Auschwitz September 12, 2025

These blog posts have taken a while to write. Mostly because i had to digest it and have the will to write. What do you say about this place? It is haunting, horrifying and someplace we should all visit to remember the cruelty we humans can do to others of our race.

We had a wonderful guide who repeatedly told us this was the Nazi's, SS and Gestapo who did this. Never once did she mention Germany. She also wanted to make sure that we knew that there were 3 camps here Auschwitz I which was the original camp named after the local town of Oswiecim. Auschwitz II-Birkeneau, a concentration and extermination camp designed for killing and Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labour camp for industrial sub camps that produced synthetic rubber and chemicals such as the ones used in the gas chambers. About 12,000 people went through  Auschwitz III-Monowitz. Life expectancy was 1-5 months. When you were unfit to work (mostly due to starvation) you were sent to be exterminated in Auschwitz II-Birkeneau.

Auschwitz I was never specifically built but was actually army barracks with railroad tracks to it in the annexed part of Nazi occupied Poland.

In September 1939 Auschwitz I was established as a political POW camp mostly for Poles. 1940 brought criminals who specialized in cruelty, torture, beatings and shootings. Auschwitz I has the natural barrier of a river and the fences prevented interaction with the townspeople. The towns people knew this could happen to them. When people were brought in by train they were told to close their window blinds. Routinely there were dead bodies left on the platforms either from starvation or beating by the guards. In 1940, the first gasings occurred. I have often wondered how the commandant and his family could live with themselves. The commandant's wife considered herself the queen of the camp and their children played in the yard where ash from humans coated plants, flowers and fruit.

Every morning there was roll call. Orchestras played marches for orderly movement and counting of the prisoners. Roll call could take an hour or 12, rain or shine.

This little hole was where the Nazi's could hide if something went wrong while their was roll call.

Of course fences were an important part of keeping everyone separate. Following successful escapes, mainly Poles, the German police would sometimes arrest relatives and imprison them in the camp and make them stand under a sign that stated that the live one would stay there until the escapee returned. Also by order of the camp any prisoners killed during escape were put on display as a warning. 

Oct 7 1941-mid-march 1942 a separate area for 10,000 Soviet prisoners was created. Large numbers died due to starvation, hard labour, brutal treatment by the SS guards, shot by the Gestapo  or gased. Anyone who refused hard labour was forced outsiide in freezing temperatures and dosed with water. 9,000 died in 5 months. The rest were transferred to Auschwitz II.

When the SS took over the camp in 1940, they used the 20 single story existing barracks. An increase in inmates forced enlargement and prisoners built 8 new buildings and added second stories to 14. The prisoners were beaten for any reason as they built the foundations, carried bricks and sand bags as well as pushing wheel barrows of gravel and sand. All while starving.

June 1940 saw 140-150,000 Polish political prisoners deported to Auschwitz. Over half of these perished by the summer of 1941.

June 1941 brought 15,000 Soviet POW.

March 1941 began the deportation of 1.3 million people.  1.1 million murdered at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkeneau.

960,000 Jews (865,000 gased)

74,000 non-Jewish Poles

21,000 Romani

15,000 Soviet POW's

This Is a memorial containing cremated human ashes.

The commandant house.

Dr Mendel stood on the platform and decide who lives, they go to the righ  and who dies or becomes experiments, they go to the left 

Model of the gas chamber.

Fabric made from human hair.

Bundles of fabric made from human hair.

Glasses

Clothes of all sizes.

Prosthetics, crutches etc. They would send this stuff to their own hospitals.

Shoes of all sizes. This was the hardest for me as there were little kids shoes.

More shoes.

Suitcases with people's names on them.

For while when a person arrived at Auschwitz they had their picture taken and were given a number. As numbers increased you were given a tattoo of your number if you were going to a labour camp. If you were being murdered they didn't bother.

The Death Wall. In this courtyard from 1941-43 the SS shot several thousand people, mostly Polish political  prisoners, leaders and resistance members. In the building to the right is The Death Block. The SS placed any suspects the Gestapo believed were involved in resistance,  escape attempts, and contact with the outside or breaking rules. They were placed in the basement, the Bunker. There were little rooms that held up to three people standing. 

Guard house

Crematorium.

People were crammed in here. The hole in the he ceiling was where the gas came in and within 20 minutes all were dead. If you weren't dead they shot you.

Crematorium. 52 of these ovens could dispose of 6000 bodies in 24 hours.