My week in Prague: The Atrocity of Auschwitz

Our day at Auschwitz-Birkenau was a solemn experience that created quite a bit of discourse after seeing the remaining evidence of atrocities carried out by the Gestapo and the SS against European Jews and those considered criminals in the eyes of the Nazi Regime.

The camp was divided into two sections: Auschwitz, the original concentration camp with two story brick buildings to accommodate prisoners and a gas chamber; and the second one at Birkenau, 2 km away that was formed when Auschwitz could not hold the numbers of people being sent by train from all over Europe. Birkenau was divided by a train track where people were transported into the camp, then alighted from the trains to see masses of buildings they thought would house them, but many were moved from the train straight to one of the two gas chambers hidden from view behind trees. The extermination was kept secret to avoid panic among the prisoners and cremating the bodies erased any evidence of mass killings. People went to the 'showers' and never returned. The SS even installed fake shower heads into the gas chambers to make the prisoners think everything they had been told was right.

Auschwitz concentration camp entrance

Buildings that housed the prisoners

Places from which the Jewish people were transported to Auschwitz

The two concentration camps

Photograph of women and children been taking to the 'showers'.

Poisonous gas canisters

The SS collected all possessions of the Jewish people and other prisoners of war and when WWII ended and the Russians invaded Auschwitz, the atrocities were confirmed by all this evidence.

Luggage of Jewish people that were taken from them during the selection process before heading to the gas chambers

Mountains of shoes from those who were killed

Utensils carried by people as they remaining belongings

Hairbrushes and shoe cleaners

The courtyard between a prison block and the gestapo offices and cells where people were killed by a firing squad against the wall.

A memorial now exists at the point where the death squad shot many prisoners

The windows of the prison block next door were covered over with wood so they couldn't see what was happening.

Public hangings were held in front of the prisoners during their lengthy 'roll call'.

Guards were able to take cover in bad weather when roll call could take 6-12 hours to perform

Electric fences around the sections of the camp

Gas chambers at Auschwitz outside the camps electric fences

Cremation ovens in the gas chambers

At Auschwitz-Birkenau, the camp is much larger and had prison buildings that were recycled from horse stables, most of them made from wood. Earlier buildings were made from brick and still stand. A number of the buildings have been destroyed with only foundations and chimney stacks remaining.

The watch tower of the camp was built over the railway line, so prisoners on the train came through a 'gate' into the camp and then alighted from the train in the middle of the camp. Most were grateful to get off the overcrowded trains that they had traveled on with no toilets, food or water. A selection process was then made with those deemed fit for work kept as slaves and the others were marched off to the 'showers'.

When the Russians invaded the camp, the Gestapo tried to erase evidence of their atrocities by blowing up both gas chambers. Just ruins of the buildings remain. At the end of WWII, both camps became museums, so many of the buildings are authentic.

The railway station were prisoners alighted from the train and trees beyond where the gas chambers we located

An example of one of the train carriages

The watchtower build over the railway line at the entrance to the camp

Watchtower in the distance

What the gas chambers looked like.....

And how they appear now after the Gestapo bombed them

Memorial stones, the ruins of the gas chamber and the ponds where the ashes were disposed. In fact, the whole area is a graveyard as then ashes blew in many directions.