We checked into our hotel, called the Auschwitz Center for Dialogue and Prayer, which is directly across the street from Auschwitz I. We had a delicious lunch and then went to Auschwitz I.
So a little history for those who may need it. Auschwitz I was, of course, established first and was primarily a concentration/work camp. Auschwitz I is the camp with the famous "arbeit macht frei" sign above the camp gate. Auschwitz I did have a small gas chamber and crematorium, but when Auschwitz II was built it became obsolete. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is a separate camp entirely, a few miles down the road from Auschwitz I and was primarily an extermination/death camp. This is the one with the 4 huge gas chambers and crematoriums, and is also the one that is famously photographed with the railroad tracks leading through the building.
Like this
There is also the very little known Auschwitz III (Monowitz) camp that is a few miles further from Birkenau, which was for the workers of the infamous IG Farben chemical company, which used prisoners as slave labor to produce among other things, the chemical Zyklon B, which was used to exterminate the prisoners of the camps. Synthetic rubber was also produced by Monowitz.
Ok so we have that cleared up. So this blog will be about Auschwitz I.
For me, I was really anticipating visiting the camp because practically my whole life I have been reading about the Holocaust and Auschwitz and an extremely visual person. So for me I was excited to visit the camp so that I could better understand the books I have read and will read in the future.
We had a tour guide, which is kind of nice because you see the most important things, because there are so many exhibits, but at the same time, I like to go at my own pace and I generally like to spend way more time in museums than other people. But ultimately it was fine.
The famous gate
The famous sign
Looking down between the electrified barbed wire fence. SS guards with dogs would patrol through this path.
One thing that struck me about Auschwitz I was how strangely beautiful it was. The building looked nice, like a small village. Was not expecting that at all. All the buildings look like this
And have nice lanterns like this
To be honest I am not really sure what to say in this blog. We have all read about the Holocaust, we all know the numbers, we have all read about Auschwitz. So this blog will mostly be pictures with captions explaining. Besides that I don't really know what to say. The photos speak for themselves I think.
A depiction of a cattle car transport to Auschwitz
The poison gas Zyklon B used to gas prisoners. A SS man wearing a gas mask would open a hatch in the top of the gas chamber and pour canister containing Zyklon B crystals into the chamber, where it would usually take about 20 minutes for the victims to pass away
The canisters it came in
You will note that this canister says "Giftgas! Zyklon" In German the word gift ironically means poison
The following are photos of things that people took with them to Auschwitz and had taken off them before they were killed. These items were taken to an area of the camp called "Canada" where the items were stored. The prisoners called it "Canada" because they believed Canada to be the land of riches. The items stored in Canada would be disinfected and sold by the Third Reich to fund the war. So here at the photos.
That is all hair. They have 2 tons of hair contained in the exhibit, running the entire length of one the buildings, called blocks. The hair was sold at a rate of 50 cents per 1kg
Glasses
Prosthetic limbs. Anyone with a prosthetic limb upon arrival to Auschwitz was immediately sent to the gas chamber
Dishes
Luggage. Th Germans instructed their victims to write their name and hometown on their luggage
Shoes
There were more exhibits like this, showing things such as shoe polish and children's clothes and shoes and silverware, but these are the most famous and best photos I took.
One interesting exhibit was a hallway with photos of prisoners who were killed usually around 1942/43. In the beginning the Germans photographed the prisoners so that they could find them if they escaped, but soon it became too expensive and the prisoners were being killed so fast it was no longer worth it. Here is an example of one of the photos
And the hallway
The part of the camp that I really wanted to see was Block 11. Block 11 was infamous in Auschwitz because it was where prisoners were taken to be tortured. The idea that within Auschwitz, hell on earth, there is still a single place that prisoners feared. Prisoners would be locked into standing cells, dark cells, tortured, beaten, and taken out to courtyard to be executed. Block 11 is also where the first executions of prisoners by Zyklon B gas took place.
The entrance to the courtyard between Block 10 (on left) and Block 11 (on right)
Execution Wall at the end, Block 10 on left, Block 11 on right
The recreated execution wall, where thousands of priosners were taken to be executed
This is poles where prisoners would be tied to and beaten before execution. Block 10 is in the background, and note how the windows are covered so the prisoners could not see what was happening outside
Cell in the basement of Block 11, similar to a dark cell
A cover over the window, to create a dark cell in the basement of Block 11
The entrance to a standing cell
The broke the wall down so you could see what a standing cell looks like. The picture does not do it justice. No food, no water, no light, barely large enough to fit in, to small to sit
A typical guard tower along the wall of the camp
This is the guard house in front of the courtyard where roll call would be called every morning. Prisoners were forced to stand here for hours on end, the longest recorded was 19 straight hours, regardless of the weather. The tower is to protect the SS men from the elements while the prisoners suffered. If the prisoners collapsed they were beaten and sometimes killed.
We then went to the gas chamber and crematorium.
The entrance to the gas chamber
The entrance to the actual chamber were prisoners were gassed. The doors would be shut and the gas dropped through a hole in the ceiling. The door shown on the left is the door to the crematorium
Shown here
The bodies were taken through the door and put on that rack and rolled into the brick furnace, where the bodies were burned
In 1947 the Commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess, was executed in Auschwitz by hanging right next to the gas chamber. Here is the gallows used.
I took over 300 photos at Auschwitz, but I think the ones here give a good idea of the camp.
Read the next blog for Auschwitz II Birkenau
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