So, I learned that Auschwitz was a "small" camp ... It is the first camp that they began exterminating people. The first trial of poisonous gas was used in the basement of one of the buildings we walked through. Auschwitz is also the only camp that used tattoos to number the prisoners (another new thing I learned - I thought all the camps did that)...
But, Auschwitz was too small to accomendate the mass extermination that the Nazis wanted to accomplish... So, just down the street (about 3 Kilometers), Birkeneau was built ...
This is the "gate of death" at Birkeneau. The trains came through the gate. Further up the tracks was the "sorting platform". Here prisoners were selected for immediate extermination, or sent to a barrack (to await extermination later).
This is the view from the platform, looking back at the gate ...
Where Auschwitz was overwhelming and depressing enough ... When you get to Birkeneau, you see the enormity of it all ... Rows, and rows of barracks, foundations of old barracks, and foundations of warehouses that stored the sorted possessions confiscated from the prisoners.
This is one of 4 (or 5?) cremetoriums that the Nazis destroyed and dynamited at the end of the war, to hide their crimes ... (below) .... They are currently working on reconstructing the cremetorium for historical reference. A rabbi is overseeing and blessing the grounds, because of the human remains present ....
The cremetoriums were all set back and hidden in the trees. You couldn't see them from the main gate - not even up in the guard tower on top. Often the prisoners were led from the train platform to the cremetorium. They would stand in groups among the trees, waiting for their turn for the "shower". There are photographs among the trees near the cremetoriums of the families waiting among the trees ... near by is a pond that has human ashes from the cremetoriums ...
A view (above) into one of the many barracks ... Rows of bunks, three high ...
(below) - a veiw through the barbed wire of the rows of some of the barracks knocked down. The smoke stacks are the one firplace in each Huge barrack to give heat to the thousands that slept in each barrack.
(Below) - a view at sunset from the gaurd tower on top of the "gate of death" ... rows of empty foundations from the barracks ... Birkeneau was HUGE ... incredible that there are still those who deny that it ever happened ...
This is the "gate of death" at Birkeneau. The trains came through the gate. Further up the tracks was the "sorting platform". Here prisoners were selected for immediate extermination, or sent to a barrack (to await extermination later).
This is the view from the platform, looking back at the gate ...
Where Auschwitz was overwhelming and depressing enough ... When you get to Birkeneau, you see the enormity of it all ... Rows, and rows of barracks, foundations of old barracks, and foundations of warehouses that stored the sorted possessions confiscated from the prisoners.
This is one of 4 (or 5?) cremetoriums that the Nazis destroyed and dynamited at the end of the war, to hide their crimes ... (below) .... They are currently working on reconstructing the cremetorium for historical reference. A rabbi is overseeing and blessing the grounds, because of the human remains present ....
The cremetoriums were all set back and hidden in the trees. You couldn't see them from the main gate - not even up in the guard tower on top. Often the prisoners were led from the train platform to the cremetorium. They would stand in groups among the trees, waiting for their turn for the "shower". There are photographs among the trees near the cremetoriums of the families waiting among the trees ... near by is a pond that has human ashes from the cremetoriums ...
A view (above) into one of the many barracks ... Rows of bunks, three high ...
(below) - a veiw through the barbed wire of the rows of some of the barracks knocked down. The smoke stacks are the one firplace in each Huge barrack to give heat to the thousands that slept in each barrack.
(Below) - a view at sunset from the gaurd tower on top of the "gate of death" ... rows of empty foundations from the barracks ... Birkeneau was HUGE ... incredible that there are still those who deny that it ever happened ...
