Auschwitz
In September 2012, as part of my trip to Poland, I visited the most horrible place on the planet. This place is called Auschwitz, the largest Nazi extermination camp, situated near a small town of Oswiecim. More than one million prisoners, most of which were Jews, were killed in that camp in the gas chambers or died of inhuman living conditions. Among them could be relatives of the Rosenbaum family from Lukow who had not fled Poland before the war.
Apart from me and my wife, there was only one person from Russia in the visitors group, a Catholic priest from St. Petersburg, whose grandfather died in Auschwitz. To my shame, there are almost no Russian tourists in Auschwitz today. The tours are guided in all European languages but Russian.
The Oswiecim camp, universally known as Auschwitz, actually consisted of two parts: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II (Birkenau), a few miles away from Auschwitz I.
The sights of Auschwitz-Birkenau are presented here as we saw them during the tour.
AUSCHWITZ I
Entrance to the Museum
Auschwitz I main entrance. The sign above the gate reads "Arbeit macht frei" ("Labor makes free")
Auschwitz I main entrance.
Camp barracks
Barbed wire fencing
Barracks
"Passengers" of the train to Auschwitz getting off the coach. Most of them would be sent to the gas chambers in a few hours.
The road to death
Jewish women driven to a gas chamber
Burning dead bodies of victims of the mass murder. Photograph taken illegally by the Sonderkommando members.
A model of a gas chamber at Birkenau
Empty cans of Zyklon-B gas that was used for mass extermination of prisoners
Piles of Auschwitz prisoners' effects confiscated from them by the camp administration.
Barracks
The eyeglasses worn by Auschwitz prisoners
Tallits (Jewish prayer shawls)
The suitcases of Auschwitz prisoners. They were confiscated from them right upon the arrival in the camp.
Children toys and pieces of garment
Prisoners' footwear confiscated by the camp administration.
Photos of Auschwitz prisoners
Prison food
Barracks
The Death Wall
The Death Wall
A sentry tower
A guards room
A guards sleeping room
Prisoners sentenced to death were forced to strip in this room before execution at the Death Wall
Standing cells
Standing cells
A courtroom for police prisoners
A barrack
Barracks
Barracks
The gallows
A gas chamber at Auschwitz I
Crematorium interior
A hole in the roof through which the poisonous Zyklon-B gas was released.
Crematorium furnaces
Crematorium furnaces
The gallows on which former commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoess was hanged on April 16, 1947
AUSCHWITZ II (BIRKENAU)
Birkenau main entrance.
A view of the camp from the Birkenau tower
Rails running from the main entrance into the camp. Here the prisoners were sorted into groups one of which - the weakest - was sent immediately to the gas chambers.
A train coach that took prisoners to the camp. Above left is a guards tower.
A sentry tower and barbed wire fencing
The road to death
Barbed wire fencing and a barrack in the background
The monument to the Holocaust victims .
A plaque commemorating victims of the Holocaust.
The remnants of a crematorium at Birkenau blown up by the Nazis during the liquidation of the camp in 1945
Here rest the ashes of the Holocaust victims
Inside a camp barrack
A plank bed
"Sei ruhig" ("Keep silence")
A plank bed
Plank beds
Plank beds
Pain is not eternal... Contemporary inscriptions on the barrack walls
A barrack, formerly a horse barn
Latrine. Camp prisoners were allowed to use it only in the mornings for just one minute. No toilet paper was provided for. Inside the latrine were iron grids to prevent escapes from the camp.
Barrack interior