|
Buses leave Auschwitz I for Birkenau at a half past the hour, every hour. It costs two zloty and takes no more than five minutes. The experience of the camp is very different from Auschwitz I. For one thing it is much larger, covering over four hundred acres. It also retains the air of the place as it was when abandoned to a greater degree than the former camp. Some sixty seven buildings have survived virtually intact, and the interiors, with their stark wooden furnishings, take you right back to the war era. The other buildings remain as they were - some burnt to the ground and others massed up in heaps of rubble.
Background
Birkenau was created in 1941 as a satellite of the Auschwitz camp. The village of Brzezinka was evacuated for this purpose, and a handful of farm buildings were woven into the structure of the camp. This was even the case with the main gas chambers, which were located at the northern end of the site, where the railway tracks meet their end. Transits of prisoners were brought here from across Europe, and it was here that the 'Final Solution' was conducted at its most relentless level.
Inmates at Birkenau numbered around 100,000 at their peak. They were of many different nationalities, but the vast majority of those that entered the camp were unregistered Jews, many of whom were immediately sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. Women and children stood the least chance of survival, and many died even before arriving at Birkenau due to the appalling conditions of the railway journeys. The unloading platform, where the brisk selection process was conducted, remains. Apart from physically fit men (who often perished later from the rigours of the camp) it was often only an accident of birth that merited a possibility of survival. Large numbers of twins survived until liberation as they were objects of interest to the research of Dr. Josef Mengele - a man disliked even by his Nazi peers.
The Camp
The old gateway - familiar from the wartime photographs - still stands, complete with the watchtower above it. This is a good point from which to gain a sense of the sheer expanse of Birkenau.
As you walk about the camp it is not difficult to picture the squalor and anguish that victims had to endure. The living accommodation tended to be built like makeshift barns. There were no foundations, and little defense against the elements. Unsurprisingly, inmates were plagued by ill-health - the bitterness of the Polish winter must have been unbearable.
The crematoriums and gas chambers lie in ruins at the northern end of the camp. They were blown up by the SS during the last weeks before liberation. A guide will point out the remnants of each part of the apparatus. Behind these ruins are several memorials to the Holocaust and there are individual plaques in many languages.
Birkenau is a very large place and thus it is easy to miss a small portion of camp. In this respect it is well worth visiting the small exhibit located behind Canada - the storehouses where victims belongings were kept. The exhibition is to be found in what was known as the Sauna. Inmates were disinfected here, their hair cut, and they were stripped of their belongings. The exhibition is simple and moving. There is also a room devoted to specific families caught up in the tragedy. Smiling holiday photographs are in contradiction to the madness of what was in store. | | | |
 | | "Pete, see my comments On Aushchwitz 1 for a couple of tips. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time, don't take a tour, make sure you plan your journey back to wherever you are staying as transport gets less frequent late evening" | a
United Kingdom
Aug.24.2008
rates this page 5/5 |
| | "ladybird is right. it wasn't just the jews although they were the MAJORITY. why are brits irrelevent?? thats a bit harsh. ladybird is not attacking americans indeed no one really just making a point.
the holocaust happened and it was shit, what ladybird is saying is it wasn't JUST jews is all. don't get personal just make it about the place it's reveiwing" | purpletrumpet
United Kingdom
Aug.21.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "Ladybird. Your tone sounds a lot like the enablers. 6 million jews die at the hands of the Nazis and your comment is it wasn't only jews. You sound a lot like many other irrelevant Brits." |
United States
Aug.10.2008
rates this page 3/5
|
| | "Reading the comments below, it is interesting to see how little people know about history and what actually happened during WW2. Is the education system so bad in America that one person doesn't know that Poland was invaded in 1939 by the Nazi - pick up a book!
The lesson of Auschwitz should be learnt, but once should also realise that it wasn't just the Jews who were murdered. There were gypsies, native poles, political opponents, homosexuals to name but a few who were exterminated in the gas chambers or worked to death.
By studying and learning from the past can we help avoid these situations again. However in this climate I sometimes wonder if anything has been learnt." | Ladybird
United Kingdom
Jul.16.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "If you fail to educate yourself, you allow it to happen again. Don't be ignorant - learn so that we don't make these mistakes again. " | Teresa Sager
Canada
Jun.27.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "I am going there later this year and would welcome any help or tips from anyone. Where to go and what to see. Best times to visit. I have seen Bergen - Belsen and aslo Dachau. " | Pete Austin
United Kingdom
Jun.07.2008
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "Who wrote this page of information i doing a bibly" | chase
United States
Apr.07.2008
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "good but not alot information" | tom
Botswana
Apr.04.2008
rates this page 2/5 |
| | "My study is WW2 and I have personally been to Auschwitz and i can tell you that it gives you a tingle down your spine. Don't people hate me for this, but i'm a descendant of one of the officers that was in charge of Auschwitz. Now it doesn't upset when i see this, as living in Chester, Va i have seen some crazy stuff. However i do feel kinda sorry for those people." | Robert Baugher
United States
Apr.03.2008
rates this page 2/5 |
| | "i feel soooo sorry for those people" | chasen
United States
Mar.27.2008
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "who built it!!!!!!!!!!!! the germans?? and did poland join the germans of were they invaded??? can someone please tell me thanks." | lmnl101
United States
Mar.17.2008
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "A visit to these camps is a must for every person to witness the horror that took place. No films I've seen or books I've read could prepare me for what I saw on my visit. This must never be allowed to be forgotten." | jimmy
Ireland
Feb.27.2008
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "This was so awful! How can ANYONE disregard this as DUMB?!? Who the hell ARE you ppl to think of this that way? You weren't there...don't judge it...this is a place of evil and murder. Millions of innocent ppl killed everyday for YEARS!! Anyone who thinks this camp is not worth hearing about..seriously has no LIFE! No HEART! Nothing...you would be considered lowlife..heartless ppl..how could you...
To all who actually CARE about what happened...thank you. We will never forget....." | Shay Clark
United States
Feb.23.2008
rates this page 5/5 |
| | "Nazi killed the many people of jewish, now, the israelite jewishes are kiling many peoples of Palesinian.
Why." | Antonio Bertoni
Italy
Feb.08.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "my dad came from poland and was in birkenau i would like auy one to send me a email to see if i can find anything out about my late father u has just pass away thanks " | linda rutkiewicz
United Kingdom
Jan.20.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "I think yall need t tell what happened to camp Birkenau after the Holocaust" | samantha
United States
Jan.08.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "hi. this was terrible!!" | ashley
United States
Jan.04.2008
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "I went to Auschwitz in 2005. It was chilling. Especially Auschwitz 2 - Birkenau. I am going again on Saturday. People need to go there & NEVER forget the evil of the Nazis." | Sarah
United Kingdom
Nov.22.2007
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "When i think about the holocaust it something really scary to think about. We really don't want this to happen again in the future, and if it were who knows if any body would surive." | Angela
United States
Nov.20.2007
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "ther holocaust really makes me think about all this. it was only like 65 years ago. the holocaust means alot to me and always will and we have to remeber the ones that perished" | isabelle
Australia
May.30.2007
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "I've been to Auschwitz Birkenau. On a cold November day I stood at the spot where the "selections" were made. Large snowflakes fell out the the gray somber sky, and skeletal poplars or other similar trees stood in the distance.
I was chilled to the bone with a coldness that did not leave me until long after I reboarded the heated bus that took me back to Krakow.
Every civilized person should go there and see how apparently civilized people conducted the most inhumane and uncivilized rituals in all of recorded history." | David
United States
May.27.2007
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "u need jesus" | jessica lara
United States
Apr.11.2007
rates this page 3/5 |
| | "Really, this is the most horrifying part of any visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I had been to see Auschwitz I twice before, but only last month had the opportunity to visit the horrific 'sister camp' of Birkenau (also called Auschwitz II) The scale of the evil is what is most terrifying. Climb the lookout tower of the main entrance building and you will see the enormity of the crime. You can even see where future death dormitories were planned. It is an abbatoir for humans on an industrial scale. Everyone must see this - and pray it never happens again." | Peter Matthieson
United Kingdom
Apr.02.2007
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "I visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, with 37
other deafs from Sweden 2002. We find
it verry terrible, but we were sgreed,
peoples must see it!" | berit forsberg
Sweden
Mar.26.2007
rates this page 4/5 |
| | "u guys needs to put more unformation about War II and what to all of the jews " | ashesly
United States
Mar.08.2007
rates this page 1/5 |
| |