There is something about walking under the wrought-iron fence, declaring that "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes one free), that makes you catch your breath. Whereas the other extermination camps require imagination, a creative will to reconstruct the atrocities committed there, Auschwitz is nearly frozen in time. This faithful preservation to what occurred compels the visitor to do just the opposite - reflexively distancing himself from what he is seeing, lest it become too much.