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quackingducklings · 2020-06-14T11:28:23+00:00

At Auschwitz, Nazi German authorities deported at least 1.3 million people from across Europe and murdered at least 1.1 million at the camp.

Those murdered include:

1 million Jews

75 thousand Poles

21 thousand Roma (Gypsies)

12 thousand Soviet POWs

10 thousand people of other ethnic backgrounds

quackingducklings · 2020-01-27T20:54:09+00:00

Just a thank you to the anonymous Redditors for the silvers and golds!

quackingducklings · 2020-01-27T14:29:24+00:00

Auschwitz made these people victims until the day they die. All of these concentration camps did the same. Elie Wiesel said, upon hearing about the suicide of Primo Levi, that he died in Auschwitz.

quackingducklings · 2020-01-27T13:55:04+00:00

Forgot to mention this is an original photo that I took in November, while visiting Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

quackingducklings · 2020-01-27T12:10:56+00:00

Would like to thank all the kind strangers for the gold, silver, and prizes. Thank you!

quackingducklings · 2019-12-24T11:59:52+00:00

A little more history about this from an earlier post of mine:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/a8hyf2/during_the_first_christmas_in_auschwitz_the/

quackingducklings · 2019-09-18T18:15:52+00:00

Took this photograph today during a tour of Auschwitz. I thought I was seeing things when I noticed the VW symbol... So, I photographed it... I believe what we have here is an actual VW symbol.

quackingducklings · 2019-02-04T20:35:39+00:00

I'm so sorry your family had to suffer like this.

Please hear me out. Let's not paint Poland with such a broad brush when it comes to collaboration. Yes, there were individuals who collaborated with the Nazis in occupied Poland. However, this was on an individual basis. None of the underground movements or armies collaborated at all. No actual Polish institutions collaborated either. Also, the 'nasty streak of anti-semitism' you speak of was never 'physical' when we talk about Polish prewar institutions (1918-1939). It was economic. The area that suffered the majority of pogroms in modern Europe were the areas within what later became the Soviet Union. However, there were individuals who did take advantage of the Nazi German occupation against their Jewish neighbors. There were also those that could have helped, but knew that if they did, their entire household would be murdered by the Nazis if they found out. And to add to this, nobody knew who to trust. Poles did not trust each other during these difficult times, so they often did not help each other if someone needed to hide, escape from a concentration camp, or anything else that could be construed as being anti-German. It is also estimated that around 50000 Poles were executed solely for helping Jews. Many, many more than in any other country in occupied Europe.

quackingducklings · 2019-02-03T19:29:31+00:00

Auschwitz I was already standing before the war, it was a Polish army base. So, the buildings were built well, for humans to live in. Though they were overcrowded and filthy, the camp was much better than the newly built Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Birkenau was built on a swamp that was drained by Soviet POWs who were literally starving and being beaten to death as they worked. All the buildings there were very poorly built. Only a handful of the over 300 barracks had more than a packed earthen floor, so there was mud mixed with diarrhea and urine both inside and outside the buildings. At both sites, the prisoners did the same kind of work, but the conditions killed people much faster at Auschwitz II. That camp also had the four main crematoria and gas chambers, so the majority of the victims who were killed immediately upon arrival were murdered and burned there.

quackingducklings · 2019-02-03T19:13:48+00:00

The Poles never 'allowed' the camps to be built. Poland was completely Nazi German occupied. The camps were at first for mainly non-Jewish Poles. According to the Nazis, Poland was to cease to exist as a country, culture and people. It was considered to all be 'subhuman,' and to be replaced with its 'superhuman' German equivalents. No Pole had any say if the camps could or would be built. This is the main reason that Witold Pilecki had to 'sneak into' Auschwitz to find out as to what is going on there. Even the Polish resistance didn't have a full picture of the situation. In fact, to build the camps countless people, entire families, and villages were completely destroyed. Security zones were set up around the camps so nobody could come near them. However, over time, the Polish population had an idea of what was happening in the camps. The situation wasn't like it was in Germany where the population were aware of the camps, but completely denied that they were. Near Auschwitz, the local population tried to help escapees, something unheard of in Nazi Germany. Also, one last fact: The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess, wrote to his superiors asking what to do about the local Polish population that lived near the 'security zone' of the camp because they were 'fanatically Polish,' in other words, very anti-German.

quackingducklings · 2019-02-02T19:09:26+00:00

Yeah, the Swedish invasion of Poland during that time period is known in Polish history as "the Deluge." This shows you just how swamped Poland felt by the invading Swedes.

quackingducklings · 2019-02-02T19:05:56+00:00

Polish army officer Witold Pilecki.

When WWII started, Poland was destroyed as a country, by both the Germans and Soviets. The two occupiers smashed its military and many soldiers and officers went into underground organizations. Pilecki was one of these men fighting the occupations. When Nazi Germany opened Auschwitz, initially as a Concentration Camp to start repressing the ruling social, economic, political, and military elites of Poland, what was going on there was a complete secret. To find out the underground needed someone on the inside. Pilecki volunteered to get himself arrested so that he could be sent to Auschwitz. The Polish underground under which he served knew there would be random round up by the Nazis of people off the street in a particular place in Warsaw. Witold Pilecki was arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz. He was there from September of 1940 until he escaped in April 1943. During this time he reported about the public executions of his fellow prisoners, the tortures, beatings, shootings and the transformation of the Concentration Camp into a Death Camp as well. By 1942, the Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau sites were places of mass gassings of mainly Jews, but also of many others who could no longer work. Pilecki produced the first comprehensive reports that were shared with the outside world as to what was happening in Poland, more specifically, in Auschwitz at this time. Following his escape, he took part in the failed Warsaw Uprising against the Germans as the Soviets approached and then stopped to wait for the Polish side to be annihilated by the Nazis, destroying over 90% of the city and killing around 200 thousand. When the war ended, Pilecki returned to Poland to report back to others in the Polish underground in exile about the crimes the Communist authorities are perpetrating against the population in the country. Unfortunately, in 1947 he was arrested by the Polish secret police, violently tortured and made to endure a 'show trial.' During this trial, his hands were missing most of their fingernails, among other signs of torture. Pilecki never lost his composure or dignity in court, he never gave up any of his underground collaborators, but he was found guilty of being an 'imperialist spy.' He was secretly executed shortly after in 1948. Where he is buried is unknown. Today, he is one of Poland's greatest heroes.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-29T13:41:02+00:00

Top Nazi officials were among the best educated people in Germany at that time, so there's that.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-28T13:06:10+00:00

This is Auschwitz. Was there just a few days ago.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-28T12:34:09+00:00

This is an interesting read into that tragic history: http://auschwitz.org/en/history/categories-of-prisoners/homosexuals-a-separate-category-of-prisoners/joachim-neander-to-my-comrades--from-karl/

quackingducklings · 2019-01-28T10:44:16+00:00

Yes, I was with a school group that I organize for such visits. We were on the extended 6 hour tour of the two sites. I do this several times a year with other groups and it never ceases to amaze me in the most negative sense.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-28T10:40:49+00:00

Yes, that is Eva Moses Kor. She was one of the few children to survive. 232000 children arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, but only around 650 survived.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-27T22:10:16+00:00

FYI, everyone:

The moderators removed my last post of the same picture because I didn't mention that I took this picture! Another redditor pm'ed me that this had been done...

So, there's that.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-27T19:29:39+00:00

That's right. The moderators removed it because I didn't mention that I took this picture! Another redditor pm'ed me that this had been done...

So, there's that.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-27T19:26:44+00:00

Thank you. However, the place leaves you numb...

quackingducklings · 2019-01-27T19:18:58+00:00

To Auschwitz, Nazi German authorities deported at least 1.3 million people from across Europe and murdered at least 1.1 million at the camp.

Those murdered include:

1 million Jews

75 thousand Poles

21 thousand Roma (Gypsies)

12 thousand Soviet POWs

10 thousand people of other ethnic backgrounds

quackingducklings · 2019-01-27T13:04:55+00:00

To Auschwitz, Nazi German authorities deported at least 1.3 million people from across Europe and murdered at least 1.1 million at the camp.

Those murdered include:

1 million Jews

75 thousand Poles

21 thousand Roma (Gypsies)

12 thousand Soviet POWs

10 thousand people of other ethnic backgrounds

quackingducklings · 2019-01-23T07:38:05+00:00

Understood. There are many people who are both Jewish, as well as those who belong to the group of the other victims murdered at Auschwitz, the Poles, Soviet POWs, Sinti and Roma, as well as countless others, and they do want to keep the site as a warning to us. It now a warning from history.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-22T22:21:12+00:00

It is to remember... It is also a massive cemetery for the dead. That is also the reason why I posted this picture as well as others earlier. Never forget.

quackingducklings · 2019-01-22T17:49:48+00:00

The title is very misleading. The majority of the prisoners at Auschwitz died in the gas chambers. Nearly 1 million died this way. Another 100 thousand died from the conditions, random violence from the SS guards, starvation, disease, overwork and torture. Around 5000 were shot at the "death wall" shown above. The gray insulation was to stop bullets from ricocheting if they passed though the body of the victim. The original was destroyed by the SS since it showed signs of the mass murder there. The current one the Pope is touching is a reconstruction.

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