Auschwitz Photos

Shocking Pictures of History

Sometimes thousands of words can not replace the picture.

After watching these Auschwitz pictures you will truly understand, how important is this place for our history.

Photos below are only a small part of what happened there, but will give you almost full picture of Auschwitz Concentration Camp‘s tragedy that you will see during the Auschwitz Tours.

 

Are you sure you are ready for that?

Auschwitz photos – a testimony of immense suffering

Watching Auschwitz photos, we often leave our comfort zone.

Why are they so moving?

In the Auschwitz pictures, we can see inhumane conditions of the camp and sad moments from prisoners’ everyday life.

Thanks to those views we can also imagine how big was the scale of their suffering.

The numbers complete this picture.

There were 1,100,000 human beings killed in Auschwitz between May 1940 and January 1945.

Shocking enough?

Even more, when you realize that the people perished in the Holocaust would amount to much more than the current population of Krakow.

Deadful way to Auschwitz

The first transport to Auschwitz Concentration Camp took place on June 14, 1940.

Soon, thousands of cattle cars overloaded with people would arrive at the ramp of Auschwitz a year.

Many people did not survive the transport with the horrific conditions kept inside.

Where were they from?

The prisoners of Auschwitz were transported from many ghettoes of occupied Europe.

But they were not only Jews

A considerable number of non-Jewish inmates were constituted by the political enemies of the Third Reich. They were also members of resistance movements.

Selection ramp in Auschwitz photos

The selection of prisoners was conducted within the three railroad ramps of the camp.

The last one was put inside Auschwitz-Birkenau facility.

As seen in the Auschwitz pictures below, the transported ones are carrying heavy bags and suitcases with the possessions of their lifetime.

Why do they have all their properties?

They were usually thinking that they will be transported to another ghetto to live on.

There are countless people of all ages, nationalities or beliefs.

After unloading from the cattle cars arriving at the ramp they were robbed and first forced to form lines on the basis of their sex.

Nazi physiologists were classifying people according to their health status and availability for work.

 

There was no mercy.

Children and people of poor health were sent to gas chambers.

Families were separated and “troublesome” individuals immediately shot.

German soldiers did whatever they wanted.

Confisticated goods in Auschwitz pictures

Have you seen such a sad view before?

 

The piles of shoes, glasses, toys, false teeth and luggages – all of these remains on display within Auschwitz exhibitions up to this date.

Anything that was deemed suitable for re-use in the territory of the Third Reich was subject to brutally-carried out confiscation from the inmates of Auschwitz.

It’s hard to accept, right?

Kanada barrack close in Auschwitz photos

Have you heard about Auschwitz’s “Kanada”?

This was the place where the most valuable items from prisoners were stored.

According to the literature by Tadeusz Borowski – it was named after Canada as it was regarded as the richest country in the world at the time.

 Things left in “Canada” were destroyed as the Soviets advanced through Europe. The Nazis preferred to burn them than to have them taken by the enemy.

Wedding rings were melted back into pure gold. The picture shows U.S. troops as they find these rings.

These pictures show the enormity of the tragedy.

Auschwitz barracks – terrible condidtions shown in pictures

The barracks of Auschwitz II were originally designed to serve as stables for horses.

It wasn’t a problem for the camp authorities.

Aimed to accommodate for 400 prisoners, they were reported to house as many as 2,000 per a barrack at the end of 1944.

In the Auschwitz photos we can see the horrific conditions inside their cramped interiors. The presence of lice and illnesses, hunger and mental breakdowns all around the place.

It was the everyday reality of the Auschwitz camp.

You must agree that these are inhumane conditions.

 

As stated by many survivors, there were only one latrine operating per 30,000 prisoners of Auschwitz, with the precisely set time when one was able to use it.

Photos from Auschwitz of deadly gas chambers

The set of 5 gas chambers built in Auschwitz-Birkenau was ready for use in 1943.

Mostly placed underground, they were designed to resemble shower rooms.

What was the whole process like?

Prisoners selected for immediate death went to a special room where they took off their clothes.

Sonderkommando officers locked the heavy door of the chamber each time a group of 800-2,000 individuals filled the place.

20 to 30 minutes after Zyklon B cans were dropped inside, gas chambers would be ventilated.

The corpses were dragged out of the chamber after gassing.

But it wasn’t the end.

Final things taken away were the hair, any metal dental elements and jewellery.

Crematories as one of the most fearful view in Auschwitz pictures

Sonderkommando transported the bodies from the gas chambers to the 5 crematories of Auschwitz.

A lot, right?

 

What happened next?

The bodies were burnt inside them. 

Some of corpses were being prepared to be disposed of in the fire pits. This happened as the crematoria didn’t have the capacity to deal with all the bodies.

Mengele cruel experiments taken in Auschwitz photos

You had to hear about the Mengele.

 

“The Angel of Death”, Josef Mengele was the expert of medicine in Auschwitz

He drew the famous line at the height of 150-56 on one of the walls of Auschwitz.

What for?

Being shorter than this made everyone ultimately sentenced to death.

Joseph Mengele had his interest focused on twins. Auschwitz pictures of them are one of the most shocking photos.

Over 3,000 twin children were spared from death at the selection ramp and subject to his inhuman experiments.

What kind of?

Twins were:

• forced to enter pressure chambers
• starved
• frozen to death
• castrated
• injected with eye colour-changing agents
• sewn together to make Siamese twins
• and operated in many others inhuman ways.

With the help of family, Joseph Mengele fled to Argentina once the war was over. After all the inhuman deeds he made, he peacefully reached the age of 68 in Brazil.

Liberation of the camp in Auschwitz photos

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet forces entered the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

The 2,819 inmates were left after the Nazi troops abandoned the place.

But the sight that they found was much sadder.

Forces found also 600 bodies of prisoners shot during the escape of the camp staff or deceased because of the barbaric treatment there.

Unfortunatelly prior to the liberation, more than 110,000 prisoners of Auschwitz were forced to be evacuated to the more west-oriented camps.

In what way?

Taking part in “dead marches” during which most of people were shot, marking the trail of blood with their massacred bodies.

Before the Nazis abandoned the camp, they had managed to destroy a lot of records and facilities serving their murderous ideology.

Fortunately, a lot of evidence survived.

The hanging of Rudolph Hoss

This longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp has been directly involved in each part of Auschwitz’s functioning.

For what was he convicted?

Accused of having caused the death of 3,500,000 people, he “only” admitted to be related to 2,500,000 of such deaths.

He hanged in front of Crematorium I of Auschwitz on April 2, 1947.

Justice will be served.

The impact of Auschwitz on human psyche

There are also many paintings of Auschwitz everyday’s life.

All Auschwitz pictures drew by Auschwitz survivors were smoky and filled with dark, yellow and grey colours.

In many cases confronting with the outcome of human memory of Auschwitz placed on paper exposed them to the real vision of the tragedy that happened there.

We can only guess that it wasn’t easy.