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auschwitz

those who do not remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.

By Al Ronberg

August 7^th, 2016

why go?

Put very simply - my only true understanding of this awful chapter of human history had been documentaries… photos… or even worse, Hollywood. It is not difficult to experience an emotional reaction to facts that are presented to you in these media - but the harsh truth is that nothing will ever replace the all-encompassing overloading of your senses and emotions that experiencing the grounds of Auschwitz envokes.

I had been lucky to be gifted a trip to Europe to spend time with my mother who lives over that way… many of the experiences we had planned were bucket list items - things that were important to me based on childhood dreams or passions. The idea to visit Auschwitz was something that was a complete contrast; something that I felt very clearly drawn to as a sign of respect and to be honest, curiosity.

I have never been able to reconcile how the events that I had read and watched could ever happen in the birthplace of Protestant Christianity… Visiting would not provide any answers, but would be an opportunity to remember, and to inform my Teaching practice. This photo essay serves to capture my thinking and observations - and to tell some of the stories that need to live on.

work will set you free (AUSCHWITZ I)

In it’s infancy, Auschwitz was intended to be a Labour Camp. A place where prisoners would be sent to work for the Nazi War effort. The gates of Auschwitz tell you in clear bold-type lettering, that “Work will set you free” (Arbeit Macht Frei). This particular gate was built by prisoners, and if you look closely at the sign you may be able to see the little act of defiance that must have been a small and simple pleasure for the team that created it… (The letter B is actually upside down if you look closely). Work did indeed set most people free - not entirely in the liberated manner that you might expect; more in a “meet your Maker” kind of way. More on the workers later.

Work will set you free - not at liberty - more likely free from living.

outside...

In 2009 I travelled to Fiji on a short trip to retrace the steps of my father who had lived there in the 1960s. One of my observations on that trip was how having an archaic prison at the entrance to the capital city was a very good way to send a message that it was probably a good idea to be on your best behaviour. When you enter Auschwitz I you are immediately placed into a space that is designed to intimidate you and ensure that you are aware of what is expected of you. Barbed Wire is an abundant visual reminder that the place you are in is not going to be comfortable. There are warning signs everywhere about Electrified Fences and Sentry posts that don’t require much imagination to slot in some armed guards, spotlights and Alsatian dogs ready to attack. There is a strange feeling inside the grounds. If you stand in the centre of the compound, you could be forgiven for finding the tree-lined roads and red-bricked facades somewhat appealing as a military barracks or form of cheap housing. You are obviously brought back down to earth as you remind yourself of the deeply sinister undertones that ooze out of every corner.

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Barbed wire is everywhere...

Barbed wire was often also electrified...

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Every sentry needs a place to stay dry when counting thousands of people who are saturated and already sick...

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living conditions.

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Dormitory Life.

The very first room we were shown would have made a beautiful home for orphaned animals. It looked comfortable for dogs or cats that may need shelter in a difficult season of their existence. Of course, these rooms were not home for loved pets or animals - they were completely unsatisfactory living arrangements for loathed slaves. The work that was expected of those who were sent to Auschwitz was enough to place a very short life expectancy on each prisoner - but more than this, the unsanitary living conditions were more than likely equally responsible for a shortened existence. You are definitely struck by the unwritten stories that are told in the gap between the date someone arrived, and the date of their death. Arriving at Auschwitz was effectively a terminal diagnosis measured more often than not, in months. Basic functions of life such as toileting, washing and sleeping became shared activities that were scheduled and controlled. Frequently, people died in beds that were covered in human filth and disease spread rapidly, acting as population control. You will note the photographs below of Maria and Czeslawa Krajewska - Polish Twins who arrived at Auschwitz on the same day and survived 3 and 5 months respectively. These photos stood out to me for some reason and you can’t help but feel the pain of these girls - growing up together, being imprisoned together and then dying very close together. There was a good life to be had in the dormitories if you were willing to work with the Nazis and involve yourself in disciplining those around you. I can’t comprehend this, but in saying that, I am not fighting to survive.

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Communal Toilets

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Collaborating with the Nazis was a way to ensure some comfort.

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The Smell of Death

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Sinister Scenes

I have had very few experiences in life that have repulsed me to my very core. Standing in a courtyard with a wall designed to provide an appropriate backdrop to aid the systematic death of people by firing squad is a viscerally awful experience. Seeing an entire building dedicated to death via various means was unpleasant and gut-wrenching at the same time. In Block 11 (The Death Block), people were starved, asphyxiated and shot depending on various offences that one might have committed. In one infamous event, some people had tried to escape, so to discourage other such occurrences, 10 prisoners were randomly selected for death in Block 11. This is where Maximilian Kolbe stepped in for someone, choosing to die so another might live. He was placed in Cell 18 which now houses a memorial set up by Pope John Paul II. As you peep through the holes of the cells, you see tiny slithers of light from the blocked window - you just know that in its time, these tiny holes would have been filled to ensure that no perception of time-of-day was possible. Starved of food, starved of perception and starved of dignity and hope - this place is one of the most depressing spaces on the planet. Other cells were designed to restrict movement - you were forced to buckle under your own weight in tiny cells that only allowed you to stand up. I just can’t begin to describe this really - we weren’t allowed to take photos in there, and to be honest, I don’t think I would have wanted to. Outside you have the firing-squad courtyard that I already mentioned, but also around the walls of this space are poles with hooks on top - where prisoners were attached by ropes around their wrists and hung up and lashed. It never ceases to amaze me that someone could concoct and design this kind of place, and then plan and implement so many ways to inflict so much suffering on other human-beings.

Auschwitz was a home for the development of systematic killing, you can see that the people operating this horrific establishment realised that they would require a much more efficient system and that leads you to the more mass-production side of things. The Gas Chamber at Auschwitz I is a re-purposed building that formed the early prototypes for the death-factories that you will hear about at Auschwitz II (Birkenau). A bleak concrete room is lit by few lamps - holes in the ceiling look like ventilation shafts, but served as the portals in which the SS would drop in the Zyklon-B Pellets that would produce the suffocating gas that would so efficiently act as an agent of death. Zyklon-B was initially developed as a pesticide - but became more useful in helping the Nazi’s find a more efficient way to kill people than the Carbon Monoxide they had been producing with vehicles. Next to the Gas-Chamber is a Crematorium building where the dead were burned. An almost efficient system that would be built to a much bigger scale at Birkenau in the next phase of the Auschwitz story.

Auschwitz has also kept the gallows that were constructed to express some form of Justice in this whole experience. The Camp Commandant Rudolph Hoss was hung on these gallows. I don’t know that this was truly justice - a quick death doesn’t seem quite enough on the balance of all stories. The Gestapo building at Auschwitz is not far from both the Gas Chamber and the Gallows. I have popped a picture of this too - as the nature of the building’s occupants would no doubt contributed to it being a fearful place.

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One of the vents in the ceiling of a gas chamber at Auschwitz I. Zyklon-B was dropped through the vent and it was sealed.

Crematorium

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Objects with Stories

One of the most strikingly poignant visual reminders of what occurred at Auschwitz, is the building in which you are shown the objects that were taken from individual prisoners. There were massive warehouses dedicated to sorting and distributing stolen possessions, surreally named after Canada - because some random person like the country. These belongings are collected in large display spaces that show you the sheer numbers of individuals. When you see a room filled just with Spectacles - you can’t help but realise that each pair belonged to a person. The same experience greets you when you see luggage, shoes, artificial limbs, cookware, shaving brushes… I have included below some of the personal file cards of some of the people that were sent to Auschwitz - and the offences that people were condemned for make for interesting reflection: Listening to a foreign radio station, reading illegal leaflets, aiding jews, escaping from work, ABSENCE from work - at least there was one that had tried to escape and join the Polish Legion in Hungary - that was at least antagonistic to the Nazi cause.

By far the most emotional experience (and the only time I think I had real tears rather than just an internal disgust) was the room in which there was a mountain of human hair. It is thought that this collection represents around 30,000 individuals who were shaved prior to being exterminated. You can understand collections of belongings, but hair is only ever meant to be attached to a person - it represents their personality, their self-image and so much more. Seeing products that had been made from the hair of Auschwitz inmates is disturbing and in some ways, life-changing.

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Auschwitz II (Birkenau)

The early days of the Auschwitz story were typically concerned with the disposal of Polish dissidents, political prisoners, captured Soviet soldiers and other war-related casualties. When the Nazis changed their game-plan to removing Europe of the Jewish people - a larger and more efficient “Death-Factory” was going to be needed. The development of another campus not too far from Auschwitz I was in every way fuelled with decisions about the most efficient ways in which to transport, house or Kill and Dispose of hundreds of thousands of people. Experts in infrastructure planned rail entrances that would allow the sorting of people into live or die situations. Other experts built dwellings that could house many inmates at a time. Other experts built great factories with elaborate methods to kill and dispose of bodies. Nothing you can ever experienced could ever have prepared you to face the scale and raw efficiency that was designed to inflict such horrific and large-scale death. Geographically the Birkenau site is huge. Flat, open and flattened of all life. There was little colour to be found - and even the colour that you could see, felt less colourful than it may have done in any other context. There are skeletal remains of buildings dotted around and the main road through the middle is quite possibly the saddest piece of roading you could ever walk along. You realise that most of the people that walked that road never returned. Once you had been sent along the first few steps, your lifespan would be measured in hours.

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Death by transportation.

Arrival at Auschwitz was a carefully planned testament to the efficiency of Europe’s train network. People could be brought from anywhere that was under the influence of the Third Reich and systematically disposed of in the Death Camps of Auschwitz within a matter of days. Most trips required the 80 people in each carriage to stand - no toilets - no food and no insulation from the hot, or the cold. Many people would die in the carriages on the way - removing the need to place them in the gas chambers. Many people had no idea that this would be their final trip - thinking they were on their way to yet another internment camp. Those selected to die were told that they would be reunited with their baggage and loved-ones after a shower to avoid the development of Typhoid Fever… This would have seemed reasonable. Man, Woman and Child were stripped bare and taken to showers - the doors locked and then gassed. I could only try and imagine the growing realisation of what was happening - and even the panic filled moment when people would have realised that they were being executed… It really was an eye-opening and gut-wrenching place. It is the kind of place that removes your naivety. You can’t be the same person when you leave this place than when you entered. You take the death, the tragedy, the awareness of man’s inhumanity to man and you try and live a life that honours those that had theirs so efficiently taken. You tread lightly knowing that the stones under your feet were the last stones that 1.5 Million people walked… You try and remember, so that this important story never dies…

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Destroyed evidence

When the Nazis realised that the end of the war was imminent, they destroyed the Gas Chambers one by one. The Soviet Army was not far off, and as they neared, they realised that there was little time left. They would evacuate the stronger prisoners to other camps in Germany - where they would march them around killing any stragglers. Those that were left in Auschwitz were the weakest. They were expected to die before being able to recount their stories to any liberators.

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The Gas Chambers.

Below you will find images that erase any sense of deniability of what happened in Death Camps across Europe during World War Two. The evidence is obvious without the testimony of survivors. I can’t believe that anyone in this universe could deny the atrocities that took place here. You can feel the death with every step. You can smell it, breathe it, touch it and almost taste it. The Gas Chambers are huge. You can see the remains of the Crematorium, the Lift Shaft where bodies were brought up to be searched and disposed of. You can see the remains of the chambers themselves - all a crumbling mass of building since they were set alight by the fleeing Nazis. You see bent Iron that once gave support to walls and floors that housed death. They themselves remain twisted and rusting which seems appropriate. I wouldn’t want to have one of these buildings still intact. It just wouldn’t seem right that they should survive. I am perfectly comfortable with a destroyed gas-chamber complex - it seems to serve as a full-stop on a chapter that should never be repeated in any way, shape or form.

One of the very special sites at Auschwitz is the pond that sits at the site of where the Ashes of those killed were disposed of. There are four very simple headstones that mark the spot, and you cannot help but stop and honour these people who were taken in such horrible circumstances. You cannot truly appreciate their experiences at any point of this place. You can try and imagine, to empathise, or to piece things together - but you can never really know what those final moments would have felt like.

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Write your story here. (Optional)

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The Death Barracks

Some fruit sits on the shelf for a while until it hits a pre-defined date in which it is deemed no longer fit for consumption. At Auschwitz they had a special space for those people who were deemed too unwell or far-gone to continue working. This dormitory was a holding pen for women who were about to be sent to the Gas Chamber. Living conditions were already very poor and when you assemble so many terrifyingly unwell women in such a small space, you are creating one hellish piece of real estate. Women would strive for a top-bunk in summer - this would ensure that you weren’t covered in human waste from someone who was suffering from the inevitable cases of dysentery. In winter it was different - people would easily freeze to death on the top bunks - so a bit of a game of bunk roulette. Each bunk would be home to 8 or more women who would huddle together for warmth. You would be able to tell when someone had died as the warmth would all of a sudden disappear.

Another incredibly awful anecdote informed us that the toilets were available only in the mornings - and often would be shared. The hand basins for washing were huge - and had completely and totally pointless if not redundant soap-dishes built into them. This was not a place where you were going to benefit from basic hygiene habits.

We also went past the remains of a wooden barracks which was “home” to the kids who were lab-rats for Dr Mengele. These kids were involved in scientific experiments and subjected to inhumane treatment in order for Dr Mengele to advance his understanding of human physiology. These experiments often utilised twins as different controls and test variables. Dr Mengele was never brought to justice, as he escaped to South America. This sucks.

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Closing Thoughts.

Visiting Auschwitz should be on everybody’s itinerary when visiting Europe. It is important to remember what happened in World War Two - and to honour those that lost their lives. I will forever find context and perspective as a result of my time here. I was grateful for the opportunity and the ability to share the experience with my Mum. I hope that you have appreciated my thoughts and observations, and that the photos have enabled you to experience some connection with what took place.

One Day in Auschwitz.

I will leave the final thoughts to the amazing Kitty Hart-Moxon - a survivor of Auschwitz who has captured her journey in the documentary below. Many of the spaces she visits in this documentary are ones that I have covered in this photo essay. She can add so much more than I ever will… Please take the time to watch. Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to chat about my experience - and I would love your feedback on this collection.

Footnotes

In July I had the opportunity to remember the horrific atrocities committed against many people groups in WWII. A Sobering visit that can't help but bring perspective to your life...

FootNotes

In July I had the opportunity to remember the horrific atrocities committed against many people groups in WWII. A Sobering visit that can't help but bring perspective to your life...

© 2026 Al Ronberg

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