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Description
The Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz - Birkenau was founded by the SS in June of 1940 in the suburbs of Oswecim, the territory of Poland incorporated within the Third Reich. Prisoners were housed in the pre-war Polish Army barracks (Auschwitz I).

Initially, the camp was used for Polish political prisoners; after 1942 it become the largest camp of annihilation of Jews and Gypsies. Transports with the deported Jews arrived here from all Nazi controlled European countries. Most of Jews found by the SS doctors to be unfit for work were immediately sent to gas chambers and killed with Cyclone B gas. Those who were sent to the camp as prisoners were forced to perform back-breaking labor for the German industry and the camp itself. Prisoner died of hunger, disease, in executions, medical experiments and through tortures during interrogations by the camp Gestapo.

Their bodies were cremated in crematoria furnaces or on cremation pyres. Their luggage was sorted in the camp warehouses called "Canada" and then taken to the Reich proper.

On January 27th 1945 the camp was liberated by the Russian troops.

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The exact number of victims is hard to establish, since most of them were not registered. It is estimated that one and a half million people of various nationalities, mostly Jews, perished here.

(text taken from a tourist brochure)

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the rest of the photos form the Auschwitz - Birkenau series you can check out HERE

Description
The Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz - Birkenau was founded by the SS in June of 1940 in the suburbs of Oswecim, the territory of Poland incorporated within the Third Reich. Prisoners were housed in the pre-war Polish Army barracks (Auschwitz I).

Initially, the camp was used for Polish political prisoners; after 1942 it become the largest camp of annihilation of Jews and Gypsies. Transports with the deported Jews arrived here from all Nazi controlled European countries. Most of Jews found by the SS doctors to be unfit for work were immediately sent to gas chambers and killed with Cyclone B gas. Those who were sent to the camp as prisoners were forced to perform back-breaking labor for the German industry and the camp itself. Prisoner died of hunger, disease, in executions, medical experiments and through tortures during interrogations by the camp Gestapo.

Their bodies were cremated in crematoria furnaces or on cremation pyres. Their luggage was sorted in the camp warehouses called "Canada" and then taken to the Reich proper.

On January 27th 1945 the camp was liberated by the Russian troops.

---

The exact number of victims is hard to establish, since most of them were not registered. It is estimated that one and a half million people of various nationalities, mostly Jews, perished here.

(text taken from a tourist brochure)

---

the rest of the photos form the Auschwitz - Birkenau series you can check out HERE