Auschwitz II

The Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp site was built in October 1941 to ease the congestion at Auschwitz I. It was first built to house 50,000 prisoners of war and then expanded for 150,000, but eventually it was housing 200,000 inmates.

It was first built as a labour camp where the prisoners were interned as force labourers. When Hitler decided to annihilate the Jewish people, it had also become an extermination camp, where gas chambers and crematoria were purposely built for the mass killing.

The living condition of the inmates was really subpar. The building were wooden shacks with skylight. The latrine was simply a trench with holes and the beds were just bunkers made from wooden planks.

There is no doubt the only wish of the inmates was to escape from this living hell. That is the cruelty of war. In this season of caring, let us all pray for world peace during this Christmas.

The Human Killing Industry

The Auschwitz I concentration camp site was originally an army camp with buildings served as barracks. During the 2^nd World War, the Germans occupied Poland and turned it into a camp to hold the Polish prisoners.

In 1947, the Polish government turned the site of the camp into a state memorial to the victims of Nazism.

Some of the barracks used to retain prisoners are now exhibition halls showing the life of the prisoners in the concentration camp.

One of the most terrifying features of the Auschwitz I concentration camp is the organised massacre. There were "factories" containing gas chambers and crematoriums purposely built for human extermination.

What's left of the victims are hairs, glasses, shoes, prostheses, suitcases and other groceries. Some of their hairs were weaved into blankets.

There was also starvation inside the camp.

The portraits of some the victims are still hanging on the walls of the exhibition halls.

The lives of children were also not spared during the massacre.

Some of the victims may have been spared from being killed in the gas chambers, but they couldn't escape from death on the notorious Death Wall at Block 11. The victims were striped naked before the execution, where women prisoners were disrobed at a separate room and executed first. The execution was done in pairs.

Although most of the gas chambers have been destroyed by the Nazis during the revolt, there are still some of the remains left for us to witness the cruelty during the war.

May all the souls of the victims rest in peace and all the living souls learn a great lesson from this painful chapter in history.