camera flash but considering they were now looking at exhibition of human hair, from all of the prisoners, camera's were forbidden.

"Lightning, have you not heard the thunder?" Jack replied.

"No, I had the volume of this right up." Sandra said pointing to her radio box as another clap of thunder boomed outside the window.

"What's up Sandra?" Esther asked as she hung back from the rest of the group when she noticed all the colour had drained from Sandra's face.

"Storms terrify, its my only fear."

"Look it'll be okay, it's not as bad as it was earlier so it's calming down. It makes the whole experience a little more, well real, those poor people would have had to work through this and would have had no cover." Esther reminded her, "Come on, let's catch up."

"And this is the gas chamber of Auschwitz I, at one time hundreds of people could be murdered in here with just 4 cans of Zyklon- B and it took as little as 13 minutes. 340 bodies could be burnt a day in one burner in the crematorium just through…" Lena said before the radio pack cut off and the lights, which were the only light source with in the basement of the gas chamber, flickered on and off as yet more lightning struck and even louder thunder boomed.

"I need out of here now." Sandra panicked, the mixture of the storm and the reality of standing where so many people had been killed making it all too much for her.

"That's going to have to be the end of our tour for today anyway, the other few blocks have flooded." Lena said as she stood next to them, no longer on the microphone.

"That's fine, I need to get out now though." Sandra repeated before Lena led them up the stairs to wear people left their clothes before going for what they thought was a shower.

"Sorry guys, it's the worst storm we've had in years. It'll be fine tomorrow and we'll go to Birkenau."

"Yeah, thanks for the tour today." Esther thanked Lena before they left.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Brian smiled.

"Come on, we better get madam back to the hotel before she has a panic attack." Gerry hurried them.

Right so every fact in this fic is completely true, I went to Auschwitz on the 8th July-11th July and I suppose I'm still trying to get my head round it all and this fic helped to do so. It's all based on my time there even the storm. I really recommend a visit to Auschwitz, it really puts life into perspective. Reviews would be lovely

Beth x