Auschwitz, Poland

 Where do I begin.....

Auschwitz, was a concentration/ death camp where horrendous acts of torture and sadism were committed. It was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during WW11 and the Holocaust. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, and executed for the most trivial of reasons. The first gassings of Soviet and Polish prisoners took place in block 11 of Auschwitz around 1941. Those who were not gassed were murdered by starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele who was stationed here. Mengele and his team of doctors selected victims to be murdered in the gas chambers, and was one of the doctors to administer the gas, Zyklon B which was a pesticide. Mengele later died in Brazil in 1979 while suffering a stroke while swimming and subsequently drowned.

Many prisoners tried to stand their ground. At least 802 prisoners tried to escape, and only144 were successful. On October 7, 1944 two units consisting of prisoners who operated the gas chambers launched an unsuccessful uprising. 

Only 789(15%) Schutzstaffel personnel, or SS which was a major paramilitary organization under Hitler's and the Nazi's Party's rule, ever stood trial after the Holocaust ended, several were executed including camp commander Rudolf Hoss.

                               Looks quite serene, but is actually a location of horrors!

               

Empty cans that used to hold the poison that killed thousands of people in the gas chambers.

Prisoners personal belongings...glasses, orthopedic supports, dishes, shoes, and luggage.

 

 Block 11 is considered the death block. It contained torture chambers. As an example, this block has a standing cell where prisoners are forced in a 1 square meter cell, with a 5x5cm hole for breathing. Four prisoners were confined in this small space and had to stand all night for up to 20 nights, while still being forced to work during the day.

Block 10 was where medical experiment were held. As an example, 20 Jewish children were transported to the Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg, where they were injected with tuberculosis and subjected to other experiments, and later murdered at the Bullenhuser Damm school

                                     

                                        Gas chamber and crematorium

                                                       Execution wall