Return to Auschwitz

[CARL]

At 9PM on Friday, we were relaxing at home considering which film to watch. An hour or so later, with hotel booked and bags packed, we were on our way to Oswiecim. A spontaneous trip that was fortunately blessed with ideal weather, we arrived at our hotel at 4AM. After a late breakfast, we headed to Auschwitz-I, the Stammlager (main camp) before spending the late afternoon and early evening at Auschwitz-II, Birkenau. Yesterday, we took in more sites at Birkenau before heading to Auschwitz-III, Monowitz. Later, we went further to Plaszow before spending some time in the historical centre of Krakow. I will address the Plaszow site in another thread but wanted to show a few views of the Auschwitz camps in this thread. Some small changes have been made since I was last there several years ago.

Below, the images are as listed:

AUSCHWITZ-I, STAMMLAGER

1) Haupteingang (main entrance).

2) Courtyard between Block X (medical experimentation) and Block XI (prison block) - the tributes laid at the foot of the execution wall continue to be made throughout the year.

3) Within one of the modern exhibition areas, tattoo apparatus used to mark the prisoners upon arrival at the camp. Reducing a person to a number, the goal of the SS.

4) Lagerzaun -fencing at the main camp.

5) A steady stream of visitors file through the main camp.

[Gunny Hartmann]

It looks even more grim at this time of year!...

[Wagriff]

Interesting! I've never seen the actual tattooing materials-is the partial set shown from the camp or is it just a representative of the type used? I'd always read that Pepen and Sokolov used "2 needles attached to a piece of wood" to do their work?

[CARL]

AUSCHWITZ-II, BIRKENAU

The light at dusk on Saturday allowed for some striking images, as did the early morning mist the following day.

1) View of BIIa - Quarantänelager (Quarantine camp), taken from outside the camp and opposite the first section of BIII, "Mexico".

2) Camp BIIe - Familienzigeunerlager (Gypsy Family Camp).

3-4) BIII "Mexico" - Durchsgangslager (Transit Camp) used to hold thousands of Jewish women from spring to autumn 1944. Later, the existing barracks were dismantled and sent to KL-Gross-Rosen. Today, only foundation stones survive.

5) Exterior view of camp BIa. Note the SS air shelter in the foreground and renovation work on the existing structure within the camp - one of the former latrine blocks.

[CARL]

6) Even in the near dark, the unmistakable form of a rail car at the unloading site.

7-8) Often overlooked by visitors, the Kartoffellager (potato storage) located just beyond the boundaries of the main camp area. Damaged by a fire in 2005, the main structure fortunately still exists.

9) SS-Lager. View taken within BIIa (Quarantine Camp), looking toward the Kommandantur and location of the former SS zone.

10) Main gate and entrance building. View taken from the water reserve pool site next to camp BI.

[CARL]

11-13) Sauna - the hair shaving room, sorting room where "Canada" Kommando worked and cleaning facility for clothing.

14-15) Beyond the infirmary camp (BIIf), the sewage treatment sector.

[SteveR]

Good photos friend.

[CARL]

The Crematorium Complex. (note: the term was used to define the entire facility, including the undressing room, gas chamber and crematoria apparatus).

16) Krematorium-II. Entrance and view of the underground undressing chamber. The steel frame visible in the foreground is a recent addition to prevent people from venturing inside. To the rear, the ruins of the gas chamber are partially visible on the right hand side. Remains of the crematoria in front of the trees.

17) Krematorium-III, Gaskammer. The ruins of the underground gas chamber are all that remains of Crematoria III's killing facility. Numbers II and III crematoria were the largest of the gas chambers at the Auschwitz camps, operating with five furnaces - each with three retorts, giving a total of 30 ovens within K-II and K-III.

18) Krematorium-IV. Site of the famous Sonderkommando revolt of October 1944. This contemporary view shows the ruins of the facility. Note the crematorium sector gateway and Sauna building in the background.

19) Image taken alongside one of the vast pits used for burning corpses out in the open. To the left, the ruins of Crematorium V.

20) Located between Crematorium-II and Crematorium-III, the modern memorial area.

[CARL]

For further consideration, these threads linked below address various points related to the Auschwitz camps:

Auschwitz

Auschwitz-II, Birkenau: the "Crematoria Waiting Room" and Josef Mengele's office.

Auschwitz Prisoner Identity Photographs

My Trip To Auschwitz-I, Birkenau, and KL-Plaszow

Auschwitz 2010

Witold Pilecki - The Polish hero that too few know about

BBC production of "Auschwitz" now on NetFix. Fantastic

New permanent exhibition opens at Auschwitz

Auschwitz shoe

Mass graves near Auschwitz-I, Stammlager

KZ-Auschwitz-II, Birkenau - The Planned Expansion

Photo confirmation of death at Auschwitz 69 years later

Owning Auschwitz

[CARL]

Interesting! I've never seen the actual tattooing materials-is the partial set shown from the camp or is it just a representative of the type used? I'd always read that Pepen and Sokolov used "2 needles attached to a piece of wood" to do their work?

I too found this piece to be of interest William, as I also believed that initially at least, an interchangeable device was used, followed by a very basic somewhat crude design. Anyway, I intended to address this matter with a separate thread but it won't harm to add the information here. Prisoner identification tattoos were only done at one location within the concentration camp system, the Auschwitz camp complex - which comprised Auschwitz-I (Stammlager, the main camp), Auschwitz-II Birkenau and Auschwitz-III Monowitz and sub camps. Only prisoners selected for future work detail were given tattoos - those to be murdered with immediate effect were not. The initial implements used were metal plates with interchangeable needles attached - these allowed for the whole serial number to be marked. However, this method was replaced by a single needle device that proved to be more practical. General consensus agrees that tattooing began with the arrival of Soviet POWs during 1941. The increased death toll at the camp led to a decision to change from cloth insignia bearing serial numbers, to the use of both cloth insignia and tattoos. Many prisoners were stripped bare, thus losing any identification once they had died - hence the need for the tattoos. The serial numbers will live on for generations to come as many young Jewish descendants of Holocaust survivors choose to be tattooed with similar numbers to the ones received by their relatives during their incarceration at Auschwitz.