Auschwitz and Brikenau

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Auschwtiz and Brikenau

How can I describe the indescribable? I do not believe I can, so I will not try. Rather I will write just a few words and then let the pictures I took speak.

I had forgotten that Auschwitz was an old Polish army base. Thus, all the buildings are brick. I thought the barracks were all of wood, but the wooden barracks were built at Brickenau. Brickenau, a much larger camp, was built when the Nazis decided that Auschwtiz was too small and too inefficient. Auschwitz had two small furnaces that could only cremate six bodies at one time. The Nazis would cram several hundred people into the “shower room,” kill them with poisonous gas and then it took three days to cremate all the bodies. Brickenau had four large furnaces that were much more efficient for their terrible purposes.

We visited Auschwtiz and Brikenau on Monday, the day after Easter. We had to be careful to stay with our group and not become separated as there were large numbers of groups visiting. As groups mingled and passed each other, it would have been very easy to have become lost in the crowd. I thought it very interesting to see several large groups of young people from Israel carrying large Israeli flags. They looked like teenagers from the States, some looked interested, some looked sad and others simply looked bored.

It seemed appropriate that on the day we visited it was quite chilly and the sky was overcast. Our discomfort of being a bit cold paled in comparison what so many Jews, gypsies, political prisoners and prisoners of war suffered here.

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Photos

Auschwitz
Our first view of the infamous entrance to Auschwitz.

Auschwitz
The sign over the entrance gate that says, "Work Makes You Free." Notice the B was welded upside down by a defiant prisoner.

Auschwitz
The electric barbed wire fence that surrounded the concentration camp.

Auschwitz
One of the rows of barracks that was turned into prison compounds. Up to 1000 or more prisoners were crammed into each bulding.

Auschwitz
The entrance to one of the buildings.

Auschwitz
A memorial urn filled with the ashes of cremated prisoners.

Auschwitz
Empty gas canisters.

Auschwitz
Over two tons of human hair. The hair was sent to textile mills where it was truned into cloth for military uniforms.

Auschwitz
Cloth made from human hair.

Auschwitz
Entrance to the building where political prisoners were kept and executed.

Auschwitz
Prisoners and entire families were forced to face the wall and then were shot. The youngest was an infant only a few months old.

Auschwitz
Prisoners bunks.

Auschwitz
SS duty officer's office.

Brikenau
Entrance to Brikenau. Brikenau is much larger than Auschwitz.

Brikenau
One of the women's barracks. Most of the wooden buildings were burned by the Nazis as the Russian army approached.

Brikenau
The latrine. There was no running water. The sanitation was so bad the German guards would not enter the building.

Brikenau
Just beyond where the tracks divide an SS doctor would stand. As a prisoner approached he would wave them either to the right or the left. One direction means immediate executation, the other direction to work and a little longer life.

Auschwitz
The crematorium at Auschwitz. The larger ones at Brikenau were destroyed by the Nazis before the Russians arrived.

Comments

[Lesley Dickason]

My friend and I went here in early December 2005. It had been snowing and was naturally cold. We had on tee-shirt and jumper, trousers, boots, socks, body warmers and a coat hat and gloves. We were chilly but the thought of all those people here with virtually no clothes on was unimaginable. The journey here was one of mixed feelings. My grandmother was born just outside Warsaw, came to England before Hitler ran riot, but in saying that most of her family were exterminated by this most sickest of men. I felt so sad on arrival at Birkenau. The thought of living (if that is what it can be called) I cannot imagine, and my thoughts and feelings are with those who died and of course, with those that managed to survive and their families.