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The Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial takes visitors into the darkest chapter of German history. This extermination camp was established in Germany-occupied Poland and at least 1.1 million people mostly Jews, were murdered there by the Nazi regime. The Soviet Army liberated the camp on 27 January 1945. We take you to a tour through one of the world’s most visited places.
Auschwitz- Birkenau, the largest Nazi extermination camp.
Between 1940 and 1945 , at least 1.1 million people were murdered here .
More than in any other camp.
It was the Nazi’s largest death factory.
Men . women and children were murdered systematically and in cold blood.
They were deported here from all over Europe.
The overwhelming majority of those murdered ,about 1 million, people ,were jews.
Auschwitz became synonumous with the Holocaust and Genocide.
There is hardly a place more awful than Auschwitz -Birkenau.nevertheless ,about 2 million visitors come here every year.
It is one of the most visited memorial sites in the world.
Barracks in which the prisoners had to live tightly packed.
And we enter a gas chamber where people were brutally murdered.
We hear names in the entrace tunnel , names of people who died in Auschwitz.
Above the entrance gate , there are three cynical words.
Arbeit macht frei – work sets you free!
Auschwitz is located between the Polish cities of Katowice and krakow.
The Nazis built the main camp in 1940 in a former barracks.
It initally consisted of 22 blocks, later there were 28.
Watchtowers , barbed wire and electric fences made escape almost imposible.
Auschwitz was initally established asaa concentration camp, like many others set up by the Nazis across the Europe.
It was later expanded into an extermination camp.
Because it was a centrally located in the middle of German – occupied Europe.
And was well connected to the railway network.
The main camp had space for 20,000 prisoners.
Although ” space ” is the wrong word,the people were crammed together here.
At first it was mainly political prisoners from Poland, then transports came from all over Europe.with soviet prisoners of war, members of the Sinti and Roma, queer people…
And later , mostly Jews.
The Nazis told them that they would be relocated and that they should and that they should only take the most necessary luggage with them.
That was taken from the people immediately after they arrived in Auschwitz.
Not just gold or valuables…
But also ,glasses.
Protheses ,clothing…
shoes.
Even their hair was shaved off.
This was used to make fabric for mattresses or uniforms.
The prisoners had to wrok in the surrounding factories under the most difficult conditions, most of them only lasted a few months.
They died of exhaustion, hunger ,disease, torture, medical experiments.
Or they were killed on this death wall with a shot in the back of the neck.
Many of the vicitms here were Polish resistance fighters.
In 1941 , a new method of murder was tested in Auchwitz;
Mass extermination in the gas chamber.
Using Cyklon B.
It was the suitable method for the Nazis to implement the so – called” final solution to the Jewish question”, which meant the systematic extermination of all Jews in Europe.
6 million people fell victim to this murderous madness.
The gas chamber in the main camp is still preserved.
It’s unimaginable, here in this room , thousands of people suffocated in agony.
The crematorium is right next to the gas chamber.
The bodies were burned here, the ovens were especially developed for this purpose by the German company Topf& Söhne.
In 1947 , the former camp commander Rudolf Höss was hanged next to the gas chamber after he was put on trial in Nuremberg and Warsaw.
The gas chamber in the main camp was shut down in 1942.
Instead , the Nazis opened four large new gas chambers in the neighbouring Birkenau camp.
It was a factory of death, built solely to wipe out the Jews of Europe.
The Birkenau estermination camp, also known as Auschitz 2 is about 2 kilmoeters from the main camp.
The brutality and cold – bloodedness, the extent of the crimes committed here , is unbelievable.
Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army on January 27 , 1945.
There were about 7,000 survivors, 200 of them children.
The living were cared for…
The dead were buried.
The Auschwitz Memorial is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the 27 of January has been designated the International Day of Remembrance for the vicitms of the Holocaust.
Auschwitz 2 , the Birkenau extermination camp .
Here the Nazis installed a vicious sphisticated death machine that had only one goal: to kill as many Jews as possible.
Burkenau was huge, the labour camp had more than 300 barracks for around 100,000 prisoners, there were also four large gas chambers and crematoria.
They were in operation day and nigh.
This is the only way to explain the scale of th mass murder committed here.
Hundreds of thousands of people were gassed in Birkenau.
We first go to the place where the SS carried out the so-called selections.
A train arrived here and the people got off, they were sorted , women on the left , men on the right , as you cans see here- in two rows facing each other.
From there they went on to the selection, I.e .Whether they would be sent to the labor camp or directly to the gas chambers to face death.
Tragedies have taken place here.
Families were torn apart, never seeing each other again.
This has all heppened right here at this spot.
Women with children , the elderly and the sick were usually talen directly to the gas chambers.
Those whose labor the Nazis still wanted to exploit where herded into the barracks.
They were completely overcrowded, with 400 people in each.
Hunger ,cold , illness , epidemics- the death rate was incredibly high.
As the Soviet Army advanced in November 1944 , the SS began to cover up traces of their crimes.
That’s why the gas chambers and crematoria were blown up.
Aplace that is somewhat hidden on the extensive grounds, here we see a pond this is where the ashes from crematoria 4 and 5 were ” disposed of.”
The whole area is a huge mass grave.
In total, around 1 million Jews were killed in Auschwitz -Birkenau.
This number is outrageous, unimaginable.