Above, the entrance to Auschwitz concentration camp(Auschwitz 1) with it's infamous "Work will make you Free" sign.
Auschwitz (Oswiecim in Polish) is a short drive from Krakow. In 1940 the SS declared a 40 km square zone around Oswiecim a special interest zone and expelled most of the Poles. There they operated farms, factories and workshops with the prisoners as slave labour.
Auschwitz was the largest Nazi concentration and death camp. Between 1940 and 1945, 1,300,000 people were deported there, 90% Jewish. 1,100,000 died, the majority in the gas chambers.
In the Oswiecim area, there were actually 3 main camps, Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 11-Birkenau and Auschwitz 111-Monowitz, as well as 40 subcamps
Inside the main entrance where the orchestra played to the prisoners returning each day from work.
Drawings inside the gate.
Photo of the orchestra. The music was to enable the prisoners to better march in step so they could be more easily counted by the guards.
The buildings were a former Polish army camp that the Nazis seized after the fall of Poland. Auschwitz 1 is not that big compared to Birkenau.
The Nazis were serious!
And it wasn't only the Jews, although they were the main focus by far.
The death wall courtyard in Auschwitz 1. The building to the left with the boarded up windows was used for medical experiments, mostly on women. The wall at the far end was used for executions, mostly of Polish prisoners, guilty of trying to escape or forming illegal groups within the camp. Several thousand were killed here with a single shot to the head.
Office of the SS officer who often carried out the executions.
Room where women prisoners who were to be executed stripped before being taken to the wall and shot.
Entrance to the Gas Chamber- Crematorium at Auschwitz 1. It was formerly munitions bunker. The gas chamber is inside the door and the crematorium is on the left side of the bunker.
The Gas Chamber.
The Gas Chamber.
The Crematorium.
Electrified double fence around Auschwitz 1
The train entrance to Auschwitz 11- Birkenau, where people were sent by train from all over Europe. This camp was a truly horrible place with 3 gas chambers.
Last stop inside the gate where the selection process took place. Those sent to the left went directly to the gas chambers, those to the right to be worked to death.
To the left and death. The wood barracks on this side have all been destroyed.
To the right and brick barracks.
Photo of the selection process upon arrival.
New arrivals.
Inside of reconstructed wooden barracks.
Lavatories.
Bunks inside brick barracks.
Old pictures of a crematorium at Birkenau.
Remains of one of the 3 Crematorium at Birkenau. They were dynamited by the fleeing Nazis before the Russian advance.
On the road south of Auschwitz toward the Carpathian mountains and the Czech border. Nice countryside, great roads!
Czech-Polish border
Prague, Czech Republic. The Vltava River, Prague Castle and the Cathedral overlooking.
Charles Bridge and hordes of tourists, something I haven't been used to.
Inside Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in the world.
The Cathedral, Prague Castle.
Castle buildings and the Cathedral.
A view back over the city.
A couple of Dutch motorcyclists at my campground in Prague.
Tomorrow, Germany and Heidelberg.
Tomorrow, Germany and Heidelberg.
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