Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz. This part of the camp was an old Polish army base which the Nazis converted. It was small for a camp, meaning that it could only hold up to 15,000 prisoners.

Block 11 – aka the “death block”. Where “trials” were held, and punishments distributed freely. The usual punishment was being shot in the yard outside this block.

The execution yard outside block 11

The no-go-zone near a watch tower. Prisoners were forbidden to attempt suicide by running into the electric fences. If any prisoners crossed behind the sign they were shot from the watchtower – thus the Nazis ensured that prisoners had absolutely no power over their own fate

The electric fence separating the prisoner barracks inside the camp from the homes of some of the SS officers.

The chimney rising above the underground gas chamber in Auschwitz complex

Entrance to the gas chamber

Inside. The circle of light on the floor to the left gives away the location of one of the holes in the roof from which the gas was emptied into the chamber. The air in here was thick and heavy and I found it hard to breathe. I couldn’t help but imagine the terror of the thousands of people who were suffocated in this room.

Aerial photo of the camp. It was HUGE. The colored squares indicate the warehouses where all the possessions taken from Jewish prisoners were stored

A room full of shoes found in one of the warehouses

Pots and pans recovered from the warehouses

Front gate of the larger complex of Birkenau. This camp was built from the ground up by prisoners, with a capacity to hold 100,000 people. The railway divides the men’s half from the women’s half of the complex. The tracks run all the way to the gas chambers on the far side of the complex

A view towards the women’s side of the complex. Everything is still remarkably intact, even the wires in the massive electric fence that borders the entire camp.

Closer view of the barracks on the women’s side of the camp

Map showing all the places from which prisoners were shipped in order to be exterminated in Aushwitz

The end of the line.

Ruins of one of four gas chambers at Birkenau. All four were destroyed before the end of the war. They were specially built in 1943 and operated for almost two years. In that time, more than 1,100,000 people were mass murdered in these buildings.

Inside the holding barracks where prisoners were kept when the gas chambers were full. They were kept here for days without food or water before being taken for a “shower”. At least 5 or 6 people slept on one of these bunks at a given time

There were no toilets or washrooms so the bunks were filthy and the barracks infested with pests and disease.