Day 163 Auschwitz-Birkenau

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We approached Auschwitz with a sense of trepidation. This was nothing like we had visited before, it was the scene of the biggest mass murder in modern history.

Auschwitz was originally a Polish army barracks that was first used by the Nazi’s together with Birkanau - a short distance away - to detain and kill 1.5 million people mainly Jews, but also Poles, Russians, Gypsies. amongst other ethnic minorities

We first walked around the barrack building of Auschwitz where the story is told in graphic images, how Men Women and children were rounded up, from all over Europe and transported to here.

On display at Auschwitz are piles of shoes, spectacles, suitcases, heaps of hair that was cut off (it was actually bagged up and sold for profit) especially moving were the pictures of the murdered.

Next we stopped at Birkenau, villages were raised to the ground and people displaced to build this massive compound. We strolled round the many huts still in place, the many observation towers, the sewage silos built to handles waste and finally the train tracks that carried the victims directly to the gas chambers. These were blown up in a desperate bid to hide the evidence of the atrocities that had been committed.

70 years on its incredible to think how it was ever allowed to happen.

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Photos

The Entrance at Auschwitz
Tranlated it means ' work brings freedom '

Auschwitz Death Wall
Here political prisoners & non compliant prisoners were executed

Destroyed gas chamber.
When the Nazi's realised they were losing the war. They tried to destroy evidence of the killings. Here is the remains one of the combined undressing room/gas chamber/ crematorium they blew up.

Comments

[Jon Hunt]

Auschwitz
What a downer towards the end of a 'great escape'! Makes you realise how lucky we are! We are still ruled by useless politicians but they haven't locked us all up yet. Enjoy the rest of your trek! Love Jon

[Nick & Jacqui]

Sobering
We, as you know, visited Dachau. The magnificent sunny day that accompanied our tour didn't seem to suit the atrocities that had taken place there. It would have been more appropriate to have had a cold misty day. Still cheered ourselves up with another bottle of that Slovak 12% beer that we were drinking in Budapest. Keep on truckin' guys!