Auschwitz 2

Sorry this has come so late. I have been so busy, as I've mentioned, trying to deal with school and preparing for up coming trips. But I wanted to finish showing you my trip to Poland and specifically the photos from Auschwitz.

This 2nd camp I went to was call Auschwitz II, or Birkenau. Birkenau was the actual death camp. This was the largest site and where the most people died.

I already mentioned stories below so I wont go into it too much here, but try to explain the pictures. Unfortunately when I was taking video it was so cold that I had a hard time keeping the camera steady and did not get a good view of just how incredibly huge this place was.

The camp was split down the middle into two sides. The right hand side was for the men. All the buildings were made of wood and would not have kept the men from cold. When we went inside it was nearly just as cold as the outside.

You'll see that I took a photo of the 'toilets'. Three rows of holes dug into cement. This is where the prisoners had exactly 30 seconds before getting kicked out. In addition, some prisoners' jobs were to empty the toilets, since there was no plumbing, by hand.

You'll see a photo that looks like a bunch of chimneys. Basically after the War, Poland knocked down almost all of the houses to reuse the wood for their own needs. The chimneys seem to go on for forever.

I also have a shot of the sleeping quarters. 3 levels of beds, which held 10 men in each bed. This is how packed this place was.

To the left side are the brick buildings. This was the women's side. As it was getting so late in the day, we did not get a chance to tour inside the women's houses.

(Unfortunately there was only 1 bus left to take us back to the original camp and if we didnt make it we were stuck. The camp was closed up and there were no places to call, get taxis or find people who worked there. LeeAnn and I made sure we were making it back on that bus, so we could make it back to the first camp, so we could catch the original bus - just a random, practically unmarked bus, to take us back to Krakow. Yup, we live on the edge)

I have a picture of a black and white photo in front of a building. If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see that there on the left are a group of people standing in line. As each person came to the camp, they had to visit the camp doctor. This man is facing the group. He simply would raise his left arm or his right. You see, the doctor determined from the moment you came to the death camp, whether you were strong enough to live and work. If not, if you were too weak, he would raise his right arm. You will notice a large group of people at the top right. These people sent to the right side were killed immediately. They did not settle into the camp. They walked off to be killed straight away. 75% of the people who arrived were sent to the right side.

At the bottom, you'll see my 2nd video showing this photo. The building in the top left hand of this photo is the actual building behind the photo. When I pan around behind me, I show the ground where the Doctor would have stood in that photo and given out death sentences to new arrivals.

Near the end is a photo of 'the ruins'. This was the crematorium. The shot after that shows a long brick ditch under the snow. This was where the prisoners were gassed and killed. They were told that they were taking showers to clean off. Once they all were inside, the doors were shut behind them and the people were gassed to death. They said it took 20 minutes. In reality, it took 7-8 minutes, but the nazis, out of protection for themselves, would wait 20 minutes before going in after the gassings. However, you realize the nazis didnt clear up the bodies. This is why they had prisoners. There were a group of prisoners who's jobs were to find anything of value left on the body, then move the bodies to be cremated. These men though, only worked in these positions for 3 months, as the Nazis would kill them off every 3 months and get a new group of men to work the jobs, so the news of what they were doing would not spread around.

Lastly you can see the pictures from the memorial set up. There are 22 stones with the same message, all in different languages - every language in the EU.

"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe."