The Nazi’s are unbelievably the most organized mass murderers that ever walked on planet earth. The Nazi slogan for this Holocaust extermination project—nothing must be laid to waste. Every bit of every belonging of the Jews was recycled, from shoes to eyeglasses to pots and pans. Even their hair (hair was said to be cheaper than wool) were shaved off and packed, ready for shipment for reselling, and to my shock—their ash remains as well! To be used for farm fertilizer. Inconceivable!
Arbeit macht frei means 'Work liberates or sets you free'. This sign was stolen early this year in January but was later recovered. The sign on the foto is a replica while the original is kept safe somewhere.
The buildings in the concentration camp, they are now museums housing the remnants of the Holocaust from shoes and bags of the victims to their hair. Right foto is the execution wall.
Halt! Stoj! Stop! That is our passionate and somber Polish tour guide, and the right foto is a Nazi watchtower.
I think the most moving and most distressing for me to come to terms with were the hair and the baggage. I saw this vast mountain load of hair behind the glass windows. They looked like wigs, and because I could not believe that they were real hair from the Holocaust victims, I forthrightly asked our guide if it were really, er—real. He replied looking at me as if I am an undesirable alien that just landed from Pluto—this isn’t Hollywood. Ugh, I felt so darn stupid for even asking the question.
And the suitcases… they have names on it, real names of the victims inscribed with their addresses and the countries they come from. I saw a good number of them with ‘Nederland’ on it which was a bit of a confrontation I must say knowing that there are persons behind those names, and that they are dead. They were murdered.
160,800 Dutch Jews were annihilated in Auschwitz as per the document behind a glass table says. I copied these while taking notes on my mobile phone but I didn’t take any fotos inside the buildings as a respect to the victims. As well as Jews from Estonia, Letland, Greece, France, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Bulgaria, England, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Spain and Austria were murdered mercilessly.
Cyclon B chemical was used in the gas chambers to annihilate the Jews, and the Gypsies as well and other prisoners of war, mostly Russian soldiers.
Some of the rules in the concentration camp are that if 1 escaped 10 are to starve. Father Maximillian offered his life when 10 people were put to starvation by the Nazis. These people were released but Father Maximillian died in behalf of them.
There is also a ‘standing prison’ fitted for four people. The prisoners work by day and in the evening they are sent to the standing prison—it is actually a very tiny chamber and if there are 4 people in there, they of course will have to stand for the whole night. Most often these prisoners die from exhaustion.
Left foto is where the prisoners are gathered for the daily roll call.
Left foto is the guard house of the Nazi soldiers holding the roll call. High voltage wires can kill, they are all around the concentration camp, of course now they do not carry voltage anymore. Right foto is where the first commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss was hanged after sentenced to death by the Polish Supreme National Tribunal in 16 April 1947 (see the wooden platform at the back of the signboard).
The crematorium on the left, the only in tact gas chamber that survived after the war. Vorsicht, hochspannung, lebensgefahr (Deutsch) -- Voorzichtig, hoogspanning, levens gevaarlijk (Dutch) -- Caution, high voltage, perilous (English).
Over 800 Jews and Prisoner of War tried to escape Auschwitz, unfortunately 300 were caught and executed.
Soviet soldiers suffered the most. They were given half the daily calories the Jews were given which are minimal already, not even half of the standard daily calories required, as well as they have to do hard labor for 14 hours a day. The Nazis made sure the Russians soldiers are exhausted so they can’t plan any uprising.
Auschwitz I was killing 5 to 6 thousand people every day. The bodies were burned afterwards and cremated. A group of brave Jews who found a camera while sorting out the belongings of their comrades took fotos of these atrocities. The fotos were smuggled out of the concentration camp by non-Jewish workers and even got to Britain, however nobody really believed and acted. It was too late.
Ash remains of the Jews were used for farm fertilizers. Nothing was laid to waste.
The Crematorium faced capacity issues and because of this Auschwitz II – Birkenau and Auschwitz III – Monowitz were constructed. Auschwitz III – Monowitz was bombed by the Nazis, to cover their evil deed, however they were too late, Auchwitz II - Birkenau fell into the hands of the Russians. The Russians freed the prisoners and were shocked to find out the scale of the atrocities that happened in this concentration camp.
More fotos here: Auschwitz I - Poland
Read the sequel here: Concentration Camp: Auschwitz II - Birkenau
Every May in Europe, the heroes of the Second World War and the millions of victims are remembered.
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