Crematorium II, the ovens

The area of the ruins which gives the building its name is the area where the crematorium ovens were located above ground. Crematorium II functioned from March 1943 through November 1944 where it is suspected that several hundred thousand people were burnt. Towards the end of the war, to remove the evidence of their crimes, the camp authorities ordered the demolition of the furnaces and crematorium building in November 1944. On January 20, 1945, the SS blew up whatever had not been removed.

As you approach the ruins of crematoria II from Hauptstrasse b the area of the ruins where the ovens were located is the first part you see. This part of Crematorium II is a large part of the ruins. Below is a selection of videos of the ruins were the crematorium ovens were located.

 

 

The first video was taken in 2009 and shows the front view of crematoria where the ovens were located.

In 2013 I returned to Birkeneau with my Nieces and took the following videos of the area where the ovens were located at crematorium II:

 

Back on the blog. A trip to Poland to visit 4 death camps

In October I am going on a trip to Poland to visit Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno and Treblinka, all death camps? I also hope to visit Poniatowa concentration camp a short distance from Lublin. This is purely a barbed wire hunt as the fence and main gate appears to be the only thing remaining.

Then in the Spring I hope to visit Germany and Bergen Belsen,  Ravensbruck, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Theresienstadt, Nordhausen/ Mittlebau-Dora, while visiting Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden.

Plenty of photos for the blog

Just arrived back from Poland. 8/10/2016

Visited four death camps that were located at Belzec, Sobibor (for the second time), Chelmno and Treblinka. I took over 800 photographs and two hours of video. The highlight had to be my trip to Treblinka as I have been wanted to visit this site for along time. The creepiest part of the entire trip was when I visited the Treblinka penal camp, it had a really bad feeling as I walked around the camp.

Did not get a chance to visit Poniatowa.

Gas Chamber Crematorium II

As we walked on the well-trodden route of the tourist tours and approached crematoria II the gas chamber area was not obvious. As I explained in the last blog, the first view is of the crematoria was the area occupied by the ovens and changing areas. The gas chambers of Crematoria II are located at the back of the ruins jutting at right angle at the junction of the changing area and the ruins where the ovens were located. I walked to the left of the ruins of crematorium II and started to film the area where the gas chambers are located.

As you can see from the second video the roof of the gas chamber of area of Crematorium II is largely intact although collapsed. There are several voids created from the collapsed roof. During the video I asked 'what really happened here'? I don't suppose we shall ever really know.

I took a video of crematorium II from the area where the ovens were located across the gas chamber area.

Crematorium II and III Changing Area

At the top of Hauptstrasse b, beyond the ramp, are large ruins to the left and the right that represent Crematorium II and III.

Before I go on I would like to explain why I classify the main two Crematorium as numbers II and III as I have seen them called Crematorium I and II. Crematorium I is located at the Stamlagger. Therefore its just carrying on the number sequence to Birkenau where Crematorium II, III, IV and V.

Crematorium II and III were mirror image single storey brick-built buildings that contained the changing rooms, gas chambers underground rooms and crematorium ovens and attics above ground. Only ruins remain, the buildings were destroyed by the SS guards early in 1945 to remove evidence of the crimes they had committed at Auschwitz Birkenau.

The first video was the first view I saw of crematorium II ruins.

The second video shows the area of the ruins of crematorium II which is where people sent to the gas chambers were made to undress. In 2009 you can see that the gas chambers located at the back of the ruins were out of sight behind white screens. The third video shows the changing area in crematorium III

 

The following video looks at the height of the changing room area and the entrance where many tens of thousands of prisoners entered Crematorium III. I believe that the area where the roof used to be directly in front of the entrance is where the prisoner band used to play to put the prisoners behind.

 

The Ramp

The ramp within the grounds of Birkenau was built in 1943 and is where, from May 1944, the Hungarian Jews were unloaded from the trains, splitting men from women, fit from the old and weak and young. Prisoners helped the SS guards separate the arrivals into two columns, examples of which can be seen in the Jacob Album. The

The railway spur ran alongside the ramp and led to Crematorium II and III.

At the 'crossroads' on the ramp, where I was attached by a wasp, prisoners were led to the camp doctors where they judged the people based on their fitness, age and occupation decided whether to send them to the left or the right to either the crematorium and their death or to the camp and the hell of working for the SS.

The Women's Camp at Aschwitz Birkenau - Latrine and Wash barracks

The women would try and get up early to wash and go to the toilet. Apparently thousands of women were required to use the toilet and wash barracks each morning. Those unable to go to the toilet would use their food bowls while a prisoner messing herself may be punishable by death. They had to queue in line and only had a limited amount of time to 'do their business'.

You can see from the wash barrack video that there was even a place for the soap. Unfortunately the latrine barrack was locked when I walked round the women's camp so the video is taken through the window of the barrack. You can see the latrine was basically a row of holes in a block which I heard in a documentary two to three women used at once. It is not comprehensible with modern living standards.

A lot of the bartering took place in the wash rooms and latrines. Obtaining a proper pair of shoes, mainly from Canada (where the suitcases from the transports were sent for sorting) was the difference between life and death. The SS provided sandals or clogs for the prisoners which was totally inappropriate for the harsh weather in the Polish winters.

The Women's Camp at Auschwitz Birkenau - Inside a Typical Barrack

The first part of the camp passed on the left-hand side of Hauptstrasse b is the part of the camp that was used to incarcerate the women.

I managed to walk round a typical barrack in the women's section in 2009. On subsequent visits the huts were closed and in a lot of cases have been shored up probably do to collapse

The quality of the video is not great but shows the interior of a typical barrack in the women's section at Birkenau. Up to 6 prisoners would sleep on each shelf. The Kapo's would wake up the women prisoners every morning my hitting the edge of the bunks with sticks while shouting. Any dead bodies were carried and left outside the block for collection.

I took another video of the interior of block 25 known as the 'Death Barrack' in 2013 which is shown below. Sick prisoners selected by the SS guards would wait several days until their turn to be sent to the gas chambers.

Hauptstrasse b

Pictures of the Gate House and Hauptstrasse b from the end of the line

A view of the railway spur leading to the ramp and Crematorium II and III taken from the Gate House

Auschwitz Birkenau. The Camp.

Basically the main railway line leading from the Gate House split the camp with the women (on the left) and the men's camp (on the right).

A view of Auschwitz Birkenau from the top of the Gate House panning from left to right to show what remains of the women's and men's camp. The ramp can clearly be seen to the right of the railway spur. The majority of the people are walking along a pathway, called the Hauptstrasse b by the SS, which leads to Crematorium II and III (ruins remain) and the camp's monument.

The pan of the men's part of the camp from Hauptstrasse b. The vast majority of the men's part of the camp is in ruins. There are a few buildings that have been re-built by the museum to give visitors a chance to see what they looked like when the camp was in operation.

The pan of the women's part of the camp. There are a lot of what appears to be the original buildings left in the women's camp.

Auschwitz II 'Gate of Death' 'Hell's Gate'

The Gate House was the main entrance into the Birkenau camp. I first walked through the pedestrian archway of Gate House leading to Auschwitz Birkenau in 2009. As you will see from the photo below the actual archway of the Gate House that was used from 1943 is shut and everyone visiting Birkenau enters via the pedestrian archway which is a recent addition.

The Gate House is the most recognisable landmark of the Holocaust.

The Birkenau camp was build by Soviet prisoners in 1941 but the Gate House was not built until 1943. Prior to 1944, before the railway was extended directly to 'the ramp', prisoners would be unloaded alongside the main railway lines at Oswiecim and a short distance to march through the Gate House archway to enter the camp. The railway extension was laid in the Spring of 1944 just before the transports from Hungary.

My First View of Auschwitz Birkenau

Travelling about three km from the Stammlager by car, we came across the recognisable 'Gate House' with the camp sprawling behind a barbed wire fence that stretched into the distance. While the Stammlager is a well-maintained camp with mown lawns and swept paths Auschwitz Birkenau has been left in a state of disrepair.

Below are the first videos I took of Auschwitz Birkenau. The car park used to be to the left hand side of the Gate House where the women's camp was located.

Auschwitz II Auschwitz Birkenau

About three kilometres from the Stammlager is another par of the Auschwitz complex - Auschwitz Birkenau where it is estimated that over one million people were murdered.

In memory of all those who lost their lives at Auschwitz Birkenau.

The brothel at the Stammlager

Another strange building was block 24, the Brothel. Block 24 is located just inside the main gate at the Stammlager. And apparently this was not an isolated incident with several brothels across the concentration camp complex. There is not a lot written about who the women were who worked in the brothel. Apparently they were treated better than the other prisoners including better food, so although they were forced to work in the brothel by the SS guards this may have been the difference between life and death. There is no clear reason given for why the brothels exist just many speculatory superstitions. Himmler may have thought that the brothels was an effective incentive to promote hard work. Other theories included making homosexuals to have sex with women would cure them and prevent the spread. Both SS guards and prisoners (but not Jews) used the brothel.

Here are some of pictures of the brothel entrance of Block 24 at the Stammlager:

Above: Block 24 near the main gate from outside the main camp

Left and below: the main entrance of block 24

The hanging Rail

This reconstructed rail where prisoners were hung near Roll Call Square. The prisoners would file pass with the dead prisoners in clear view as a reminder of the punishment for crimes such as being members of the resistance and as retribution for attempted escapes.

More fences

One more chance to look at the barbed wire fences at the Stammlager.Thank you Niece!

The Swimming Pool at Auschwtz

One of the more unusual constructions at the Stammlager is what seems to be a swimming pool. I first heard about the swimming pool in a documentary called Swimming at Auschwitz. So on a trip I just had to see for myself. The swimming pool is located behind Block 6 in the Stammlager near the perimeter fence. It was repaired by the museum in 2005. Apparently it was originally a water trough used as a fire brigade reservoir then converted to a swimming pool for the Kapos and prisoners to use as a reward for good behavior.

Kapos - a prisoner signed by the SS guards to supervise forced labour or carry out administrative duties in the camp. By assigning such prisoners meant that less SS guards were needed. They were very brutal towards the normal prisoners which the SS guards tolerated.

In the photos please note the diving boards and ladders.

Perimeter fences, walls and watchtowers in the Stammlager

There is a high wall that marks the perimeter of the Stammlager which is interrupted by many watch towers with mile upon mile of electrified barbed wire fencing that follows the inside of the perimeter wall as well as dividing the camp into different areas. It is mentioned in a BBC documentary that Rudolf Hoess had to scrounge the barb wire needed to build the Stammlager fences.

These pictures were taken by my Niece in January 2016:

Crematorium I Part 2

Here is a video showing the back of crematorium I. Note the small hole in the door, presumably for SS guards to watch the gassing process. I have seen similar doors at Majdanek concentration camp.

The chimney of the current crematoria building seems to be detached from the building, evidence it has been re-built.

The front entrance of crematorium I.

Crematorium I Part 1

There is a crematorium with attached gas chambers at the Stammlager called crematorium I. However as far as I know the majority of the original buildings and chimney were destroyed and have been rebuilt by the museum. I believe that crematorium I in the stammlager was the first improvised gas chamber used to kill prisoners with Zyklon B. Before Birkenau was built the ramp was located at the Stammlager close to crematorium I. Once the Birkenau site was established and two small cottages named the 'Little White House' and the 'Little Red House' were converted to improvised gas chambers, the use of crematorium I changed to storage. It was also used as an air raid shelter later in the war.

The first view of the crematoria can be seen from within the camp:

As you walk towards crematorium I a gallows can be clearing seen in a raised clearing to the right. This is where Rudolf Hoess was hung in 1947 after the Nurenburg trials where he testified. He was the longest serving commandant of Auschwitz and the man in charge during the deportation of the Hungarian Jews.

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Block 11

Block 11 in the Stammlager was the prison block that was located in a walled courtyard. Most of the building was set up for torture of one sort or another.

Between Block 10 and 11 was the 'Extermination Wall' where thousands of prisoners were shot by firing squad. The windows of Block 10 looking over the courtyard were blocked in with wood. A guide informed me that the windows were shuttered so the prisoners in Block 10 could not see what was happening at the Extermination Wall.

A strange room near to the main entrance on the ground floor was a court room where people were tried before being taken into an adjacent room to undress before being taken out into the courtyard to be shot. I suppose its strange to me that the SS guards would take the time to put prisoners on trial with everything else that was happening at Birkenau. I wondered what sort of 'fair' trial it was?

In memory of all those who lost their lives in block 11 the Stammlager Auschwitz I












Block 11 has a basement containing a rabbit warren of corridors and cells. Looking through the small holes in the door of one of these cells reveals an empty cell with a square box in the corner with a hole in the lid, the toilet I presume.

Down one corridor are the apply named 'standing cells'. A meter square from floor to ceiling with a small trap door where four prisoners were forced to climb in and stand (lack of space prevented them sitting or lying) all night and then work the next day, then back to the cells and so on until the punishment ended or they died. The museum has cut away some of the wall of one of the cells to give an idea of how small it is inside the cell.

I first heard on the BBC documentary 'Auschwitz The Nazis and the Final Solution', that the basement underneath block 11 was the site where approximately 600 Russian prisoners were poisoned with Zyklon B for the first time. History describes what happened next.

Below I am looking down the very corridor where 600 Russian prisoners were murdered.

Walking around the many blocks of Stammlager I Part 1

There are many different blocks within the perimeter of the Stammlager, and they all look very similar. Alot of the blocks were administration and accommodation, but some had very specific uses. Over the next few blogs I have selected a few blocks and areas of the Stammlager that stick in my mind:

This was a scan of the main camp from inside the main gate. I believe the little wooden hut with pointed roof in front of the building is where the SS guards stood during role call, which could take several hours.

Here is a closer look at the hut used by the SS guards during role call. I believe this area was called Roll Call Square. Imagine having to line up for hours in the cold of the Polish winter or the heat of the Polish summer for hours, with little food or water, malnourished with unsuitable clothes.




Blocks 19 to 21. Named by the prisoners as the 'crematorium waiting room'. Supposedly the infirmary. From 1941 the SS guards carried out selections amongst sick prisoners.

First Trip to Auschwitz The Main Gate

Auschwitz, synonymous with the murder of over one million people. Of the many satellite camps that made up the Auschwitz complex in the 1940's two, possibly three are well known; the best known being Auschwitz Birkenau or Auschwitz II, the Stammlagger or Auschwitz I and possibly less well known Monowitz or Auschwitz III.

My first visit was to the Stammlager was I the heat of June 2009. Below is the first video I took of any camp. Its a shaky effort to take the main gate with a new camera. Also shows the block where the kitchens were housed.



Over the years I have taken several pictures of the main gate:

Beautiful Poland, Krakow

While Warsaw could be described as industrial, Krakow is a very beautiful city.

On our first visit we stayed in the Jewish quarter. During the war it became a getto for the Jews. Today it remains largely untouched and undeveloped with trees growing inside houses.

On the most recent stay we stayed close to the Main Market Square just after Christmas this year. In the snow and at night the Market Square is beautiful and the food and drink wonderful:

My emerging interest in the holocaust - Dachau

The first concentration camp I visited was Dachau Concentration camp near Munich back in 2003. This camp was a concentration camp set up in 1933 by Himmler, and I believe was mainly a labour camp, although there was also a lot of experimenting done on the human prisoners.

I had a spare afternoon during a conference and we decided to go and take a look.

The camp today, as you walk through the main entrance and passed some administration buildings, is basically a large square with the foundations and remains of several huts surrounded by a perimeter fence and watch towers with the crematoria and church at the far end of the square.

I do not have any photos or videos of this trip, However below are some postcards I brought at the time.

Top left shows the perimeter fence and a watch tower, other camps have the same layout.

Top right, this is the crematorium (looks similar to crematorium 4 at Auschwitz). It is located at the top of the camp just outside the main fence and through some trees. Apparently no one was gassed in this crematorium. They used Zyklon B to disinfect clothing and bedding. Interestingly, I remember there were three rooms, the first, entered from the right of the building (unsure of its use) lead to a middle room with a drain in the middle (apparently where bodies were stored until cremated) and then into the crematoria (ovens still in place). They reminded me of the 'Hansel and Gretel' oven in the nursery rhyme.

Bottom left shows the memorial sculpture located in the main square

Bottom right shows the main square through the barbed wire.

p.s. I am fascinated by barbed wire and how the Germans used it and its configuration.

At the top of the camp, furthest from the main entrance (first place where Albeit Macht Frei is used, Hoess used this famously at Auschwitz) is the original church. A small courtyard led to the church. I can still remember feeling very uncomfortable when I entered the courtyard.

On leaving the church to the right was a path that led to a modern church and a blind wall apparently where prisoner's were shot.

Poland is a beautiful country.

As most of the main Concentration and Death camps are located in Poland, I have travelled to Poland four times to date. While I found Warsaw very industrial, it was still nice, but Krakow and Lublin are beautiful cities.

What's nice about Warsaw is that it has suitable eateries! This is a picture taken this January, the first meal after a short flight with British Airways















Well bless my soul, I the same area we found a Lidl. It was about -7C below.

The Wasp on the Ramp

Hi to all,

This is my only blog. As the blog develops it will explore the journey I am taking through understanding the holocaust which occurred between 1939 and 1945 in Poland. There are also several questions I would like to answer.

Firstly, why the name holocaust and the wasp? During the first visit to Auschwitz Birkenau I was attacked on 'the ramp' by a wasp. I have attached a video which shows what happened.