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Birkenau main gate and guard tower
(viewed from inside the camp). The rail line leading into the camp, and all inmates,
passed under the archway. |
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Rail yard within Birkenau. The
notorious 'ramp' is seen left of center as the light colored area between two rail
sidings. The B-I women's barracks are on the right; B-II men's, quarantine, gypsy and
family camps are on the left. The two main Birkenau crematoria, II and III, are out of
view and behind the photographer's right and left, respectively. |
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Photo taken in 1944
by an SS man on the roof of a cattle car. New prisoners, having exited the
cattle cars just after arrival, are being formed into two lines on the
'ramp'. Camp entrance visible in distance. |
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Partial view today of the B-II barracks
area of Birkenau from the main gate guard tower. This was a tremendous complex covering
hundreds of acres. |
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Barracks in
the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. This photograph was taken after the
liberation of the camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, after January 29,
1945. National Archives and Records Administration USHMM
# 04412 |
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Barracks area with temporary guard
tower in foreground. The cruder guard towers, such as seen here, were only used to watch
over arriving trains while they were unloaded. |
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Some of the converted horse stables
that served as barracks in the B-II area. |
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Interior of a wooden Birkenau
prisoner's barrack today. |
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Interior view of a
wooden barrack circa February 1945, shortly after camp liberation. Note
straw used to keep warm. |
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Electric fencing. Always in service,
single-layer electric fencing was found to be sufficient by the time Birkenau was built
(1942). |
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Melted tableware in the 'Kanada'
section of Birkenau. All personal belongings of arriving prisoners were plundered, and
stored in a series of buildings referred to as Kanada, for eventual shipment to parts of
the Reich. These storage buildings were set on fire by the retreating Germans in the
winter of 1945, and masses of melted personal belongings are found in this area today. |
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Crematorium-II. One of the two main
crematoria/gas chambers at Birkenau. Steps in foreground led to an underground undressing
room ('Auskleidungsraum'). The gassing chamber is out of view on the right in the distance, and was also built
underground. All the combined gas chamber/crematoria at Birkenau were systematically dismantled and then
dynamited by the Germans in late 1944. |
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A 1943 SS photo of
the ovens within Crematorium-II. Click image for larger view. |
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Crematorium-III. A mirror image of
crematoria II. Steps in foreground lead to Auskleidungsraum. Gassing chamber is out of view in the distance
beyond this room, off to the left. Rubble
upper center includes part of the above-ground oven section. |
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A 1943 SS photo of
Crematorium-III. Note prisoners tending the grounds. Photo taken from
behind Crematorium-II area; Birkenau main gate out of view to far right.
Click image for larger view. |
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Crematorium-IV. One of two
'crematoria in the woods', this and Crematoria-V are located in a field of birch trees
(Birkenau means 'place with Birch trees') and out of view from the main barracks area. |
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A 1943 photo of
Crematorium-IV taken by the SS. Click on photo for larger image. Note ash
piles in left foreground. |
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Ash pond adjacent to
Crematorium-IV, near those shown in photo above. These small pits were dug alongside the crematoria for dumping ash. |
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Human skull fragment from the edge
of the ash pond shown above. |
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Crematorium-V. Located in a remote
corner of the camp, this facility was the last in operation at Birkenau.
Note guard tower and fence in background, right of center. |
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One of only three
photographs ever taken by prisoners at Birkenau and successfully smuggled
out. This was taken in 1944 by a camp inmate assigned to one of the
special prisoner teams (sonderkommando) who were forced to work in the gas
chamber/crematoria. This photo shows prisoners burning naked corpses
freshly removed from the gassing facility at Crematorium-V. It was taken
from the area to the right of the guard shack in previous photo, near the
back fence. Click image for larger view. |
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Bunker-II. Despite having four
purpose-built combined crematoria/gassing facilities at Birkenau, the Germans still outstripped their
capabilities. Here a farmhouse was converted into a gas chamber, and long open pits were
dug in the field beyond, in which thousands of bodies were burned. |
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Ruins of a portion of the Buna Werke
industrial complex, located several kilometers outside of Oswiecim. Buna had its own
satellite labor camp known as 'Monowitz' or Auschwitz-III. Among many
thousands of others, the chemist/author Primo Levi spent time here. |
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Birkenau was the largest extermination camp ever built by Nazi Germany. 
