Photos from Auschwitz

	These are the famous gates into Auschwitz I, reading "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work makes you free). The same sign greeted those who entered Sachsenausen and Bergen Belsen, as well. Auschwitz I was originally designed to house the Polish Home Army during World War I. As such, its buildings are made of brick to last. The blocks are quite close together. Today, most of these blocks house the current administration of the camps, such as the research department and the archives.
	This is a view from outside Block 24, which now houses the Archives department. This building, like so many in Auschwitz I remains largely the same as it did during the Nazi occupation. This block was originally used as the Nazi administration building as well. It remains behind fifteen foot barbed wire, like many of the block buildings that were off limits to the inmates.
	This is a view out of the bathroom window of Block 24, the Archives Department. It is unnerving to an outsider that those who work in Auschwitz could have their offices in the same offices that the Nazis used, but they feel it is important to maintain the integrity of the site. Rather than build new facilities outside the main grounds or even on the grounds themselves, those who research and work in the Auschwitz State Museum use the extant facilities so as to preserve what is left. Auschwitz I is largely the same as it was when the Soviets liberated it in January of 1945.
	This is a shot of the double row, barbed wire fencing that kept the prisoners in Auschwitz I. KL Auschwitz I was used as the concentration camp of the Auschwitz complex, which consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), and Auschwitz III (Monowitz). VL Birkenau was used as the annihilation camp (Vernichtslager), while AL Monowitz was used as a labor camp (Arbeitslager).
	This is a map within the museum of Auschwitz I that shows the rail lines, which led to Auschwitz from all over Europe. Auschwitz was chosen specifically because of its central location.
	This is an urn of ashes collected when the camp was liberated. This is the only such collection of the remains of Auschwitz's one million dead. The rest lie in mass graves and partially filled ponds on the camp grounds.
	Behind glass in one of the blocks that has been converted into part of the museum exhibits, lie these empty cans of Zyklon B, the gas used to murder the inmates of Auschwitz, which included people from over 20 countries, most of which were Jews. However, a significant number of prisoners of war, homosexuals, criminals, gypsies (Roma and Sinti), and Catholics were murdered by the Nazis as well. Zyklon B was originally used as an insecticide to disinfect the clothing of the prisoners before it was sent back to Germany for reuse. Eager to cut costs and streamline the killing process, Rudolf Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz during its formative years, first experimented with gassing 1500 Russian prisoners of War in 1941 with Zyklon B, which when added to water, produces Hydrogen Cyanide. Two cans of Zyklon B could kill up to 200 people in about 20 minutes.
	This is a close-up of the room of hair. The Nazis shaved the heads of every prisoner who was sent to the right on the ramp at Birkenau, which meant a long, painful death through starvation and work, rather than a short death by gas for those who went to the left. The Nazis actually figured, based on the the number of calories the prisoners were allocated each day and the amount of calories they would use up working, that the life expectancy of each prisoner was about one month before they would die of starvation. Their hair, like every other part of their bodies was used by the Nazis--they did not waste anything. The hair was used to stuff mattresses and pillows, as well as woven into a fabric that was used for war blankets.
	This is a close-up of the room of prosthetics: arms, legs, and the like, which the Nazis shipped back to Germany as well. Those with prosthetics were deemed unfit for work by the Nazi doctors who inspected each prisoner as they were unloaded from the trains on the main platform in Birkenau, and thus sent directly to the gas.
	This massive room is filled with pots and pans that the prisoners brought with them. Each person was allowed fifty kilograms of personal goods that they could bring with them into the camp. Given that small amount, prisoners brought everything essential for their survival, since the Nazis told them that they were being relocated to work camps.
	This is the room of suitcases. The prisoners often labeled their suitcases with their names, places of birth, and dates of birth so their items would find their way back to them if they were separated from their luggage. Our guide told the touching story of a survivor who returned to Auschwitz after some fifty years. Upon entering this room, she actually saw her own suitcase in the display, as her name was readily visible.
	This is one of the many rooms of shoes. There is a separate room just for children's shoes.
	This is another view of the barbed wire fencing and a guard shack from one of the block windows.
	The face of a prisoner. In the early stages of Auschwitz, prisoners were photographed and given identification cards. But this was quickly abandoned as it was costly, and ultimately unnecessary, since the prisoners died so quickly. After this process was abandoned, the Nazis began tattooing every prisoner who was sent to the right for work on either their arms or their legs. This number did not correspond to an ID card on file somewhere, but merely to a mass rail list. In a way, one's number became indicative of the kind of person one was. Lower numbers were given a certain amount of respect by the other prisoners, for they had figured out ways of organizing so that they could live longer than expected. Those with very high numbers were treated like objects by most lower numbers, since they would die so quickly upon arrival anyway.
	This is the Death Wall between the medical experimentation block (no. 10) and the death block (no. 11), where prisoners were punished and tortured in various ways. Thousands of prisoners were executed by firing squad here for petty crimes such as speaking to another prisoner or stealing bread. The wall was destroyed by the Nazis when they left, so this is a reconstruction, based on eyewitness testimony.
	These are the blacked-out windows of the medical block, so that prisoners could not see the kind of punishments performed within.
	This is looking back on the entrance to the Death Wall. The entire grounds of Auschwitz are as they were in the 1940's. The streets were not paved. Every road was dirt and rock. In some places, large stones were laid down, cobbled-stone style. When I was there, the weather was fifty degees and drizzling, fitting weather for a trip to Auschwitz.
	These are some of the barracks for the guards in the punishment blocks in Auschwitz I.
	Though hard too see, this is one of the punishment rooms in the basement of the death block. Mourners have placed flowers and candles in this tiny, blackened room were prisoners were starved for days.
	This is the two foot by two foot entrance to another of the Nazis' inventions. In this tall, narrow room of about two feet by three feet, prisoners were forced to stand together for days on end. They could not sit or lie down because they were packed together like sardines. In fact, the guards referred to this punishment as the sardine punishment.
	An original warning sign at the edge of one of the blocks before the barbed wire fencing. The Polish word for Halt can be seen: "Stoj".
	Here are the gallows where prisoners were hung and tortured to death. One of the Nazis favorite tortures was hanging a prisoner by his hands, which were tied behind his back. On this gallows, these prisoners only lasted a day or two, as they died from having their shoulders dislocated and eventually broken.
	Beyond this new wall, to the left behind the trees is the former house of Commandant Rudolf Hoess. His wife could often be seen by the prisoners tending her garden. Their house was not only on the camp grounds, but only 150 meters from the only crematory in Auschwitz I. Given that many Polish locals have attested to the fact that they could see the smoke and smell of burning and decaying bodies for up to twenty miles away from Auschwitz, it is unbelievable how Hoess could raise his family here, with the sights, sounds, and smells of murder all around.
	When Rudolf Hoess was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Polish government and sentenced to death by hanging, they chose to hang him on the grounds of his old camp. This is the scaffold that was erected for this specific purpose, and has never been taken down. The irony is that the gallows was erected equidistant between his house and the Crematory, so that he could both see the house where he and his family lived, while also seeing the crematory where many thousands were murdered. The edge of the crematory can be seen on the left.
	This is the chimney of the only crematory in Auschwitz I. Though I went inside, I felt it inappropriate to take photographs of the ovens and the room where the innocent were gassed.
	To some, this may be the most upsetting sight at Auschwitz I. To the right of the main entrance to the Museum, cafe, and gift shop is this "Bar" clearly labeled as such here. Until recently, a Tribeca Coffee shop (the European equivalent of Starbucks) was positioned outside the main gates to the camp. After protest, they closed their doors. But this Bar on the Auschwitz grounds itself remains, perhaps because this way, the Museum is allowed all the profits of this commercial endeavor at Auschwitz. This raises interesting ethical questions. For example, if the Museum uses the money it makes in the Bar to fund its operation or even its research, does this make the presence of the bar itself OK? I myself did not eat or drink while I was there, out of respect for the dead. My tour was the short tour (six hours). I also wore a yamakul out of respect, which I bought from a Synagogue in Kazimierz that requires visitors and tourists to cover their heads when they enter it. I am not Jewish, but for those six hours I had a glimpse of what it feels like to be Jewish in Poland today, as I often felt eyes on me.
	This is outside the main entrance to the Auschwitz museum, awaiting my shuttle ride to Birkenau, some four kilometers away. The ride was striking in that along the way, there were many houses and commercial buildings. Auschwitz did not exist outside of the sight of the city of Osweicim, but right in its heart.