Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Birkenau was primarily a place of execution. Over one
million people were killed in its four gas chambers, 98
per cent of whom were Jewish. Victims included Poles,
Russian prisoners of war, gypsies and Czech, Yugoslav,
French, Austrian and German citizens. Birkenau was
also an enormous concentration camp, housing 90,000
slave labourers by mid-1944 and provid ing labour for
many of the factories and farms of south western, Nazi-
occupied Poland. The gas chambers were quickly
destroyed by the Nazis shortly before the Soviet Army
liberated the camp in January 1945.

196 CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE

Women’s Barracks

The conditions in the living

quarters at the camps were

terrible. With little or no sanitation,

poor nutrition and no medical care,

diseases such as typhus and cholera

spread rapidly. This image shows the

women’s barracks at Birkenau shortly

after liberation.

Hell’s Gate

In 1944, the numbers arriving

at the camp began to increase

dramatically. A railway line

was extended into the camp.

The entrance gate through

which the trains passed was

Visiting Birkenau known as “Hell’s Gate”.

There is little left

of the camp today;

its main purpose is

for remembrance.

Most visitors come to

pay their respects at

the Monument to the

Victims of the Camp,

on the site of the

gas chambers.

Gas chamber and

crematorium

The Unloading Ramp
This was possibly the most terrifying part of the
camp. It was here that SS officers separated
the men from the women and children, and
the SS doctors declared who was fit for work.
Those declared unfit were taken immediately
to their death.

Towers and

barbed wire

isolated the

camps from the

outside world.

For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp218–21 and pp222–5

Auschwitz II–Birkenau

Oświęcim-Brzezinka