Auschwitz II; Birkenau

The Birkenau Camp (Auschwitz II) was built alleviate overcrowding at Auschwitz and step up the horrendous task of eliminating Jews and other "undesirables" from the European continetnt. It was built entirely by prisoner slave-labor on a swamp area 3 km away. Consisting mostly wooden structures, it is in a state of decay and therefore, most of the exhibits from Birkenau are on display in the brick buildings of Aushwitz I. No visit to this epicenter of evil is complete without a visit to this camp.

The infamous railroad track as it enters the camp through the arch is the subject of many photos. It is said that once one entered through that arch, the only way out was through the crematorium at the other end of this track (1 km past the gate). Today, we entered through a side entrance and walked the 1 kilometer to the ruins of the Nazi gas chambers and crematoriums 2 and 3.

The last few feet of rail before entrance to Birkenau.

No one will ever know exactly how many perished in this state-sponsored genocide but conservative estimates put the number at 1.5 million killed from 1940-1945 at this and thee Auschwitz I and III facilities. At the end of the war, approximately 400,000 Hungarian Jews were exterminated over an 8-week period. At 168 hours a week of round-the-clock murder, this works out to nearly 300 people an hour; exterminated in this efficient, heartless killing factory by cold, trained government employees.

The journey consisted of the rounding up of all Jewish people; usually already confined in ghettoes in their respective Nazi-controlled cities. They were told to bring their belongings (a deviously clever ploy by the Nazis to later steal these possessions) and were herded onto cattle cars. As many as 80 men, women, and children were crowded onto these cars. Without food, water, or sanitary facilities, they were kept aboard and transported as far as 2000 kilometers to Birkenau.

A lone boxcar remains on the track. Behind it (on the right) the guardhouse is visible. In this area, the prisoners left their belongings and were divided into those that lived to be worked to death and those that perished immediately.

When the train passed through the arch, it traveled about half of a km to a crossroads near a guard house. They were unloaded and brutal guards with clubs, guns, and dogs told them to drop their belongings and form into two lines. Women on one side and men on the other. The reason was that they would be "showering" after the long, filthy ride.

Walking towards the guard house / platform where the captives were unloaded. It can be seen on the left. The distance was about 1/2 km from the front gate.

Along the way, one of the many guard towers remains; mutely witnessing the memories of unimaginable horrors.

All children (except twins; they were "saved" by Dr. Mengele for his macabre "research") and old women were immediately sent down the tracks to the "showers". Some able-bodied women would be spared for future slave-labor. In captured photos, the faces of the women and children bely no terror. The assumption that they were actually going to shower instead of what really awaited them must have been lingering. After all, who would imagine that anyone could be so evil as to fool them into removing their clothes so the disposal of their body could be facilitated more easily?

The lines of men then passed by Nazi "doctors" that would in a matter of seconds, direct them into two different lines and directions. One direction was for the old and infirm. They had no useful purpose for the "Master Race" so they were directed down the track to the shower/gas chambers. To the other direction, the healthiest men were directed. They would receive an actual shower (and have every bit of hair shaved) to de-louse them before being assigned to a barracks. Their deaths would come later, after hours of torturous labor and degradation.

The guardhouse near the platform where the prisoners were unloaded.

Another view of the guardhouse. Doctors had the few seconds it took the new arrivals to walk (from the rail cars) this distance to decide if they were healthy enough to work to death or send directly to the gas chambers. Those selected for the "showers" were sent down the path to the

The selection process. Those being sent to their left (towards the guardhouse) and down the tracks at the top right of the picture were being sent directly to their deaths. Those sent to their immediate right were deemed as fit for slave labor.

Through this gate the prisoners pictured above were directed to their right to be used as slave labor.

Those assigned to the gas chambers were directed underground to an area where they were told to undress and hang their clothes on numbered pegs (they were told to remember the number of the peg on which they hung their clothes so they could retrieve them after the shower). Then, they were directed into the "shower". In the gas chamber, the cruel deception was furthered by the placement of non-working shower heads to minimize the panic. When all were crowded into the chamber, the airtight doors were locked and Zyclon B pellets were poured into the specially constructed vents. The body heat from the hundreds of people combined with heat forced in from the crematorium caused the pellets to transform into deadly cyanide gas. Specially constructed peep holes allowed the attendants to ascertain as to when all were dead. It took about 20 minutes for even the strongest (found at the top of the heap of bodies where the air fresher, longer) to succumb.

Following the venting of the room to allow the living to enter, Sonderkommandos entered to remove the bodies. Women's hair was shorn, body cavities were searched for valuables, and gold teeth were forcibly removed with pliers. Then the bodies were ready for cremation. Because there was such a demand to do away with huge amount of bodies, the crematoriums ran day and night. The estimated capacity of over 1400 crematioins a day was given by Rudolf Hoess, the Camp Commandant in his memoirs (just before he was hanged for his part in the Holocaust).

Small children headed to the "showers". Believing this lie, their faces show no fear or panic. The young woman pictured in the center appears to be healthy enough to work. The reason she is in this group is because of her newborn. The act of removing her baby would have produced unwanted panic. It was easier to send them both to die.

Human bodies are composed of mainly water and extremely high temperatures must be maintained for about 20 minutes to maximize the process of cremation. Often the rush to satisfy the demand of the ovens precipitated a shorter, less efficient attempt. Then, un-incinerated bones were removed by means of a rake and crushed into powder by Sonderkommandos. This powder, along with the ashes of the recently cremated, was sold by the SS and used as fertilizer.

Crematorium #2 as it looked while in operation. The Nazis blew it up and ruins are all that remain today.

The entrance to the underground area where the prisoners were told to undress.

Those selected for labor were housed in wooden barracks. Assembled onsite by prisoners, these were pre-fabricated in Germany. The poorly constructed buildings were un-insulated and had a fireplace at each end. Wood was all but unavailable, so the winter months brought intense suffering. The bunks were nothing more than wide wooden slats and held as many as 8 prisoners per section. The top bunks were the most desirable because of the rampant cases of dysentery and diarrhea. It was not uncommon to awaken to find that numerous deaths had occurred during the night.

The barracks. This was one of hundreds in the camp. Pre-fabricated in Germany and sent by rail, they were assembled by prisoners.

Crudely constructed toilets. No privacy. Prisoners were degraded in every aspect of their lives.

These bunks held as many as 8 per section. The concrete running down the length connects the two fireplaces. Above, one can see openings covered with chicken wire.

At this point of the tour, I had seen all that I wanted to experience. I looked up through the chicken wire covered opening into the light streaming through it and sought to be away from this terrible place. Luckily, I was born at the time and place in history that allowed this departure to occur.

We took a few more pictures, met our group at our bus and rode the 65 kilometers back to Cracow. Although I will be many mile away from Auschwitz/Birkenau, I will always remember the experience.

Photo of prisoners building a drainage ditch around the camp. Birkenau is located on swampy ground.

The same ditch today. Picture taken from just inside the fence.

Small bouquets and memorials can be seen in various places throughout the camps.

Near the ruins of the gas chambers; plaques in a number of the world's languages are visible on display. This one was in English. The stones are memorials left by Jewish people who leave them instead of flowers.

Chimneys of barracks that have been destroyed or were torn down. The number of barracks existing at one time in the enclosure is staggering to attempt to comprehend.

Note: I took the liberty of including some pictures from the Auschwitz Album website and from pictures taken of the exhibits in the camps. I used them to produce the "then and now"perspective and to re-enforce what the guides told us in our educational tour

An Overwhelming Evil: Auschwitz

A Guard tower; overlooking the Auschwitz Death Camp.

After Germny invaded Poland (while expanding the Third Reich in search of Lebensraum) in 1939, Hitler ordered the Polish Army barracks near the village of Oświęcim, Poland turned into a concentration camp for political prisoners. The name of the town as well as the countryside was “Germanized” and will forever be associated with an overwhelming evil. It was called Auschwitz.

The "Arbeit Macht Frei" greeting on the front gate of Auschwitz.

Originally, the prisoners were Polish students, teachers, priests, and intellectuals that sought to resist the Nazi occupation of Poland. Anyone of influence that may organize resistance to the plans of the “Master Race” were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz. At first they were photographed, given numbers that were tattooed onto their bodies and records were kept of their existence. The average life span of an early prisoner of Auschwitz was three months. With a inhumanly demanding 11 hour work day of slave labor and a less that 1700 calorie daily diet of watery soup and moldy bread, the prisoners couldn’t last much longer. This in addition to the brutality and degradation they endured.

A flower inserted into the open gate at the entrance of Auschwitz. Brick barracks that originally housed Polish soldiers stand in the background.

In late 1941 and early 1942, the camp began mass extermination of Europe’s Jews as part of the “Final Solution” to the Jewish Question. There were other camps serving the maniacal state-sanctioned murder, but Auschwitz became the epicenter of evil and is conservatively associated with 1.5 million deaths. Of these, 400,000 Hungarian Jews were put to death in an 8-week period late in the war.

The barbed wire fence had 12 strands and was electrified with 6000 volts. There were two fences with a gravel zone between them. Of the millions imprisoned at Auschwitz, 144 successfully escaped.

To ease the overcrowding of the overflowing Auschwitz camp, a larger, more efficient death camp was built (entirely by slave labor from within the camps) three kilometers away. The Birkenau camp was 20 times larger and contained most of the infamous gas chambers and crematoriums. (An Auschwitz III was also built but completely destroyed at the end of the war.)

Each day, thousands of prisoners on their way to endure inhumane slave labor would have to walk past this area just inside the main gate. A band comprised of inmates was forced to play upbeat marching music as the prisoners left and staggered back into camp.

At the end of the war, with the Soviets approaching, the Nazis tried to cover up their crimes and made a hurried, unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Birkenau camp. Before marching the fittest prisoners westward toward Germany. The infamous gas chambers and crematoriums were blown up with the idea of bulldozing them and planting grass.. The ruins of the dreadful apparatus remain for viewing. As education and a reminder of the Santanya quote.

Quote in the entrance to the museum exhibits.

Today, I fulfilled a life-long desire to visit this place. To try to understand how an entire nation could follow the machinations of a madman and his henchmen. To understand how common, everyday folks could allow themselves to become the personification of evil for generations to come. How a nation could endorse and promote mass murder of a race of people because they were “undesirable”.

The combination of the two camps made up a somber first-hand learning experience. To pass under the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate and walk past where a band of prisoners was forced to play rousing marching music as the inmates staggered to and from work. To pass by a wall designed for execution by firing squads To view a railroad rail attached to two posts to form a gallows for public hangings. To glimpse the blocks where the “Doctors” plied their horrible acts of “medicine”. To view two tons of hair, shorn from dead women. To stand in rooms where prisoners removed their clothes believing they were going to shower. To view the rooms where Zyclon B gas literally took thousands of lives in 20 minutes, and to try with trembling hands to photograph the brick and steel crematoriums where the victims were stacked 2 or 3 deep to burn. That was part of my day.

And as my feet got tired and I felt a pang of hunger late in the morning, I felt ashamed. When I cringed at the discomfort I felt as too many visitors surrounded and entered my “comfort zone” in the cramped hallways near the underground starvation cells, I felt ashamed. When my backpack became unwieldy and cumbersome, I thought of the mountains of luggage and possessions stolen by the SS and I felt ashamed. And after a three-hour tour through a literal man-made hell, I looked upward at the sun shining through the space in the roof of a wooden barracks, I told myself that I had seen enough and was ready to leave this place. And looking back on the memory of that instant, I will always be ashamed.

But when I encountered the exhibit of children’s toys and dolls taken from their young victims, I couldn’t force myself to look. How can the world that planned, condoned, allowed, and carried out this evil NOT be ashamed?

It has been said that a common saying that circulated around Birkenau was once you entered that famous gate, the only way you left was through the crematorium at the other end of the rail line a kilometer into the camp. As I envision the smoke from a million souls drifting heavenward and the ashes of a million souls spreading down the Vistula River, I desire that the world has the courage to never forget the overwhelming evil that man perpetrated on his fellow man. And holding in our memory the keys to never allow this to re-occur, may we too, never escape.

Lyn Hepner

Krackow, Poland

June 27, 2011

Open, used cans of Zyclon B. The gas used to exterminate untold hundreds of thousands. These are only a few of the ones that the Soviets found when they liberated the camp. Most had been disposed of by the Nazis by then.

Zyclon B in pellet form. It was poured into the vents of the gas chambers where it interacted with heat. The heat caused it to become deadly gas, killing as many a 2000 in one crowded chamber.

Literally, mountains of shoes, suitcases, glasses, razors, stolen from the prisoners by the Nazis. These pictures don't even begin to show the amounts found. The number on display pales horribly in comparison to what was sent back Germany in the 5 years of operation of the camps. The Nazis were experts at death and plunder.

Starvation cell. The name describes the fate of the prisoner.

As many as four prisoners were forced into these cells (about the size of a phone booth) and forced to stand for days. The door shown is at the bottom.

Blocks 19, 20, and 21 were reserved for the Camp "Doctors". Here, indescribable horrors were perpetrated on victims under the guise of medical science.

Just outside Block 11. Two posts between which prisoners were tied with their shoulders in such a way as to dislocate them forcibly.

Beside Block 11. A wall in front of which prisoners were shot.

Just above and to the right of the firing squad wall pictured above; they had to brick up the windows of the administrative offices above the courtyard. Of course, this was to protect those SS staff members working in those offices.

The windows below are inmate cells.

A railroad tie mounted on three posts. This served as a gallows for public hanging of attempted escapees. Fellow inmates were forced to watch, the grisly sight; sometimes standing at attention for 20 hours at a time .

After prisoners undressed, they were herded into this room. Air tight doors were shut and Zyclon B was released. In minutes, hundreds were dead.

The ovens. The pictures are not very good. I literally could not keep my hands from shaking.

Smoke stack emerging from the only remaining crematorium located in Auschwitz. Both the crematorium and the gas chamber are located underground.

This was constructed for the purpose of executing captured Camp Commandant Rudolf Hoess. It served its purpose in 1947. From these gallows, Hoess could have seen down the path thousands of Jews walked to their deaths.

These are a few of the pictures we took of Auschwitz. The Birkenau camp (3 km away) was 20 times larger and the site of infinitely more death and suffering. It was built entirely by slave inmate labor and is decaying rapidly. The ruins of the largest crematoriums and gas chambers are located at Birkenau.

Soon, I will post the pictures we took of this 16 square kilometer garden of death.

Just not today.