As the world somberly commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Birkenau, I find it timely to re-share my photo essay from my 2021 visit to Auschwitz. May history never repeat itself…
The point of my trip to Poland was to visit the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and Birkenau Extermination Camp, also called Auschwitz II. This post includes a photo essay and reflections on my visit to Auschwitz.
Auschwitz Concentration Camp, A Photo Essay
Auschwitz was established in April 1940 and first served as a quarantine camp for Polish political prisoners. In August 1941, the first prisoners were executed via gas chamber: Soviet political prisoners. Even as construction began on Auschwitz II (Birkenau), killings continued.
Odds of survival for those sent to Auschwitz were very poor:
Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million were murdered. The number of victims includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 ethnic Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans. Those not gassed were murdered via starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions, or beatings. Others were killed during medical experiments.
The Soviet Red Army liberated the camp on January 27, 1945.
I warned my friend I might get emotional and I did. It hit me in a room in which there were hundreds of pictures of children who were executed in Auschwitz-Birkenau. To see their faces–their hopes and dreams–sacrificed on the altar of a cowardly, racist, fear-driven pogrom is one of the hardest things to see of all. And those survivors, some of whom I have had the great honor of meeting, live for the rest of their lives with the memory that they faced the kind of extermination that we reserve for rodents and insects.
Perhaps what annoyed me more than anything was all the people taking selfies under the Arbeit Macht Frei (work sets you free) sign at the gate of the camp. Like so many killing fields around the world, this ground is stained with blood. It is not a tourist attraction like the nearby Wieliczka Salt Mine or Krakow Old Town, but a living memorial to the death of millions of people who were brutally murdered.
It’s one thing to read about death. It’s another thing to see it. To touch the ovens or stand in the gas chamber. Visiting Auschwitz is a must.
I prefer the black and white effect on the photos, but here is the same essay in color:
My great grandmothers parents and sisters were murdered there. Her autistic husband got her out of Krakow just in time but none of her family trusted him. I’ll never forget my visit to Auschwitz in the dead of winter.
My views are clear. Other genocides deserve as much recognition, especially from people that I would expect to have shared sense of grief and loss. If they don’t show it for other genocides, why should I care for this one?
Because you are selfish, self-absorbed and entitled. You cannot do anything without the guarantee of a return of equal or greater amount and yet you think you are compassionate.
You are a very sad person. My sympathies.
Debit, your views are not clear.
Your views are nazi.
You are a sad human being!
Not sure about “human”..
Because at the end of the day it’s still a genocide?!?! This is a frankly disgusting take, agreed that it’s essential to acknowledge all genocide, but how can you say let’s not care about this one? Wtaf
Haha.
People call me nazi because my views dont conform to their worldviews. The irony.
Anyway my point is if i thought of you people as less hypocritical maybe I wouldn’t express such strong views. Which sites of other genocide have you guys visited?
Your angry attitude and cavalier dismissal of evil is shocking. Comparing one annihilation of humans beings against another?! This is not a chess game. There are no winning moves. You lack compassion on a basic sensory scale. Study history before you dare espouse your ignorant opinion.
“Study history before you dare espouse your ignorant opinion.”
That is exactly my point cindy. How many other genocides have you studied?
Heil Debit! I’m witnessing the genocide of the neurons in your soulless brain…
I have studied many of them, if not most and you are the sickest of the sick. I hope you get banned from these sites and burn in hell!
Sounds like a typical run of the mill Republican.
well you know why there is no mention of the kurdish genocide?
bec erdogan will begin a genocide on anybody that mentions it!
Matthew, As a world traveler like yourself, I have had the pleasure of seeing the beauty of this planet in over sixty countries. Auschwitz is an example of the depravity man can inflict upon other men. It is not a pleasant experience, but it is moving, sad and heartbreaking. I strongly recommend visiting. Travel is about education and experiencing the world. Auschwitz will never leave your memory.
I couldn’t agree with you more.
Those two pictures below the one with the Cyklon sign: what amI looking at please?
The first picture is the lids and residual scrap metal from the Cyklon gas canisters. The second is pots, pans, and ceramics taken from victims. They were saved by the Nazis due to the scarcity of all resources during the war.
Thank you Jerry!
Dachau Concentration camp also a very powerful visit and easy to get to.
The neighbouring town of Dachau is very pleasant and worth checking out as well.
Thank you for this amazing set of photos and especially for offering them in B&W and color. Truly something we can never forget. Stunning photo images! God bless the souls that were lost.
It really is a place that everyone must visit at least once, the photos are great but the in-person experience is something unique. The most chilling bit for me were the piles of glasses and artificial limbs that the Nazis were diligently collecting from victims.
I totally agree. And the room with the shoes….the enormous pile of shoes…..of every size and type. So moving….
Thank you for this post. I visited these death camps several years ago and my camera broke and I was unable to take any pictures of them. But what I saw is permanently etched into my mind and your pictures have brought those images back to life. If I remember correctly, I remember finding the Birkenau camp the most disturbing because that is where ‘Dr. Mengele’ performed his ‘research & medical experiments’. Truly one of the most somber, emotional and chilling places I have ever visited.
But one well worth the visit.
One of the things I took away from Auschwitz is that it is the natural conclusion to racism, it is the only place it can end up and so we must fight it and the other ‘isms’ when ever we can and refuse to tolerate them.
I chuckled. Indeed, “femin”-“ism” is to me right up there with racism. :-).
Note that the victims of the Nazi regime were largely Christian Europeans such as slavs and western Europeans. Nazism was a form of ethno-nationalism but ethno-nationalism isn’t necessarily evil in that Israel is an ethno-nationalist state. Our society celebrates “diversity” in the form of various “identity” groups that engage in political activism in their racial interests such as “La Raza”.
Perhaps the strangest form of racism is that of white liberals who engage in guilt over their, or other whites’ “privilege” by virtue signaling their distaste of themselves. I usually find them hanging out with each other without non-whites at their parties.
Auschwitz is a horrific and compelling monument to the evils of full genocide but the man who coined the term, Raphael Lemkin, stated that soft genocide is just as pernicious:
“Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.”
You left out all the LGBT people who were murdered there
There was no lgbtqa etc back then. They were still in the closet and they were not the main focus of Hitler. Hello?
With all due respect, are you a troll who has lived all of your life under a rock and hid when it came to history topics and even religion?
There were LGBTQ people in Europe and the rest of the world in 1930s and 1940s, and they were rounded up and murdered by the Nazis and their allies.
There have been written records going back at least 2500+ years indicating LGBTQ+ people’s existence as part of humanity. Some of those indications are even in the religious texts you may have heard about in school, places of worship or when your Lord Trump was selling “The Trump Bible”.
Historical Jesus of Nazareth may have been LGBTQ in his time.
I would also recommend the Holocaust Museum in DC.
just interesting
you did not mention who ran the camps,
GERMANS, of course!!!(when it comes to germany all of a sudden the word nazi is used and not germans)
also would you mind revealing if your ancestors were in the SS LUFTWAFFE etc.
Correct. White Germans are given a pass but not the Japanese. The Germans didn’t do anything just the Nazis, it seems? No.
The concentration camps in Poland had a whole bunch of Polish SS guards working hand in hand with German Nazis. Auschwitz had no shortage of Polish SS guards.
That’s a lie,there was never a Lithuanian SS,much less a Polish SS,in fact Hans Frank was dismissed after failing to establish a Polish SS Galicia.There were however some 150,000 German Jews serving in the wehrmacht,said to visit relatives in the nazi camps,and the jewish kapo were known for their rabid brutality.
Not giving the Germans a pass,but to be historically precise,Adolf Hitler and Eichmann were Austrians,many doing the dirty work at auschwitz and other camps were Ukrainian collaborators,and others like Latvians and Estonians,some Lithuanian,…most of the jews murdered at Auschwitz were Hungarian and the Red Star collaborated there.While 74,000 ethnic Poles were murdered at Auschwitz,simultaneously double that number were slaughtered by Ukrainians in a genocide that has gone ignored,most were woman and children who met a fate far too gruesome for this blog.That Poles have now responded to Ukrainians with compassion speaks well for the Polish nation not investing in hatred and revenge.
Correction,it was the Hungarian Arrow Cross that assisted the deportations to Auschwitz.And BTW,curiously Ukraine to this day refuses to offer Poland an apology for the Wolyn genocide and just this year honoured the nazi collaborator who master minded it,Stepan Bandera,with a national day of remembrance.
Many of those killed died sooner because of dishonesty. When they arrived by the train loads , they were quickly asked if they had any illnesses or health problems. Many lied and said they had, thinking they wanted free food and lodging, the same thinking as those boarding with wheelchairs for Southwest Airlines!!!!!
Those who said they were healthy were spared. Those who claimed disability were immediately separated and gassed, just based on the honor system, no health checks required.
Source: BBC News yesterday
This should be a somber reminder that there is no limit to the desire of people to be monsters toward other people when they fail to see themselves in “the other”. But people too soon forget or — worse yet — deliberately and selectively ignore the lessons of history and let hatred thrive with too little check.
The photographed gas canisters seems to say “gift gas”. “Gift” is a German reference to poison? “Giftig” is the word for “poisonous” in the Germanic Swedish language.
Horrific place. I returned there early this month with my family. I wanted them to see it for themselves. I’m not sure I’m up for a third visit any time soon.
Hello Matt. I’ve been to Krakaw dozens of times but didn’t make the trek to Auschwitz yet but shall do so.
A few observations (among the many above) I hope that can be appreciated:
A Polish resistance fighter, Witold Pilecki, actually volunteered to go to Auschwitz, escaped, and then reported what happened. Such a badass. He was executed by the occupying Soviets 2 years after “liberation”.
Which reminds me, Auschwitz didn’t shut down after “liberation” but continued to be operated by the Soviets as “communist Auschwitz” (google it) on “site 2” forced labor camp where most of the survivors probably spent their time. I only recently learned about this history as this wasn’t publicized for obvious reasons.
You should also have a guide try to show you the remnants of the Felix Dzerzhinsky statue torn down in 1991. It is unmarked but left quietly in the grass for people to walk by to be forgotten. A strange moment to the idea that the best way to dishonest the dishonorable is to allow them to fade away.
Very interesting.
Jan Karski was a fascinating person to talk with. He was a key person in gathering information about the atrocities in Poland during the Nazi occupation.
This was very moving. Thank you.
Stunning photos, particularly in black and white, of the scene of unspeakable cruelty.