Let Us Never Forget

This year, for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I am going to do something different.

Rather than writing about my experiences at Auschwitz I and at Auschwitz-Birkenau, I am going to share some of the images I captured during my in-depth visit to these camps. If it's true that pictures are worth 1,000 words, I hope these images will convey some of the reality of the horrors that took place there in a way words cannot. I am including captions to explain each photo. All photos are copyright Ann Sullivan Nature Photography and are the photographer's intellectual property. Please note that all photos were taken with great respect and in areas where photography was allowed.

Let's begin in Berlin, where the 'final solution to the Jewish question' began.

These so-called stumble stones were place in front of homes where Berlin's Jewish population lived before being deported. The shiny bronze plaques commemorate the victims of the Nazis in some 1,100 locations in 17 countries. Each one lists the name, date of birth, year of deportation, and place of death. I photographed the ones seen here in Berlin, heart of the Nazi terror.

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma murdered by members of National Socialism. Then known as gypsies, as many as 500,000 members of these groups were rounded up and put into concentration camps before being executed.

In this villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, top Nazi officials met in January 1942 to discuss "the final solution to the Jewish question." Representatives of several government ministries, along with members of the SS, attended. After the meeting, attendees enjoyed a nice meal. This building, set on the shore of Lake Wannsee, is now a Holocaust memorial.

Plaques along a no-longer-used train track -- track 17 -- in Berlin note the number of Jews, the date of deportation, and their final destination. This track was used to transport Jews from Berlin to various concentration camps. This plaque indicates that on February 2, 1945, near the end of the war, Nazis were still deporting Jews from Berlin to Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen. Only 23 Jews were in this shipment, as nearly all of Berlin's Jewish residents had been killed, had fled or were in hiding. Visitors had placed a rose on most of the plaques in memory of the victims of the Nazis. Being there for just a few minutes and remembering what took place there was chilling.

From Berlin, my group traveled by bus to Oswiecim (Auschwitz), Poland.  We stayed in a former monastery a short walk from camp. On the way, we passed train tracks that had been used to deliver millions to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The following photos are from Auschwitz 1, the original concentration camp. It was originally built as a Polish army barracks. When this camp became full, 49 subcamps were opened. The most famous of them is Auschwitz-Birkenau, a couple of miles away.

Historians believe that around 1.1 million people died in Auschwitz during its 5 years of operation. Around 1 million were Jews, 70,000 to 75.000 were Poles, and about 20,000 were Roma. About 16,000 Soviet POWs and 10-15 thousand prisoners of other ethnic backgrounds (including Czechs, Belorussians, Yugoslavs, French, Germans and Austrians) also died there.

Over the gate to Auschwitz is a sign that reads 'Work will set you free.' The only thing work in the camps did was cause the deaths of countless people forced to work until they died of exhaustion, starvation or disease. Only then did work set them free from the horrors of life at Auschwitz.

Three-tiered beds in one of the buildings at Auschwitz. Multiple people 'slept' on each bed, with possibly a single, thin, lice-infested blanket. Originally designed to hold 700 prisoners, they held as many as 1,200 as the roundups continued.

The campus of the original Auschwitz looks deceptively peaceful. Brick buildings, trees and wide streets gave the impression of a lovely, quiet town. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the buildings, known as blocks, hid a variety of kinds of torture, including heinous experimentation.

One of many wooden guard towers at Auschwitz 1, with double electric fences. To the right behind the tower is a reconstruction of the gallows on which prisoners were hanged. Camp commandant Rudolf Hoess was hanged there after the war and his conviction for war crimes.

The home of the camp commandant during most of the war years, Rudolf Hoess, is seen behind one of the guard towers. Hoess and his family, including his five children, lived in the house most of the time Auschwitz was in operation. Camp inmates worked in the house and garden as slaves. The house is still in use to this day.

This suitcase, labeled with its former owner's information, is one of hundreds displayed in the main camp. Conservators work daily to preserve (not to restore) all the items left behind when the camp was liberated by Soviet soldiers. There were suitcases, eyeglasses, toothbrushes, eating and cooking utensils, shoes, toys and many more personal objects.

Crutches, artificial limbs and other devices previously belonging to Jews who were sent to Auschwitz provide a stark reminder of the scope of those who were murdered at the camps. Anyone unable to work due to age, illness or infirmity was sent immediately to the gas chamber.

Empty canisters that held deadly pellets of the cyanide-based pesticide Zyklon B. The pellets were dropped into an air shaft from the building's roof. The pellets turned to gas when exposed to air. Those locked inside the gas chambers suffocated.

Cups and other personal items that belonged to those murdered at Auschwitz. 

Of all the reminders of the people murdered at Auschwitz, this large display case of shoes hit me the hardest. These shoes once belonged to innocent people as they went about their lives. The red shoe in a sea of brown really stands out. It makes me wonder about the person who once wore it. What was she like? Did she like to have fun? Did her red shoes reveal a lively and vivacious person?

The gas chamber and crematorium at Auschwitz 1. Several hundred people could be killed at a time. The Nazis were all about efficiency and maximizing the number of people they could murder at one time. Before operations began, the Nazis experimented to find the most effective chemical agent and to work out the proper method for its use. About 600 Soviet POWs and 250 sick Poles were killed in such experimentation from September 3-5, 1941. The original crematorium was destroyed by the Nazis as the war approached the end. A replica was built in its place. It still holds haunting memories of all those murdered within its walls.

Double rows of electric fences surrounded the camp. Prisoners who could no longer tolerate the inhumane conditions and abuse of the camp staff committed suicide by throwing themselves against the fence. Poison was another popular method of suicide.

Reconstruction of the wall where Auschwitz prisoners were executed by being shot. Known as the 'wall of death,' it saw the execution by SS firing squad of thousands of prisoners, the majority Polish political prisoners. 

The photos that follow were taken at Auschwitz-Birkenau, about 1.2 miles (2 km) from the original Auschwitz death camp. The first image shows the main gate of Birkenau as approached by rail. This train track, in operation from May to October 1944, led to barrack, gas chambers and crematoria. 

Birkenau was the largest of the 40 camps and subcamps in the Auschwitz complex. The camp sat on 346 acres, and included 300 barracks and other buildings, 10 miles of barbed wire, and four gas chambers with crematoria. In August 1944, there were 90,000 prisoners and 908 guards. 

View of the tracks from Birkenau's administrative
offices on the second floor.

One row of wooden barracks as seen from the second floor of the main building.  There were 36 bunks in each barrack, each holding five or six inmates, for more than 500 prisoners in each barrack. There was no insulation from cold or heat, and the roof often leaked.

Barracks for Birkenau prisoners were adapted from a German army horse stable. Designed to hold 51 horses, 
each barrack held more than 400 human prisoners.

Prisoner bathroom. No privacy, no paper, only a couple of minutes at designated times to take care of business on the toilets.

A cattle car like those used to transport Jewish residents from Berlin and other cities to Auschwitz sits on a track. Each locked and windowless car held up to 150 prisoners, so packed together there was only room to stand. Prisoners were given no food or water during the journey, which could take days.

Personal items on display at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The personal nature of these items really brought home the individuality of the prisoners. Someone once wore these boots and carried this suitcase. The victims were so much more than mere numbers.

A memorial candle, flowers and ribbon rest on the remains of Birkenau's infamous gas chamber and crematorium 5. It was destroyed by the Nazis toward the end of the war in an attempt to remove traces of their crimes against humanity.

This is the death barrack, where women deemed too sick to work were sent to await their deaths. They waited without food or water, often for several days. Many died as they awaited their trip to the gas chamber. When the barrack was full, additional prisoners selected by the SS for death were kept outside in a locked yard surrounded by brick walls.

At the conclusion of our extensive tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau on a cold, rainy and somber day, I was wandering around and noticed that someone had placed flowers on the train tracks that took so many to their deaths. The main gate of the camp looms in the background directly ahead of the main track.

A strand of barbed wire, a brick building, a light and a 'block' (or building) number symbolize the terror that was Auschwitz 1.

Thank you for reading this lengthy blog post. My visits to Auschwitz and Birkenau were both incredibly enlightening and horrifying. As the threat of fascism and anti-Semitism increase both in the US and in much of Europe, I hope that learning about the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and other fascists will encourage people to be aware of its dangers and work to stop its spread. Sometimes photos tell more than mere words can.