A part of me was left at Auschwitz... first published on 14/03/2012

Apart from meeting my Polish penpal, the first and main thing I wanted to do when I arrived in Poland, was to visit this place in the summer of 2011.

Entering the Auschwitz Concentration camp for the first time....it has been a dream to see here since I was an early teenager

The entrance to the main camp- Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Makes You Free

Prison barracks

From here, some of the pictures will be jumbled since it will take too much time to put them in order.

electrified fences

glasses taken from the Jews who were to be exterminated

The above objects were personal belongings taken from the Jews on their arrival to the camps. The Jews didn't know they were being taken to a concentration camp and hence had carried all these with them, thinking they were going to a new home. 

Cyclone-B- cyanide based pesticides used to gas the Jews

The first gas chamber set up by the Nazis. In here, the victims died within 20 minutes after being gased. 

The Cyclone-B pellets were dropped through the chimney into the room.

Execution wall - Jews were lined up and shot at this wall

electrified fences

The tour guide 

Prisoners were photographed

Boarding the train for a journey to death...

Jews arriving at the camp

Told that they were going to be led to showers to clean up, when in fact, they were being led to the gas chambers 

Adolf Hitler

Jewish children prisoners

Starving children

Separation of those who will be sent to work or those sent to death immediately

One of the saddest statements I have ever seen...

The uniform 

Jewish prayer shawls

Where they burned the bodies after they were gassed

Crematorium in ruins

Entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau

Israelis visiting

toilets for Jewish prisoners- used twice a day, before and after work only

Paying my respect 

Ruins of Crematorium

Gas chamber buildings in ruins

The guard tower

The wooden bunks served as beds that the Jews slept on....as many as 10 persons on one

*this photo was taken from Wikipedia to show how the prisoners were arranged on the wooden bunks*

There are many blogs and pictorial sites that show pictures and tell the tales of the events at Auschwitz concentration camp I and II, but I made this to show what it meant to me after visiting there. It has always been a dream to visit there and I never thought I would get this opportunity. After, accomplishing this, I would like to visit again and receive a better appreciation and also to pay my respect to the many Jews( estimation of 1.1 million) that were killed innocently, for a reason I still cannot understand.....

1940- 1945