Post by Sync on Mar 16, 2013 14:05:21 GMT -8
On March 8th through to the 12th, I experienced the most emotional holiday I'm sure I'll ever go on. I travelled to Krakow, in Poland, where the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau are situated. We were lucky enough to be able to visit these places, and yes I say lucky because everyone should have a chance to do so. Though I could never go again, it was an amazing experience and something I'll never, ever forget. There is a rumour that birds never fly over the top of Auschwitz and that animals never run through it. I can confirm this is true. We did not see one animal in the three and a half hours we were there. I'm going to share some of the pictures I took with you guys. We also met a camp survivor, though he was not held in Auschwitz or Birkenau (he was held in a camp in Austria), who is an absolute inspiration. I do not have any pictures of him, but he had such an amazing story to tell. He is probably the most fantastic and strong human beings I have ever met and I've never been so emotional while meeting someone.
Anyhow, here are some pictures:
This is the gate at the entrance of Auschwitz. I believe the words roughly translate as "Work makes you free." It's definitely something along those lines. As the prisoners would arrive here, an SS guard would greet them and inform them that they only way that they will escape is through the chimney of the crematorium. Up until this point, all of the people coming to the concentration camp believed that they were going to be housed with their families and live as normal, so brought their beloved posessions, which were promptly taken from them by the SS. Many of these items are displayed in Auschwitz today, I have pictures, to show how many people that the SS managed to trick and how many people suffered.
This shows the line where the prisoners got off the train. On the left hand side of this picture is an area where a band of prisoners were forced to play as prisoners marched as is described in the next picture.
This is the line of bunkers. It could almost be mistake for a street if you didn't know it's horrid past.
This is a breakdown of how many people were transported to Auschwitz.
And this is a breakdown of where the Jewish prisoners came from.
This is a memorial to commemorate all of those people who were killed in Auschwitz and were not buried in graves. Inside are ashes from actual people.
These are glasses seized from people as they arrived at the camp.
These are Jewish prayer shawls, which are one of the most important things to Jewish men.
These are prosthetic limbs taken from disabled people who arrived at the camp.
These are pots and cooking utensils women brought with them as they believed that they were going to continue to live normally.
These are luggage bags and baskets which the people wrote their names and addresses on as they believed they would get them back after their stay.
These were the hardest things to see, children's clothes and a doll. They also had the hair of victims of the gas chambers but we were not allowed to take a picture of that. I wouldn't have anyway, as it was very distressing.
Another very difficult thing to look at were the shoes. It was a long corridor we had to wall down with glass cabinets covering each side. Each was filled with shoes, showing the sheer amount of people that fell victim to these camps.
These are brushes and polishes.
Here are pictures and data about prisoners at the camp. Each prisoner that had been 'selected' for work was registered where their photo was taken before their id number was tattooed on them. Many of these people only lived a number of months.
These are the washrooms and toilets of the Auschwitz prisoners. Compared to that of the Birkenau prisoners, this was luxury.
This was the room of a 'privileged' prisoner, those being ones that many work in the hospital or tend to the bodies of the prisoners that were gassed.
This was the typical bed for the prisoners of Auschwitz and as many as three to a bunk. Again, these were luxury compared to the living conditions of Birkenau.
This is the memorial wall of the firing wall in the courtyard. Prisoners were rounded up here and shot for crimes committed within the camp. This was one of the eeriest place in the camp and a place that made me feel physically sick. You could almost hear screams when you walked into the courtyard.
This is the watch tower.
This building had holding cells in the basement and on the first floor was the 'court room' and where prisoners prepared before being shot. The cells in the basement were horrible, there were three types. The first was where prisoners were held for various crimes before being sent back to their barracks. The second were starving cells, were prisoners were held until they died of starvation. The third were the worst and they were called standing cells. They were perfect, tiny squares where up to four people would stand in for days at a time. They weren't allowed to sit, sleep or rest. They had to crawl into them too. We were not allowed to take pictures of these.
This is the court room.
This is the washroom where women prisoners prepared before being shot.
And this is the mens.
This is the gallows where the first SS officer was hung after the liberation of the camp. There was a separate gallow for prisoners when the camp was in operation.
This describes the life of the gas chamber and crematorium. There was only one in Auschwitz, but four in Birkenau.
This is the chimney of the crematorium.
This was where the gas was dropped into the gas chamber.
This was a memorial in the gas chamber itself.
Here are the ovens in the crematorium.
This is the railway leading into Birkenau. Birkenau was the camp where Dr Mengle, the doctor that completed all of the studies on twins, pregnant women, disabled people and dwarfs. He was also responsible for who was sent to the gas chambers and who was sent to work.
These are the ruins of one of the gas chambers and crematorium in Birkenau. They were all destroyed by the SS, except one where a revolt was staged by Polish prisoners and a chamber was blown up, before the liberation. Today, there are still small bodies of water beside each ruin which still have the ashes of prisoners which were dumped after the bodies were burned.
These are the bunks which the prisoners of Birkenau had to sleep. These were as many as 7 to a bunk. There are carvings on many of these bunks left by the prisoners.
Here is where you see why I said the toilets in Auschwitz could be considered luxury. These are the toilets in Birkenau. There were three long lines where the prisoners had to sit back to back. They were disgusting.
I hope these images haven't been too much for you guys, but I think it's important everyone sees what happened in these awful places. If you ever get the chance to visit Auschwitz, Birkenau or any other concentration camp, take it. It's something you'll never forget and it really puts everything into perspective. We are very lucky that we will probably never, ever experience anything like this. I could never begin to imagine what it was like for these prisoners, and I'm so glad that I am unable to.
Anyhow, here are some pictures:
This is the gate at the entrance of Auschwitz. I believe the words roughly translate as "Work makes you free." It's definitely something along those lines. As the prisoners would arrive here, an SS guard would greet them and inform them that they only way that they will escape is through the chimney of the crematorium. Up until this point, all of the people coming to the concentration camp believed that they were going to be housed with their families and live as normal, so brought their beloved posessions, which were promptly taken from them by the SS. Many of these items are displayed in Auschwitz today, I have pictures, to show how many people that the SS managed to trick and how many people suffered.
This shows the line where the prisoners got off the train. On the left hand side of this picture is an area where a band of prisoners were forced to play as prisoners marched as is described in the next picture.
This is the line of bunkers. It could almost be mistake for a street if you didn't know it's horrid past.
This is a breakdown of how many people were transported to Auschwitz.
And this is a breakdown of where the Jewish prisoners came from.
This is a memorial to commemorate all of those people who were killed in Auschwitz and were not buried in graves. Inside are ashes from actual people.
These are glasses seized from people as they arrived at the camp.
These are Jewish prayer shawls, which are one of the most important things to Jewish men.
These are prosthetic limbs taken from disabled people who arrived at the camp.
These are pots and cooking utensils women brought with them as they believed that they were going to continue to live normally.
These are luggage bags and baskets which the people wrote their names and addresses on as they believed they would get them back after their stay.
These were the hardest things to see, children's clothes and a doll. They also had the hair of victims of the gas chambers but we were not allowed to take a picture of that. I wouldn't have anyway, as it was very distressing.
Another very difficult thing to look at were the shoes. It was a long corridor we had to wall down with glass cabinets covering each side. Each was filled with shoes, showing the sheer amount of people that fell victim to these camps.
These are brushes and polishes.
Here are pictures and data about prisoners at the camp. Each prisoner that had been 'selected' for work was registered where their photo was taken before their id number was tattooed on them. Many of these people only lived a number of months.
These are the washrooms and toilets of the Auschwitz prisoners. Compared to that of the Birkenau prisoners, this was luxury.
This was the room of a 'privileged' prisoner, those being ones that many work in the hospital or tend to the bodies of the prisoners that were gassed.
This was the typical bed for the prisoners of Auschwitz and as many as three to a bunk. Again, these were luxury compared to the living conditions of Birkenau.
This is the memorial wall of the firing wall in the courtyard. Prisoners were rounded up here and shot for crimes committed within the camp. This was one of the eeriest place in the camp and a place that made me feel physically sick. You could almost hear screams when you walked into the courtyard.
This is the watch tower.
This building had holding cells in the basement and on the first floor was the 'court room' and where prisoners prepared before being shot. The cells in the basement were horrible, there were three types. The first was where prisoners were held for various crimes before being sent back to their barracks. The second were starving cells, were prisoners were held until they died of starvation. The third were the worst and they were called standing cells. They were perfect, tiny squares where up to four people would stand in for days at a time. They weren't allowed to sit, sleep or rest. They had to crawl into them too. We were not allowed to take pictures of these.
This is the court room.
This is the washroom where women prisoners prepared before being shot.
And this is the mens.
This is the gallows where the first SS officer was hung after the liberation of the camp. There was a separate gallow for prisoners when the camp was in operation.
This describes the life of the gas chamber and crematorium. There was only one in Auschwitz, but four in Birkenau.
This is the chimney of the crematorium.
This was where the gas was dropped into the gas chamber.
This was a memorial in the gas chamber itself.
Here are the ovens in the crematorium.
This is the railway leading into Birkenau. Birkenau was the camp where Dr Mengle, the doctor that completed all of the studies on twins, pregnant women, disabled people and dwarfs. He was also responsible for who was sent to the gas chambers and who was sent to work.
These are the ruins of one of the gas chambers and crematorium in Birkenau. They were all destroyed by the SS, except one where a revolt was staged by Polish prisoners and a chamber was blown up, before the liberation. Today, there are still small bodies of water beside each ruin which still have the ashes of prisoners which were dumped after the bodies were burned.
These are the bunks which the prisoners of Birkenau had to sleep. These were as many as 7 to a bunk. There are carvings on many of these bunks left by the prisoners.
Here is where you see why I said the toilets in Auschwitz could be considered luxury. These are the toilets in Birkenau. There were three long lines where the prisoners had to sit back to back. They were disgusting.
I hope these images haven't been too much for you guys, but I think it's important everyone sees what happened in these awful places. If you ever get the chance to visit Auschwitz, Birkenau or any other concentration camp, take it. It's something you'll never forget and it really puts everything into perspective. We are very lucky that we will probably never, ever experience anything like this. I could never begin to imagine what it was like for these prisoners, and I'm so glad that I am unable to.
