Auschwitz

 

  

  

In this section of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp only barbed wire and the chimneys of the baracks remained. Though seeing just the mumbers and size is still very much overwhelming.
Today, 69 years ago , the camp was liberated by the Red Army.

 

 

 

 

The orderly SS officer who was on duty in this room often executed the sentences of Gestapo summary court.

 

 

 

 

Birdman suggested that I try this shot in black & white, with the exception of the red candle, in the same style as was used in Steven Spielberg's film "Schindler's List", which adds to the poignancy of this upsetting scene.

Feel free not to comment if the subject makes you uncomfortable. We just think that this is something people need to see, or rather, never forget...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prisoners were only given a few minutes every day, regardless of the season, to use the toilet. Fights often occurred in order to obtain a seat and only the strongest managed to get one...

At Birkenau camp, there were 4 toilet barracks (a sewer with a concrete lid that had 58 toilet openings in it), and 2 barracks containing toilets and sinks (for a sector containing 62 barracks housing up to 1000 prisoners each!).

The prisoners also had limited opportunities for bathing. Additionally, they had to undress in their own barracks before doing so and, regardless of the weather, walk naked to the bathhouse. For many prisoners, this led to sickness and death.

 

 

Wooden barracks in Auschwitz II - Birkenau, BIIA. These barracks were actually prefabricated horse stables originally made for use on the eastern Front, against the Soviet Union. Even the rings for tying horses were in place along the sides. The wooden bunks, or "hutches" as they are sometimes called, contained as many as six prisoners on each shelf. Originally intended to house 250 prisoners, these barracks sometimes contained as many as a thousand.

 

 

 

 

Jewish were called to wash themselves before being shot or hanged in Auschwitz. Many times the murder happened to be while they were washing themselves.

 

 

The Hall of Names at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust history museum in Jerusalem is the Jewish People’s memorial to each and every Jew who perished in the Holocaust – a place where they may be commemorated for generations to come.

 

 

Fingernail scratches in main gas chamber.

I can't describe what I felt inside this place...