throughout the world Auschwitz has become a symbol of
terror genocide in the holocaust
the auschwitz concentration camp was a complex of over 40 concentration
and extermination camps operated by nazi germany
in occupied poland during world war ii and the holocaust it consisted of
auschwitz one the main camp in auschwitzim
auschwitz ii birkenau a concentration and extermination camp
built with several gas chambers auschwitz iii monowitz a labor camp
created to staff a factory for the chemical
conglomerate and dozens of subcamps
the camps became a major site of the nazis final solution
to the jewish question
berkana was the largest and during its three years of operation
it had a range of functions construction began in october 1941
and it opened as a branch of auschwitz in march 1942.
ss stormbine fuhrer carl bishop was the chief of construction
his plans called for each barracks to hold 550 prisoners
but he later changes to 744 per barracks the prisoners were forced to live in the
barracks as they were building them in addition to working they faced long
road calls at night as a result in the early months most
prisoners in the men's camp died of hypothermia
starvation or exhaustion within a few weeks beginning
in 1942 auschwitz became the setting for the most massive murder campaign in
history when the nazis put into operation their
plan to destroy the entire jewish population
of europe the great majority of jews who were deported to auschwitz men women
and children were sent immediately upon arrival to death
in the gas chambers of birkenau approximately a million people of the
victims of the auschwitz concentration camp died
in birkenau the majorities were jews there are also
a large proportion of poles so did roma and sinti in addition to
soviet dows and prisoners of other nationalities
when the ss realized that the end of the war was near
they attempted to remove the evidence of the atrocities
committed here they dismantled the gas chambers
crematoria and other buildings burned documents and evacuated all those
prisoners who could walk to the interior of
germany thus who were not evacuated were liberated by
the red army on january 27 1945
the museum arose on the former grounds of the camp in 1947
through the initiative of some of its former prisoners
its aim is to preserve the original remains of the camp
commemorate the victims and carry out research and education
the memorial covers an area of almost 500 acres
the memorial also consists of collections archives
and the world's largest collection of art devoted to auschwitz
the entrance is free and once we found the parking
we walked to the main entrance of the camp following the old railroad tracks
we were greeted by the main gate in the guard house
which is commonly known as the gate of death
immediately after getting off the train the jews were ordered to line up in two
columns one of women and children and the other
of men each column was subjected to selections
in the selection process the doctors divide the jews who have
recently arrived in the transport to those who are fit for work and become
prisoners of the concentration camp and those who are intended for immediate
death in the gas chambers we walk down the rail tracks to the ss
guard rooms
this is where they prepare for selection
sector one this section of the concentration camp
opened in march 1942 as a count for men jews and non-jews july 1943
the man having been removed to a different compound it was turned into a
camp for women from different countries and remained a
camp for them until november 1944 from may 1942 to july 1942
a special penal unit for male prisoners was housed in this barrack
used as an infirmary where prisoners were regularly murdered by penal
injections into the heart this barrack used for sick prisoners it
also contained a registration office which was also used for collecting gold
teeth pulled from dead prisoners block 160. from december 1942 onwards
several dozen polish children and their mothers
were kept in this barracks as prisoners they were deported to the camp in
connection with the forced resettlement of poles others were brought here from
warsaw after the outbreak of the warsaw
uprising this barracks commonly known as the dead
barrack was used for the special isolation of
those women prisoners who were selected as unfit forward to be
sent to be murdered they had to wait their own deaths
without food or water and often for several days
many died in the barrack before they were summoned
when the barracks was full additional prisoners who had been selected for
death were kept outside in a locked yard
in this particular barracks ss doctor and nurses
murdered newborn babies and their mothers
by phenyl injections we walk around and saw more of the
sights such as the field used as dumping
grounds for ashes of the people murdered to the
memory of the men women and children who fell victim to
the nazi genocide here lied their ashes made their souls
rest in peace ruins of the gas chamber and crematorium
ii this were several hundred thousand jewish men
women and children were murdered by gas and their bodies burned
the crematorium was also used for disposal of the bodies of prisoners
who had died from other causes on october 23rd 1943
there was a revolt here by the jewishes brought from the bergen-belsen
concentration camp who resisted being herded into the
gas chamber towards the end of the war the edges
began to remove the evidence of the atrocities committed here
we walk around the ruins into the next site international monument to the
victims of auschwitz unveiled and dedicated in april 1967
each plaque in the ground is in the language of a nationality or ethnic
group that was persecuted at auschwitz
english was added as a 20th the field surrounding it are also
dumping grounds for ashes of the people murdered
there is also the ruins of gas chamber and crematorium
3 the main drainage ditch or the king's ditch the pools and round
buildings in view are a group of sewage plants built for
the constantly rising number of prisoners
brought to the camp the ashes of the people who had been murdered in the camp
were dumped in ponds and rivers and thrown on fields as fertilizer
showers are the central sauna in this building
newly arrived prisoners designated by the ss for forced labor
were registered and disinfected from now on they will be only known
by a prisoner number which was tattooed on their forearms
newly arrived prisoners had to unrest in this room
clothing valuables and documents belonging to non-jewish prisoners
were taken for deposit in the camp storage rooms
property belonging to jews whether they were murdered on arrival or assigned to
labor camps was confiscated and taken to a nearby
warehouse known as canada once the search was
completed the clothes were disinfected in the
sauna and then stored in the canada before being sent to germany for reuse
mostly by civilians after undressing prisoners were often kept waiting
outdoors regardless of the weather it was not uncommon for them to wait 12
hours or more to enter the sauna or to receive their disinfected clothing
in order to make the prisoners conspicuous and to prevent escape
all their hair was cut off this is the room where the barbers
cut and shaped all their hair from the bodies of male and female prisoners
they did so with blunt instruments and at great speed
the prisoners were often injured the procedure was particularly humiliating
for women since the barbers were often men and
they were shaped in the presence of the jeering ss men the
tattooing of serial numbers assigned to prisoners
of the registration procedure was sometimes done here
prisoners showered and were disinfected in this room
they were frequently harassed in various ways
several hundred people at the time were crowded in here
water it was usually ice-cold or scalding hot
poured into them from the shower heads in the ceiling
prisoners usually receive neither soap nor towels
after the shower they went to the next room
where they were supposed to dry off
prisoners were assembled here after their shower
naked and wet standing or sitting on the concrete floor in exposed
drafts they waited as long as several hours for distribution of the special
camp clothing eventually they were driven down the
corridor to the room where they were given camp clothes
dressed in ill-fitting clothing and short of their hair
prisoners were often unrecognizable even to the close relatives or friends
frightened and terrorized by the procedures associated with induction
into the camp and full of anxiety over the faith of
members of their families they were sent off to barracks to begin
the hopeless existence of people fated to a slow death in the
concentration camp canada 2 warehouses for storing property
plundered from people deported to auschwitz
from december 1943 this compound consisted of a series of warehouses
for storing property planted from people deported here
objects brought here were sorted and sent to the interior of germany
towards the end of the war the assets set fire to the buildings
in an attempt to destroy the evidence of their crimes
remains of gas chambers and crematorium 4
this is where several hundred thousand jewish men
women and children were murdered by gas and their bodies burned
sight of revolt by jewish prisoners from the sunder commando
on october 7 1944 members of the sunder commando
the special detachment of jewish prisoners
who were forced to empty the gas chambers after a mass gassing and
undertake the burning of the corpses organized the only red revolt that ever
took place at auschwitz they succeeded in
destroying gas chambers and crematorium iv
more than 450 heroic prisoners who took part
in the revolt were murdered by the ss either during the revolt itself or
subsequently for the purpose of retaliation
these three photographs are the only three remaining pictures of auschwitz
actually to have been taken candidly by prisoners
one shows jewish women being driven naked to the gas chamber
the other two shows the body of people who had been gassed being burned
on the open air fields used a stamping grounds for ashes
remains of gas chambers and crematorium fiber
under arrival auschwitz most people were sent by the ss for immediate death
however they were often forced to wait their turn in this clump of trees
if the gas chambers were full at the time
holding area for sick men prisoners this is where they held the sick male
prisoners the inmates called it crematorium
waiting room because that was where most of them
ended up unethical medical experiments were also
often made on the patients the area is also where the involuntary abortions
and examinations took place also there is a room where corpses are
laid out and room for dissecting them experiment x-ray stations are also here
jews who underwent involuntary sterilization experiments at the hands
of the doctors horus schumann from july 1944
twins dwarfs and cripples from arriving transports were kept here
family camp for gypsies this compound was used as a family camp for cinti and
roma from february 1943-44 the majority of 23 thousand men women
and children who came from the trade right and other
occupied countries the idea of brutal treatment
hunger illnesses often as a result of epidemics
transit camp for jewishes mainly from hungary
this compound is a transit camp from may to november
1944 mainly for jewish women deported from hungary
and selected by the assets of the arrival ramp
are strong and healthy enough to work these women were not
entered in the camp registers and they were later sent to concentration camps
in the interior of germany qarting camp for men this compound
functioned as a quarantine camp for men from different countries
the purpose of quarantine apart from identifying those who might have
infectious diseases was to terrorize uni-arrived prisoners
and to teach absolute submission to camp discipline
section 3 of the camp in this section there was a transit camp
known by prisoners as mexico construction began at the end of 1943
but is in april 1944 before it was completed
from june to october several thousand jewish women were kept in the unfinished
camp many of them outdoors in 1944 the
existing barracks were dismantled and transported to the gross rosten
concentration camp prisoner barrack in this part of the
camp were built of wood in most cases only their brick-built
chimneys remained we made the loop around the camp we
finally got back to where we started we went out
with more knowledge about the horrible crimes committed here
the word auschwitz has become an eloquent cultural symbol
and synonym for the nadir of the human value system
at the same time we felt the sadness and the solemnness
of this memorial museum we went by the parking lot where there is a store in a
small cafe and after that we left the area
so that's it until next time don't forget to hit like share and subscribe
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