Historic Locations Aren't Always Fun, But Necessary!

11:49:00 AM Out And About Global 13 Comments

I had prepped Eden by reminding her this was a mournful place where she needed to be respectfully quiet and she did great!  When explaining why the place existed and what happened here her response was, "well, that wasn't very nice!"
Auschwitz was originally a Polish Army camp, so when the German's came in all they had to do was remodel a bit, so to say.
Community toilets--had to be emptied by the bucket full.  According to our guide, one of the workers was quoted as saying she praised God the day she was put on scheiße duty--it was indoors and provided a bit of shelter.
Next is a series of pictures I've taken of photographs on exhibit. As people poured into the concentration camps men and women were immediately separated, but the Nazi's quickly learned that to avoid panic and rioting, they did not separate the children from mothers.  (Click on the photograph to make it bigger).

Ironically enough, it was a German Jew's work that led to the invention of zyklon B used to kill Jews in the gas chambers.  It was an insecticide in pellet form.  Once crammed inside a large room, a soldier would pour the pellets in from a hole on the outside.  The body heat of people was enough to activate the gas-- It only took 15 minutes to do its work.

The Nazi's took anything of value from the Jews including shoes, gold teeth, wedding bands, brushes, pots, prosthetic limbs and luggage.  Most impactful for me (and not allowed to be photographed) was a room full of human hair---and the bolt of fabric that was made from it.  PUNCH IN THE GUT!
On its busiest day ever, the camp received 17,000 prisoners.
Early on, Auschwitz housed political prisoners--Poles who were guilty of being educated, involved in politics, or teachers.
We were not allowed in this building, but this is where Mengele preformed his medical experiments.

This is in a court yard between "blocks" or housing units.  It was an execution wall.


Those lone chimney's are all that remain of the housing barracks.
This is an actual train car used to bring in Jews.  The life span of a Jew at Auschwitz/Birkenau was only 3 months.
This is the end of the line--literally.  The gas chambers are to my right.
As the Soviets pressed from the East the German's fled, but not before blowing up the crematoriums. There were 6 in total; one at Auschwitz and 5 at Birkenau.  The one at Auschwitz is the only one that survived intact because they had discontented its use since the bulk of the prisoners were at Birkenau.
I climbed to the top of the watch tower for this view.  There are 19 wooden barracks preserved--but judging by the chimney's you can see just how many many more there were and this is just on the right side of the tracks--there is an equal amount on the left side.  It is truly hard to imagine the scale of misery.

The Details
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Address: ul. Wiezniow Oswiecimia 20  32-603 Oswiecim 
Hours: 8am-7pm in summer. First English tour at 9:30am
Cost: Technically it's free, but if you want to join a guided tour (which is mandatory during the summer months) you will pay 40pln per person.  Our guide was fantastic!
Parking: Museum parking is on the left, private parking is on the right--you have to pay for both.
Tip: Arrive early or later in the afternoon.  When we arrived at 8:30am the parking lot was empty.  By 11 it was teeming with tour busses.  It makes a difference to visit when it's a little quieter.