Prisoners arrived in cramped, windowless cattle cars. At the infamous ramp at Auschwitz, the Nazis selected those they could use as forced laborers. The others -- old people, many women and especially children and babies -- were gassed to death soon after their arrival.
It is Birkenau that shocks more profoundly, a flat, vast space still ringed by the silver birch trees -- Birken in German -- that gave the place its name. Crematories lie in rubble but still intact are the rail tracks and watch towers and some of the barracks where prisoners slept in cold, cramped conditions.
A photo shows the notorious main gate with the cynical Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" -- a German phrase meaning "work will set you free."
--GreGen
No comments:
Post a Comment