Auschwitz

 

On Monday, we took a day trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau (also known as Auschwitz II), the former Nazi concentration camp(s) outside the town of Oswiecem, about 70 km west of Krakow.  Due to a fascination with Holocaust history, I have desperately wanted to visit Auschwitz for a long while. Previously, I had been to the camps Dachau in Germany and Salaspils in Latvia; however, Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest and most horrific of any of the Nazi camps.

We had a great tour guide who explained the history and activities of the camps very well; despite having heard or read much of the information before (although I learned lots of new details, too) it all was still so shocking.

Auschwitz existed as a sort of camp before WWII as it was used by the Polish Army, so when Germany occupied Poland, they just appropriated it for their twisted purposes. In the beginning years of the war, most of the inhabitants were political prisoners; however, in 1942, the Germans started transporting mass numbers of Jews here for extermination of a race that they truly believed was sub-human.

Birkenau, built later on new ground, was actually where most of the mass murders took place. There were (soundproof) gas chambers 500 meters from where the direct train line stopped, where most (probably >70%) Jews, and particularly women (especially pregnant women), the elderly or infirm, and young children, were sent straight to death without any sort of “selection” process, as they were deemed unsuitable for work. One canister of the gas Zyklon B, transported to the camp outskirts deceptively in Red-Cross-labeled cars, could kill about 2,000 people in 20 minutes. Four crematoriums working 24 hours a day “destroyed the evidence” of the bodies.

Other prisoners were kept alive for experimentation; these groups included the Romani "gypsy" people and many sets of twins, who were a particular favorite of Dr. Josef Mengele (the "Angel of Death").

In total, between 1-1.5 million Jews died at Auschwitz/Birkenau, about 400,000 of whom were Hungarian and 300,000 of which were Polish. 

Here are some photos from our visit.

 The barracks at Auschwitz

 

 

 

Barracks at Birkenau

The toilets at Birkenau, which the prisoners were only permitted to use

 twice daily (morning and night)

Old photos: the train tracks at Birkenau

Birkenau

Wagon which may have contained and transported up to 100 people at once to Birkenau

 

The "key" of how prisoners' striped uniforms were labeled, 

indicating what "kind" of prisoner they were

The prisoners

Punishment cells (some intended to be "standing-only" for days on end, and "suffocation cells")

Execution square

 Crematorium I (Auschwitz)

 

The remains of one crematorium (of 4) at Birkenau (one was destroyed in a mutiny by the Sonderkommando [Jewish prisoners assigned to crematorium work], and the others by the Germans at the end of the war to cover up their evidence)

The few ashes that remain of the 1,000,000+ Jews murdered at Auschwitz 

(other ashes were thrown into the nearby rivers or exported to use as fertilizer)

Personal effects confiscated from prisoners destined for death were kept in warehouses, named "Canada I and II" due to the "wealth" they obtained.

Pots and pans

Luggage

more than 40,000 pairs of shoes

Prostheses of prisoners which were undoubtedly (due to their being handicapped) 

sent straight to death

 

We could not take photos in the "room of hair" but there is also a display containing over 2 tons of human hair from Auschwitz victims... totally creepy. What's worse is that some of the hair was used for rope to further the Nazis' cause, and also used to weave into blankets. Horrifying.

 Scaffolding used to hang Rudolf Hoess, the SS Commander of Auschwitz who was captured by the British, convicted of  war crimes at Nurenmurg,  

brought back to Poland, and hanged in 1947 at his old camp

  (less than 10% of all Nazi war criminals actually were put on trial)

Memorial at Birkenau

"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940-1945."

It was a chilling visit for us, and I urge all of you to come to Auschwitz someday so as to never forget this horrific and still so recent part of European history.