The Holocaust - Autschwitz I.


Auschwitz I. Auschwitz was originally a barracks for soldiers of the Polish army. Following the conquest of Poland by the Wehrmacht, Auschwitz was identified as an ideal home for political prisoners and undesirables. The barracks were then transformed into a concentration camp. The camp was developed over the course of the war, becoming the centre of the large industrial complex that was to attempt to execute the Final Solution.


The use of the former barracks gives Auschwitz a distinctive look. As transports arrived in the camp people were assigned barracks based largely upon their country of origin. The camp elders within each barracks were responsible for organising space within the barracks for these new arrivals.

A memorial to the victims of the nazi's in Auschwitz I. This urn contains ashes from one of the many pits that surround the camps.	This photograph shows a display of shoes in one of the barracks in Auschwitz I. The number of shoes in the display equates to the number that were salvaged in the camp on one day at the height of the extermination programme.

Prosthetic limbs were removed from the victims of the gas chambers. Within the barracks there is a large collection of these limbs that are preserved as a reminder of the way in which the camp guards disregarded human life.	The barracks at Auschwitz were 3 stories high. They were suitably spaced out to allow a few guards to control huge numbers of inmates.

Auschwitz	This is a photograph of a painting hung on the walls of a cell in Auschwitz

This photograph shows the lay out of a room in Auschwitz's barracks as they were when the camp first opened. At that time the inmates had only straw to sleep on.	The toilet facilities within the barracks were primitive. Several hundred inmates were expected to share these open toilets.

Another room in Auschwitz set out as it would have been during the nazi occupation.

3 person bunks in one of Auschwitz's barracks.	These hastily constructed stone bunks could sleep many more inmates in cramped conditions.

A watchtower dominates the central walkway through the camp.	Next to the death block (right) is the remains of the wall used as the backdrop for firing squads. Even Auschwitz this block was feared. It was the one place that the SS always guarded closely and housed political prisoners and known trouble makers from the camp.

The site of the firing squad executions is now a place for remembrance. many people lay wreaths, flowers and other such symbols to remember those who perished in Auschwitz.	This wreath was laid by pupils and staff on the tour that I was part of.

These fences were electrified and had guard houses at regular intervals along them.	Inmates were warned of the consequences of going near the fences. It is known that for some inmates of Auschwitz, the certainty of a quick death at the fence or at the hands of the guards was preferred to prolonged hard labour and the gassing they assumed would come.



Above are a selection of photographs taken around the camp. Top right is a photograph of clothing worn by inmates, middle left is a photograph taken in the cells beneath the death block.

Though Auschwitz was a highly secure camp, as illustrated above, escape was not unknown. Many of the people incarcerated in Auschwitz lef the camp each day to work in local factories as part of the nazi's forced labour programmes. A number of these people managed to escape.	Between the Kommandants house and the gas chambers is this solitary platform. This was constructed after the war and is the place where the camps first Kommandant was executed for his role in establishing the camp.

Auschwitz I had one Gas Camber and an adjoining crematorium. Unlike at Birkenau the chamber at Auschwitz I is intact.	Inside the gas chamber at Auschwitz I. Hundreds of thousands of people were murdered by the Nazi regime in this place. May they rest in peace.


The Crematoria at Auschwitz I.	The gas chambers.