Auschwitz/Birkinau Concentration Camp, Poland

It took a tremendous amount of effort and evil to develop the few abandoned Polish barracks in the small town of Oswiecim, Poland into one of the worst hellholes of accumulated misery that mankind has ever devised. In post-war testimony at the Nuremburg Trials, Supreme SS Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkinau, Rudolph Hoess, proudly told the world he ran the "greatest human destruction machine of all time". Those who think this never happened are in massive denial. An estimated 1.1 million people of all ages had their lives come to a premature and painful end here- more than at any other Nazi camp. Most of those who somehow survived suffered greatly as well. In the winter of 1944-45 many thousands died in a long, forced march away from the camp to avoid liberation by Soviet troops. Over 500 of the 7600 prisoners left behind in the camp died after liberation because they were too far gone to save. The complex consisted originally of Auschwitz concentration camp, and later Birkinau Death Camp was added where genocide was perfected in mass. To help tell the story I have posted some photos of large images on display at the camp. Most photos/records were destroyed by the Nazis in the retreat. Nothing like this must ever happen again. I feel privileged and honored to have seen this memorial site in a time when some of its survivors are still alive and breathing. And remembering. Remembering a level of agony only those who were there could ever comprehend.
Read More
  • Photo Sharing
  • About SmugMug
  • Browse Photos
  • Prints & Gifts
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Owner Log In
© 2021 SmugMug, Inc.
    A scale model of Birkinau's Crematorim II. The gas chambers were underground. Shown here is the stairs down to the staging area where victims shed their clothes. Photo at lower right shows the furnace doors, 3 oven racks/doors per furnace box.
    Model section showing gas chamber lower level, and the ovens above. Conscripted prisoners served as the slave labor to take the bodies up one level to the ovens.
    Closeup of the ovens level. Five ovens with 3 doors each. Only a few ashes would be left of the bodies after about 90 minutes of intense burning. Time consuming, but the best way to destroy evidence. Ashes were used to fertilize gardens, as landfill, dumped into shallow ponds onsite and transported to 2 nearby rivers. Survivor Irka Anis wrote in a book she was sent to Birkinau just before the camp was liberated to help load approximately 6000 large urns of ashes from one crematorium onto transports, which then left for Germany.