Auschwitz-Birkenau & Auschwitz Concentration Camps

We stopped at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp to view the site and then had a guided tour of the nearby Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Auschwitz was the original camp. When that wasn't big enough, Birkenau and other satellite camps were built. Birkenau is much larger than Auschwitz.

At Birkenau, we saw the large brick entrance to the camp with the railroad tracks that brought the prisoners into the camp. Once inside the camp, there were rows of brick barracks to the left that were used by the officers. To the right is where the wooden barracks for the prisoners once existed. At the time of liberation, the guards and officers burned the prisoners barracks. All that remain are the brick chimneys. There are rows and rows of chimneys. A few prisoners barracks have been rebuilt to serve as a reminder of the conditions in which the prisoners lived. The train tracks go to the far end of the camp, where the crematoriums once were. These were also destroyed before liberation.

Train tracks leading into the entrance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp

Rows of chimneys where prisoners' barracks once stood

The first two barracks appeared to just be rows of toilets.

The rest of the barracks had rows of bunk beds. We were told that each barrack held 400 prisoners with more than one person per mattress.

Bunker used by guards during harsh weather

At Auschwitz, we had a guided tour of the camp.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp

The Infamous "Work Will Make You Free" Gate

We were taken into many of the barracks, which have now been converted into a museum. Some showed photos of Jews and other groups arriving at the camp. Others had registration paper work and photos of the prisoners. Others had thousands of shoes, luggage, glasses, prostheses, and tons of hair that had not yet been used or destroyed.

We also saw a barrack filled with bunk beds and torture chambers. There were standing cells too small for prisoners to sit, and there were dark suffocation chambers. This is where Zyklon B was first tested for gassing prisoners.

Barracks used to hold prisoners during WWII

Electric fence used to keep the prisoners in the camp

We also saw the showers (gas chambers) and crematorium. Estimates based on registration records and capacity estimate that 1.3 million people diead at Auschwitz and that 1.1 million were Jews mostly from Hungary.

Crematorium above the gas chambers