The slogan Arbeit macht frei - Work Sets You Free - was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. The slogan's use was implemented by SS officer Theodor Eicke at Dachau concentration camp and then copied by Rudolf Höss at Auschwitz.
Electrical current for the fence, as indeed for the entire Auschwitz camp, was supplied by a power line from the electrical generating plant in Siersza Wodna. Two separate lines ran from the main substation in Babice, to the main camp and to Birkenau. The fencing design proved highly effective. During the history of Auschwitz, only two prisoners, Roman Cieliczko and Jerzy Tabeau, escaped through it.
Concrete guards vault covered by bricks and an earthen layer - During air raids, the guards hiding there could open fire on prisoners who tried to escape when the fences were damaged
The Sentry box stands infront of the camp kitchens on Roll-Call Square. The prisoners had to assemble every morning and evening to be counted, whatever the weather and often lasted for several hours, sometimes longer. Prisoners had to stand to attention the whole time and could not leave for any reason. When the exhausted or sick fell over, they were beaten to force them to stand up. The deceased were also required to be "present" with their bodies laid out in rows next to the standing prisoners. After counting, the bodies would be taken to the morgue .
At first, guard towers were quite basic and were placed around the fences of Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau camps. At the end of 1943 the towers were replaced by new ones, fully walled and fitted with windows. German companies manufactured the prefabricated components and delivered them by train to the camps.
Between Blocks 10 and 11 is a courtyard where the Germans shot thousands of people at "The Wall". Most of those executed here were polish political prisoners and Poles ( men, women and children) who had been sentenced to death in nearby towns. The SS also administered brutal punishments here such as: Floggings, hangings and the torture known as "The Post", in which prisoners were hung from a post by their wrists with their arms twisted behind their backs.
During the first few months the prisoners' rooms had neither beds nor any other furniture. Prisoners slept on straw filled mattresses laid on the floor. The rooms were so overcrowded that prisoners could sleep only on their sides, in three rows. Three-tiered bunks began appearing gradually in the rooms from February 1941. Aside from the beds, the furniture in each block included a dozen or more wooden wardrobes, several tables and several stools
Portable Gallows - Block 11
The Execution Wall
The Germans shot thousands of people at the wall which is situated in a courtyard between Blocks 10 and 11.
Block 10
Block 10 is where the German gynecologist Carl Clauberg's experimental station was located. It was here that he conducted sterilization experiments on Jewish women. Some of them died during the experiments, and many were put to death for autopsy purposes
Block 11
Block 11 was known as the "Death Block". In the basement, known as the bunker, were punishment cells where Germans confined prisoners regarded as guilty of violating camp regulations. In 1941 prisoners sentenced to death by starvation were held here.
Over the period 3-5 September 1941, the SS caried out experiments in the basement with Zyklon B in preparation for the mass murder of Jews planned by Nazi Germany. 600 Soviet POWs and 250 Polish political prisoners, selected as human guinea-pigs for this experiment, were murdered here in this way.
Prosthetic limbs confiscated from Auschwitz prisoners
"Material Evidence of Crime"
Shoe's, suitcases, Baskets taken from the prisoners.
Gas chamber and crematorium 1
Before the war this building was a munition bunker. From 15 August 1940 to July 1943 the SS used it as a cremetorium. In the Autumn of 1941, the largest room , which had been designed as a morgue, was adapted for use as an improvised gas chamber, the first of it's kind in Auschwitz. Using the gas produced by pellets of Zyklon B, many thousands of Jews were murdered here by the SS within hours of their arrival at Auschwitz. Several groups of soviet POWs were also murdered here in this way, as were sick prisoners whose return to work was considered unlikely.
Inside the gas chamber
There are Four holes in the ceiling were the Zyklon B pellets would be poured into the room by one SS man on the roof, the holes would then be sealed shut. When the bodies were removed for cremation the room would then be aired out by opening the doors, since there was no ventilation.
Ovens
Built by Topf and Sons of Germany, the ovens were used to to dispose of the bodies. Auschwitz 1 had three ovens and it was estimated that they could dispose of 340 bodies every 24hrs.
The bodies were placed on the trolley's above and then they were shoved into the oven; the ovens could take two bodies at a time.
The site of Rudolph Hoss' (Camp commandant 1940- 1943 ) execution close to his former office and the gas chamber
He was executed on the 16th April 1946
