View From a Guard Tower

This picture was taken on March 19, 2019 in Auschwitz ll - Birkenau at 10 am. This is the view from on top of a guard tower at Auschwitz ll - Birkenau. The view from on top of the guard tower was really eye opening, the view from the top went on for miles and miles. It was at this point of the trip that I truly got a full understanding of how many people were in and could have been forced to live and work here and how many people have died here. Looking across the massive camp you could see what is left of the camp. The buildings in the picture above are all dorms where the prisoner where forced to live. Even through Auschwitz ll – Birkenau was already so big, there was plans to build more and expand this camp. This day of our trip was probably one of the hardest days for me. Learning about the amount of people that where in the Holocaust and victims of the Holocaust sounds crazy and unbelievable. It wasn’t until I went to the camps that I could truly understand how these horrifying numbers could be possible. At this camp they had different sections for the prisoners. They had the men, woman, and children split up in to different parts of the camps. For those who didn’t make the cut during the selection process where sent to the far back of the camp to one of the many gas chambers and crematoriums. It was heart breaking to see these living and working conditions that these people were forced to live and work in. These work places and dorms where over crowded, un sanitary, and un safe. During our tour of Auschwitz ll – Birkenau spent the day in the footsteps of the prisoner. Right through the main entrance of the camp where train tracks that brought in loads of prisoner each day. Once the prisoner where unloaded from the train, they were put into two lines. One line as sent straight to the gas chamber and crematoriums. And the other line was sent to work. From there our guide took us to the building that the prisoners went to when to after they were selected once they got off the train. This building was used to process the prisoners into the camp. From the second we walked through to door of the processing building I could picture the prisoners taking these scary first steps in the camp. In this building they numbered the inmates, shaved their head, and took all of their belongings. The living conditions in the dorms pictured here where awful. Inside the buildings the beds where made from the same building materials as horse stables. These bunks where made of wood with little to no bedding. They were over packed and fill with filth and disease. And their restrooms were in the middle of their dorms and bunks. They were only allowed to use them a few times a day.