OT: Pics from Auschwitz-Birkenau visit

[Kuniworth]

Ok as I promised here are some pictures from my visit to Krakow in southern Poland;

Oscar Schindlers residence in Krakow. The apartment which he seized from a jewish family as they were forced into the ghetto is the one with the open window.

Schindler's famous factory. The doors are authentic, the sign is not. The movie by Speilberg was filmed on location and you'll recognise scenes from the movie.

The new jewish cemetary in Krakow. Before the war 65,00 jews lived in the city - today barely 180. As you see no one is left to take care of the tombstones, this is a common sight in Poland. Much of the jewish culture are gone...

Plaszow labourcamp. The steep hills Im taking the picture from is the spot where the barracks were located. As a way of humiliation it was founded on an old jewish cemetary and polish students are digging out more of this every year, No buildings remains in Plaszow as the germans had time to ship it off to Germany before the russians arrived much later. The house of Amon Göth(played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's list) is on the far right at quite some distance.

Entrance to Auschwitz I - the main camp founded in 1940. This is actually a polish military facility that the germans reshaped into a concentration camp. Auschwitz I worked also as the administration center of the three large complexes in Osviecem(Auschwitz, Birkenau, Monowitz with subcamps).

The gallows at the end of the courtyard in Auschwitz I. Also the spot of public executions.

A painting first of the courtyard of torture were the SS killed thousand and thousand of prisoners. The stonewall is still there. Weak, people who resisted, anyone could be brought here and murdered. On the right is the infamous "Block 11" the center of interrogation and torture in the camp. It was there they first tried out zyklon B on mainly russian POW:s in the basement. On the left "block 10" were the medical experiments on mainly jewish women were carried out.

And this is how it looks today...

[Kuniworth]

Some of the shoes the russians found while liberating the camp on january 27th 1945...

Some found zyklon B cans...

entrance to gaschamber and crematoria I, still intact in Auschwitz I

The place Rudolf Höss was hanged in 1947. Höss was the commendant of Auschwitz camps 1940-43. The gaschamber I is about 20 meters to the left...

Entrance to Birkenau, founded in 1942. "the gate of death"...actually the railroad into the camp was not built until 1944 to speed up the extermination of the jews

Before that the "old judenramp" was used. Here the jews and their belongings arrived. Birkenau is maybe 600 meters at nine o clock

Picture taken from the tower at the "gate of death". This is the area of the wooden barracks, as you can see almost none remains today, just the chimneys. Birknenau is a very large camp. Auschwitz I is about 6 hectares while Birkenau within the electric fences is 171 hectares. And that does not even include all the spots they burned corpses and dumped the ashes. With that I'd guess its well over 200 hectares.

The ramp were they unloaded the jews, gypsies and others. Picture taken from the tower, in the distance are the locations of gaschamber II and III(number I was in Auschwitz). In total there were four gaschambers in Birkenau(2-5) and addition to this two "bunkers" eg two brick houses serving as gaschambers.

[ November 22, 2005, 04:35 PM: Message edited by: Kuniworth ]

[Kuniworth]

Inside one of the wooden barracks. On one of those beds could sleep 8-12 prisoners which means 24-36 prisoners for just one of those. Heating was almost never used and so I'd guess people most likely died from the cold as flies. These barracks is nothing but some wooden boards

Brick house block 16. Here they laid the kids who were weak and let them die or used them later for medical experiments. The drawing is made of a prisoner, it's a grotesque contrast to the rest of the building. The children slept on the floor as well as the rest of the levels of those "beds"

"The sauna" or registration central for newly arrived prisoners eg the ones who did not go directly to the gaschambers. To the left is the storage center of the jews belongings nicknamed "canada". Im standing here not far from gaschamber and crematoria 4 which the sonderkommandos blew up on october 7th 1944 as a display of resistance. Ther action is dipicted in the movie "the grey zone(2001) with David Arquette, Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel..

remnants of the crematoria owens at crematoria 5

remnants of crematoria building 2. Behind it were the gaschamber and on the right was the dressing room.

And finally 85-year old Katzimier Smolen. Polish resistance fighter and Auschwitz I survivor from 1940-45. Founder of the Auschwitz & Birkenau museums in 1947. Prison number 1327.

[ November 22, 2005, 04:36 PM: Message edited by: Kuniworth ]

[Jev.Dk]

Thank you Kuni.

Hope to go there myself sometime.

[JerseyJohn]

Great photos, Kuni, and great information as well. Thanks for posting them.

-- Rudolf Hoess wrote his memoirs, Auschwitz Commodant, while awaiting execution. It's very interesting and scary not so much for gory details, but for the detached manner of the narrative. It's written from the pov of a dedicated manager copeing with incredible obstacles while trying to achieve impossible quottas. At one point he points out the high instance of cannibalism among Russian POWs constructing portions of the camp. What he doesn't quite get into is why they weren't being fed -- and that he was the one who could have provided food for them.

[J P Wagner]

Thank you for posting these pictures....

[blackbellamy]

I wish I had a tee shirt like that.

These were from my mother's side of the family.

But at least it was warm and comfy in the barracks!

/so going to hell for that last one

[Curry]

Thanks for sharing the pics Kuni.