Photos are below. Usually I brighten and lightly edit photos but the only ones I changed in any way here are the photos of the faces. Everything else was left as-is, because it is true and I think more honest. It was as dark and cloudy and depressing as it looks. The temperature was -10 C, or about 14 Fahrenheit, and it fit the scene.
I would encourage every single person on Earth to go and remember.
PS - There are some areas of the camps where photographs are not permitted. These include inside the gas chambers, the crematoriums, and the room of human hair.
"Arbeit Macht Frei" - Work will make you free. The motto of Auschwitz.
The incoming offices at the gates and the former stables.
Cremains that signify victims of the gas chambers at this memorial.
A map of the original homelands of the prisoners at Auschwitz. Where they all came from.
I can't read them, but I believe this is a photo of the original documents found in this building that describe the "crimes" for which people were sent here. Living on land that the Nazis wanted to take, reading newspapers, owning a radio, etc. were valid reasons for sending people here as "political prisoners".
A diorama of the gas chambers and how they worked. To the left is the underground room where people would disrobe in preparation for "showers". Notice how it is larger so that they have room to move around. Then, up to 800 prisoners at a time (mostly the infirm, women, and all children) were moved into the underground gas chamber to the right, where Zyklon-B canisters were dropped into the chamber from holes in the ground above and people asphyxiated to death over the course of 30-60 minutes. Afterwards, political prisoners would move the bodies four at a time into large crematory chambers for burning. This happened around the clock and most were killed immediately after arrival at Birkenau but there were also chambers at Auschwitz for the political prisoners. Those men who worked the crematory ovens were housed separately and usually killed every three months because nobody wanted word to get out about what was happening.
Zyklon-B crystals and canister.
Body parts taken from the physically handicapped for later resale.
Jewish prayer shawls.
Collected eyeglasses.
Lots of empty Zyklon-B canisters.
Pots and pans taken from prisoners, who packed up all their belongings and thought that they were only being moved to new ghettos.
The suitcase room, with some of the names of prisoners written on them. It's so heartbreaking.
Shoes.
All of the photos like these are of Polish political prisoners, some of the very first to die here. These photos are only a TINY percentage of the prisoners brought here. The SS found it too expensive to photograph every prisoner shortly after starting so they suspended them very quickly and these are the only photos to survive. The people you see are of men and woman taken from Poland itself. You can tell by the color of the triangles on their clothes. The women who have their hair still were exceptions made because they became SS house servants and needed to look slightly more presentable. Everyone else had their heads shaved so that they were easily identified if they escaped.
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D inside a punishment chamber. Four people were crammed into this tiny area at a time (standing room only) for up to a week with no food or water. Most died within three to four days because of suffocation (notice the only air hole is up at the top and is tiny).
The killing wall.
The only hanging gallows. Constructed directly after the war specifically for the leader of this camp, who lived about a hundred feet away in a lavish brick home, it was only used that one time.
The Auschwitz gas chamber entrance.
No photos are allowed past this sign, and I would not have wanted record of it anyway. There are still nail scratch marks on the walls and the crematorium is haunting. I get chills just thinking about it.
Birkenau. This camp was used in shots of Schindler's List and countless other films and is commonly referred to as Auschwitz, but it is about a 10-minute drive away from the actual Auschwitz camp.
Trenches dug on the sides of the railroad tracks (much shallower now than they used to be) were filled with water and helped stop people from running. The entire system was well thought out by the Nazis to prevent anyone from leaving.
A train car, one similar to the cars that carried up to 200 people each.
The "dorm" buildings that housed prisoners. The buildings, especially the wooden buildings, were so shoddily-built that in winter those on the top bunks would be covered in snow when they awoke in the morning. The ones on the bottom usually slept in the filth on the floor and with the rodents and insects. The ones in the middle generally had it "best", but thousands still died every year from exposure. If you were at Birkenau, you generally died within a few weeks.
Many of the buildings were built so hastily that they are almost falling down now. Little preservation work is being done, and that is a difficult subject to breach as some people just want the place gone (understandably). If you are interested in going to see this place, I would suggest you do it soon, as much of the camp is already shut down and you cannot enter because the buildings are threatening to fall. Within ten years they expect no buildings to be safe enough to enter here.
The ash ponds.
Before the Allies freed this camp, an "extra" thousands of people were murdered here in this gas chamber to get rid of as many prisoners as possible. The SS bombed it themselves before fleeing to hide evidence.
The former entrance to this gas chamber. Birkenau had four gas chambers going round-the-clock at one time. It is worth noting that prisoners themselves were able to rally and bomb one of them about a year prior to the closure of the camp.
At the memorial.
The Birkenau memorial.
Placing a stone on the English memorial. There was a plaque written in every language formerly spoken by the prisoners here, about 18 plaques total.
The end of the track.
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