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The Main Gate at Auschwitz I – Smaller than imagined – but through which hundreds of thousands of prisoners passed between 1940 and 1945. Auschwitz I was formerly a barracks for Polish soldiers until it was commandeered by the Nazis for use as a concentration camp.Row upon row of barrack huts at Auschwitz-Birkenau.Kitchens at Auschwitz seen through three sets of barbed wire with a ‘dead zone’ in between.The iconic gateway to Auschwitz-Birkenau with the railway track running through it.The purpose built crematorium at Auschwitz I showing the ‘feeds’ on tracks fixed to the floor. This is the only crematorium to survive.Auschwitz gates’The above ground rear entranceway to the gas chamber at Auschwitz I that leads also to the crematorium beneath the chimney to the left.The Main Gate at Auschwitz I – Smaller than imagined – but through which hundreds of thousands of prisoners passed between 1940 and 1945. Auschwitz I was formerly a barracks for Polish soldiers until it was commandeered by the Nazis for use as a concentration campAnother view of the entranceway to the gas chamber at Auschwitz I – with the opening into which Cyclone B crystals were poured clearly visible to the right over the doorway.The steel door to the gas chamber at Auschwitz I. This is the only purpose built gas chamber to have survived. Those at Auschwitz-BirkenauA rudimentary gallows by the gas chamber at Auschwitz I – for death by strangulation using the hook fixed under the cross-member.One of a pair of Administration Blocks at Auschwitz IThe gas chamber at Auschwitz I that was constructed in 1941 was first used in the Autumn of that year. Cyclone B gas tipped into the building through a vent in the roofStone barracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau and an example of their remains before reconstruction.Contemporary flag by Block 11 in the stripes of the Auschwitz uniform and displaying the red upturned triangle of the political prisoner. Different groups wore different symbols. The Jewish star was formed by overlapping two yellow triangles.Replica wooden barrack block at Auschwitz-Birkenau.Block 11. It is here that on 3 September 1941 the first mass gassings took place using Cyclone B. Some 600 members of the Soviet Army and 250 Polish political prisoners were killed in the cramped underground passageways and cells. Jews were not gassed in numbers until 1942 and then mostly at Auschwitz-Birkenau.The waiting room in the main entrance block at Auschwitz-BirkenauWatchtower at Auschwitz I.The railway track and sidings at Auschwitz-Birkenau where the newly arrived transports of (mainly) Jews arrived and were subjected to ‘selections’. WomenView along the side of a barrack block at Auschwitz I – The rough cobble and earth roadway contrasts sharply with the solid building – and at times turned largely to mud.Communal toilets at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Prisoners were allowed to use these and the adjacent washing facilities twice a dayBarrack Block 15 at Auschwitz I – Up to 1All that remains of many of the barrack huts at Auschwitz-Birkenau is the brickwork.A wooden sentry box at Auschwitz I in which a guard could shelter in inclement weather – it was by this box that prisoners were lined up and regular roll calls made. If the numbers did not tally communal reprisals often followed.Inside a barracks at Auschwitz-BirkenauOne of the wooden watchtowers that ring Aushwitz I and that are identical to those at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
