Holocaust Memorial Day is on January 27, the date Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated in 1945. I visited the camp complex in 2010; it was a surreal experience.
It may have been five years since my visit, but I remember it clearly. The pictures speak louder than any words I could write.
‘Arbeit macht frei’ – work sets you free. This sign is a replica as thieves took the original.
Empty tins of Zyklon B, the gas used in the execution chambers.
Jewish prayer shawls
The footwear display went along a full corridor
Living quarters at Auschwitz
The execution wall between blocks ten and eleven at Auschwitz
A standing isolation cell
A watch tower for one SS guard
The one gas chamber that was not leveled when the camp’s liberators got close.
Communal latrines at Birkenau
One of the gas chambers and a crematorium as it was found
The end of the line
Where the trains arrived at Birkenau
