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.