The tiny Polish village of Oswiecim would forever be remembered in history after it was occupied by Nazi Germany and renamed Auschwitz. Initially used as a labor camp for Polish prisoners, it was gradually expanded into a vast labor and death camp that became the site of the greatest mass murder in human history. I purposely went in winter at a time when I thought it wouldn't be crowded and would offer a quiet environment to reflect, but the place was packed with others who apparently had the same idea. Rather than be annoyed by my fellow travelers, I took solace in the fact that even now, in the freezing cold more than 70 years after the end of the war, the crowds gathered here offered proof that the world will never forget what happened here.
Taking in one of the outdoor exhibits while waiting for our guide to take us inside.
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The infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free) sign at the entrance to the camp.
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Around the periphery of Auschwitz, a double layered electric barb wire fence.
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First impression: lots of sturdy brick buildings in the camp, but that's because it was a former military barracks.
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Helpful signs in multiple languages around the camp make sure you don't miss any of its historical significance.
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Many of the barracks buildings serve as exhibition rooms. Going inside for our first look at the horror.
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Some of the papers recovered after the war detailing the German plans for the "final solution" of the Jewish problem.
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Discarded Zyklon B canisters after the contents were used to gas prisoners in the camp.
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Bunk bed display. Looks almost comfortable until you read that more than one person slept in each bed.
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Communal toilets in the barracks.
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The grim view outside every window. Escape would be almost impossible.
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Courtyard leading to Auschwitz's "death wall," the site of execution of thousands of prisoners (mostly Polish) who were lined up and shot here.
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"Death wall" courtyard. These posts were places of torture where prisoners were hung with their arms tied behind their backs.
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An eerie image from Auschwitz's "death block". Jail door with a gallows lit up at the end.
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Walking the grounds at Auschwitz. Guard towers and barbed wire in every direction.
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Auschwitz's gas chamber and crematorium. Another place where strict silence is observed.
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What appears to be fingernail scratchings along the walls of the gas chamber.
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Auschwitz crematorium.
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Leaving Auschwitz to head over to nearby Auschwitz II - Birkenau, the much larger of the twin camps where most of the extermination took place.
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Birkenau is so large that you can't see the entire camp from one vantage point. The scale of death here is impossible to comprehend.
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This cart was used each morning to distribute bread and pick up the corpses of those who died overnight.
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The "death barrack" at Birkenau. Here women who were too weak to work were dumped off to wait their turn to be taken to the gas chamber.
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Ruins of Gas Chamber and Crematorium II at Birkenau, destroyed by the Nazis at the end of the war in an attempt to hide what was done here.
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