Only today, when visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp and walking the geographical expanse of the two sites—Auschwitz and Birkenau—did I truly start to grasp the unfathomable scale of the holocaust. History books can layout images and numbers for you, but seeing the systematic ‘death factory’ first hand has really driven home what happened to 1.1 million men, women and children between 1940–45.
Arbeit macht frei – ‘work makes (you) free’. The slogan was placed over the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps during World War II, including Auschwitz I, where it was made by prisoners with metalwork skills and erected by order of the Nazis in June 1940. Image: Alison BinneyThe barbed wire security fences at Birkenau were electrified. Prisoners would commit suicide by throwing themselves on the fences. Image: Alison BinneyThe barbed wire security fences at Birkenau were electrified. Prisoners would commit suicide by throwing themselves on the fences. Image: Alison BinneyThe prisoner ‘blocks’ were originally made from brick during WWII. When materials ran out for making bricks, prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps had to build the blocks using timber. When the Nazis tried to remove evidence of the genocide, the prisoner blocks were destroyed. Only the chimneys remain. The remnants of prisoner blocks are as far as the eye can see at Birkenau. Image: Alison BinneyPrisoners slept in cramped, cold and hard conditions on wooden and cement slabs. Winter temperatures would be minus 20 degrees Celsius. Image: Alison BinneyOne of the many crematoriums where the dead prisoners were burnt – the prisoners would have to burn their own dead family members or friends. Image: Alison BinneyOne of the train carriages that brought in the prisoners to the concentration camps. Image: Alison BinneyOne of the train carriages that brought in the prisoners to the concentration camps. As people got off the trains, they were assigned to either prisoner work duties, or to be put to death in the gas chambers. Image: Alison BinneyElectric fences run around and throughout the prisoner blocks. Image: Alison BinneyElectric fences run around and throughout the prisoner blocks. Image: Alison BinneyElectric fences run around and throughout the prisoner blocks. Image: Alison BinneyEvery possession was taken from prisoners before they were put to death – even prosthesis. Image: Alison BinneyAuschwitz prisoners blocks. Image: Alison BinneyZyklon was the poisonous gas used in the Nazi concentration camp gas chambers. Around 2000 people were gased at a time. People were led into the chambers thinking they were going to be showered and disinfected. Image: Alison BinneyAuschwitz watch towers. Image: Alison Binney1.1 million people died in Auschwitz. Image: Alison BinneyFences, fences everywhere. Image: Alison BinneyThe barbed wire security fences were electrified. Prisoners would commit suicide by throwing themselves on the fences. Image: Alison BinneyArbeit macht frei – ‘work makes (you) free’. The slogan was placed over the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps during World War II, including Auschwitz I, where it was made by prisoners with metalwork skills and erected by order of the Nazis in June 1940. Image: Alison Binney
