Description
This low-angle greyscale image depicts the Auschwitz II-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp entrance at Ofiar Faszyzmu 12, 32-600 Brzezinka, Poland.
This was the end of the track through the Gate of Death for millions of innocent POWs.
Auschwitz was primarily a slave labour facility consisting of a large number of facilities. The area had an enormous industry concentration, and Auschwitz could house many slave laborers.
Most of the camp facility was barracks for slave labour. It was modified and expanded for the gas chambers and crematoria located here in Auschwitz II, which were enlarged and modernised over time.
Unlike most death camps, it was intended as a permanent facility. It was the westernmost death camp, the primary destination for victims from Western Europe, and also conveniently on major rail lines.
Most of the other camps were crude facilities in remote locations for murdering the Polish Jews and were dismantled in 1943 when that mass murder was complete. Auschwitz continued after that as the sole death camp of significance. It ended up murdering the most because it was the only death camp operating in 1944 when the Hungarian Jews were slaughtered.
The area was already well served with rail lines because of its industrial capacity. The spur line into Auschwitz II, which had the gas chambers, was built under SS supervision as they ran the camp.
One of the main reasons this area of Poland was selected for the Nazi’s major terror centre was due to the number of RR lines that came together near the town of Oswiecim. The Germans renamed the city Auschwitz.
Image size: 4424×2532
File size: 2.4MB
DPI: 300
Bit: 24 bit
Colour: No
Property/model release: No
Edited: Yes. Adobe Lightroom CC
Location: Auschwitz II, Poland
Year took: 2020
Copyright owner: J. J. Williamson
