This blog is entirely dedicated to photos taken during our recent visit to sites of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. All pictures in this post are taken at Auschwitz 1.
The entrance to all of the camps created by the Nazis were given this wrought iron ironic salute: Work Will Set You Free. This is the entrance gate to Auschwitz 1, established close to Krakow, Poland in 1940 to hold members of the Polish intelligentsia, people who could spark resistance to the Nazi conquerors. From that time it evolved into a sprawling camp of three main division, the primary setting for the Nazis' extermination project.
Below is a photo of the camp orchestra. Morning and evening it would be assembled to play the marches to which prisoners would leave and return from their work of the day. The SS paid close attention to the order and gait of all leaving and returning workers. Each line of five abreast was required to march in proper military form in time to the orchestra. Checking numbers of prisoners was facilitated by this procedure. Failure to march properly led to severe punishment and possible selection for the regular "weeding" out of the unfit for work, the death sentence.
Looking out from the entrance gate.
A watchtower behind the electrified fence. Prisoners were not allowed to come closer than two yards to the fence. Periodically a prisoner would rush the fence in order to commit suicide.
Prisoners triple-tiered bunks, most often shared due to overcrowding. Each had a thin straw mattress and two blankets. Kapos and their bosses, SS-men, were fanatical about the beds being left in perfect order each morning.
A Kapo's special space within the block. Most Kapos were criminals especially imported by the Nazis from prisons to be the first level bosses of the political, Jewish, Roma, and so on, groupings. Kapos had special privileges and food; they had rights of physical control over their charges and were, in fact, expected to be brutal.
Camp latrines.
The building on the right was called The House of Death by the prisoners as all housed there were killed. Its inmates were generally politicals, Soviet prisoners of war, and regular prisoners who were suspected of sabotage in any form. This building was in use mainly before 1942 when Birkenau took over the main killing function of the camp. The courtyard seen between the building was the site of executions.
This room at the front main floor of The House of Death was used for the "trials" of prisoners held there once they had been subjected to various forms of torture in the basement cells. Each "trial" lasted on average one minute. This formality was an attempt on the part of the administration to conform to the laws passed by the Third Reich soon after its formation. When Birkenau was operational, all pretense of legality was abandoned.
This reconstructed Wall of Death was the place in the courtyard where each condemned prisoner would be shot in the back of the head. After being sentenced, he was taken to an adjoining room and made to completely undress. Then he was taken out a side door of the building to the courtyard and shot by the SS officer on duty. Within a minute the next condemned man was brought out. There were often over a hundred of these every day. It was in this building that the first experiments of gassing using Cyclon B, a pesticide, was used. Its success opened the way for the mass exterminations of 1942-5.
The entrance to all of the camps created by the Nazis were given this wrought iron ironic salute: Work Will Set You Free. This is the entrance gate to Auschwitz 1, established close to Krakow, Poland in 1940 to hold members of the Polish intelligentsia, people who could spark resistance to the Nazi conquerors. From that time it evolved into a sprawling camp of three main division, the primary setting for the Nazis' extermination project.
Below is a photo of the camp orchestra. Morning and evening it would be assembled to play the marches to which prisoners would leave and return from their work of the day. The SS paid close attention to the order and gait of all leaving and returning workers. Each line of five abreast was required to march in proper military form in time to the orchestra. Checking numbers of prisoners was facilitated by this procedure. Failure to march properly led to severe punishment and possible selection for the regular "weeding" out of the unfit for work, the death sentence.
Looking out from the entrance gate.
A watchtower behind the electrified fence. Prisoners were not allowed to come closer than two yards to the fence. Periodically a prisoner would rush the fence in order to commit suicide.
Prisoners triple-tiered bunks, most often shared due to overcrowding. Each had a thin straw mattress and two blankets. Kapos and their bosses, SS-men, were fanatical about the beds being left in perfect order each morning.
A Kapo's special space within the block. Most Kapos were criminals especially imported by the Nazis from prisons to be the first level bosses of the political, Jewish, Roma, and so on, groupings. Kapos had special privileges and food; they had rights of physical control over their charges and were, in fact, expected to be brutal.
Camp latrines.
The building on the right was called The House of Death by the prisoners as all housed there were killed. Its inmates were generally politicals, Soviet prisoners of war, and regular prisoners who were suspected of sabotage in any form. This building was in use mainly before 1942 when Birkenau took over the main killing function of the camp. The courtyard seen between the building was the site of executions.
This room at the front main floor of The House of Death was used for the "trials" of prisoners held there once they had been subjected to various forms of torture in the basement cells. Each "trial" lasted on average one minute. This formality was an attempt on the part of the administration to conform to the laws passed by the Third Reich soon after its formation. When Birkenau was operational, all pretense of legality was abandoned.
This reconstructed Wall of Death was the place in the courtyard where each condemned prisoner would be shot in the back of the head. After being sentenced, he was taken to an adjoining room and made to completely undress. Then he was taken out a side door of the building to the courtyard and shot by the SS officer on duty. Within a minute the next condemned man was brought out. There were often over a hundred of these every day. It was in this building that the first experiments of gassing using Cyclon B, a pesticide, was used. Its success opened the way for the mass exterminations of 1942-5.
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