Auschwitz-Birkenau

There is no single European country that suffered as much as Poland did during World War II. Millions of Poles, and nearly the entire prewar Jewish population of over three million, were killed in concentration camps. It is important to note that Hitler did not only target the Jews but also the Poles, where his Nazi ideology considered the Poles to be inferior to the Germans. With that our second day in Poland was spent seeing Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was about an hours bus ride outside of Krakow. The Auschwitz extermination camp was established in April 1940 by the Germans in the prewar Polish army barracks on the outskirts of Oświęcim. Auschwitz was originally intended for Polish political prisoners, but the camp was “repurposed” as a dedicated centre for the wholesale extermination of the Jews of Europe. For this purpose, the much larger camp at Birkenau was constructed. Auschwitz is largest of the Nazi extermination camps, and the scene of the largest attempt at genocide in human history, as well as the world’s largest cemetery. This experience was almost overwhelming in that the site, the conditions, and the actuality of what happened there was far worse than what I expected. The terror and horror of that place is unreal its almost difficult to explain. As we walked through some of the exhibits in Auschwitz, on display were people’s suitcases with their names and addresses on them. Viewing the suitcases makes one realize that an innocent person owned each suitcase. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed to be taken within the different barracks so I have nothing to show for these horrific exhibits. Therefore it is important to be aware of history and the past so that nothing like this is ever repeated again.

The infamous gate of Auschwitz with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" German for work makes one free or work shall set you free.

Within Auschwitz there are two camps including Auschwitz and Birkenau. This picture is of some of the barracks in Auschwitz. Auschwitz was a concentration camp where Jews, Poles, Communists, and Prisoners of War were forced to work.

Death Wall - where many people working in Auschwitz were shot.

The entrance to Birkenau. Birkenau is several times larger than Auschwitz and is the site where millions of Jews were gassed to death in the gas chambers.

Inside Birkenau

On the left hand side is the train car where Jews were unloaded after days of travelling, and on the right is the site of the selection process where Jews were either chosen to work in the camp or to be sent straight to the gas chamber.

The Gas Chambers. When it was evident to the Germans that they would lose the war it was important that they destroy any evidence that would lead the rest of the world to believe that the Germans were committing a mass genocide. So there is not a single gas chamber and crematorium that is still intact in that the Germans destroyed them using dynamite. The Germans were very good a hiding what they were doing in the extermination camps from the outside world in that they simply said the camps were strictly prisoner of war camps. As well as the cyclone B that was used to kill the Jews in the gas chamber was delivered in red cross cars.

Inside one of the buildings where Jewish women would have lived. The living conditions were horrific. For example it was colder in the building than it was outside and about 10 women would have slept on one of those plank beds.

The larger side where men would have been kept. Since the building were made out of wood many of them have broken down over the past 60 years and only the brick furnaces remain.