Auschwitz-Birkenau


The complex consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz I, the administrative center; Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp  and Auschwitz III a work camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "Arbeit macht frei," was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps "as a kind of mystical declaration that self-sacrifice in the form of endless labor does in itself bring a kind of spiritual freedom."

I can't help but ask what the hell did  Nazis know about spirituality.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Auschwitz  seen from inside of the barbed wire fence.


 

 

 

 The first commandant of Auschwitz, SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Höß, who was tried and sentenced to death after the war by the Polish Supreme National Tribunal, was hanged here on 16 April 1947.

 

 

 

The main entrance to Birkenau

In the Birkenau camp more than 20,000 people could be gassed and cremated each day. 

 


 

 


The railway sidings inside Birkenau where the selections of arriving prisoners took place. Some 75% were sent directly to the gas chambers for immediate execution.

 

 

 

 



















Josef Mengele was the chief provider for the gas chambers, his thumb resting on his pistol belt, he surveyed his prey, DEATH to the left, LIFE to the right.

photo source:wikipedia

 

 

 

photo source:wikipedia
1944

2006

 

 

 

 Ruins of crematorium at Birkenau. The Germans used dynamite to destroy this and other buildings in an attempt to cover  up what had  happened here.

 

 

 

Halt!
Sign warning prisoners away
 from the high voltage 
 perimeter fence.

 

 
They had no change of clothing and slept in the same clothes they worked in.

 

 

 

"To the memory
Of the men, women and children
Who fell victim to the Nazi genocide
Here lie their ashes
May their souls rest in peace.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 the end of the line

 

 

click blue coyote paw to track back to the wall