Auschwitz I, which preceded the death camp known as Aushwitiz II, or Auschwitz-Birkenau, began in 1940 as a camp to detain political prisoners, but evolved and expanded into one of the most horrendous places ever devised by men.
The camp itself was an existing Polish military camp which was modified and enlarged to eventually hold approximately 16,000 prisoners. Many of the prisoners left the camp daily, marching through the gates under the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign to work outside the camp. Due to lack of adequate rations and constant physical punishment, many of these prisoners were essentially worked to death. Others were brought here to be interrogated, tortured and executed for what where deemed political crimes
Among the prisoners were a group of Soviet prisoners of war who were used in the early gas chamber experiments that lead to the more efficient ways of mass extermination used later in the killing camps.
Since the barracks were made of brick, most of the camp has survived to the present. Some of these buildings are now used to display various exhibits relating to the different nationalities. Others house exhibits relating to camp life or display items taken from prisoners, such as a room full of shoes.
Barracks with death cells, the crematoria and the gas chamber offer mute testimony to what took place here. In a final irony, the gallows where the Auschwitz Commandant, Rudolf Höss, was hung for his crimes was constructed on the former location of the camp Gestapo building, next to the gas chamber.
After the war, the Polish government recognized the historical and humanitarian value of the camp and instituted measures to preserve and restore it as an everlasting memorial to what took place there.
Below are a few photos of the camp, but first let us relate our thoughts as we walked through the gates of what was to many a hell on earth. One thing is the shear number of visitors, and the second is the immediate silence one hears upon exiting the museum building and walking towards the entrance gate to the camp itself. It isn't something you are told to do, it is something you are seemingly compelled to do. Looking at the displays, especially the ones showing the children, brought tears to our eyes. Viewing the cells where the prisoners were tortured, or where Maximilian Kolbe, a Roman Catholic priest from Warsaw, volunteered to starve to death in place of another prisoner, brings up emotions that can not be described. It was so overwhelming we did not take it all in, in one day and when we came back two weeks later for a second visit, we still did not take it all in. We also found that when we walked outside the site, we had taken only a limited number of photos, finding many of the things we had viewed simply to overwhelming. We have those images forever burned in our minds. Maybe someday you readers will also have the same opportunity to visit and try to understand its meaning. It was our third concentration camp we had visited during our travels in Europe, yet it was just as numbing as when we visited our first site, Dachau. It truly is something you can never get used to, and something you would never want to get used to, else it will be repeated again.
Cell Blocks
Prisoners were Shot at the Death Wall
Prisoners Luggage
Prisoners Shoes
Where the Camp Commandant was Executed