This website contains photographs and videos of the ruins of the Birkenau Concentration Camp located in southern Poland. Officially, Birkenau was part of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp complex, but in many respects was a completely separate facility. It must be understood that the construction of Birkenau was not the result of last minute, haphazard planning. It was specifically and deliberately planned, designed and built as a place to detain and exterminate people. As such, it was a major capital project financed and built by the German Reich. It contained four crematoria, each with the capacity to incinerate human corpses on a mass scale. In this respect, Birkenau was a busy place. Below are a series of videos that show what Birkenau looks like today.

Below: the gate to “Main Street”. Ruins of barracks are located on either side of the pathway.

 

Below: Interior of a barrack. The wooden shelving was meant to warehouse bodies. A barrack was designed to hold up to 744 persons.

 

Below: A massive cold front blowing in over Birkenau. This part of Birkenau looks like a park. It was intentionally designed as such, as part of a cruel deception.

 

Below: barracks areas. Some of the barracks are still intact while for others, only the foundations and chimneys remain. Note Birkenau’s immense size.

 

Below: the unusual structure was probably a tank for storing water. Birkenau was notorious for its lack of an adequate water supply. Thus the inmates were tormented by constant thirst. This too was deliberately planned.

 

Below: Birkenau’s iconic and notorious main watch tower. Note the railroad tracks entering through the watch tower into the camp. They carried the transports which contained the human cargo destined for death.

 

Below: More glimpses of the ruins of Birkenau. All that remains of the barracks are the chimneys. And, of course, the ever-present barbed wire fencing.

 

Below: “Main Street,” Birkenau. The ruins of some of the barracks are at the right. Note the barbed wire fence, a ubiquitous feature of Birkenau. Birkenau was deliberately designed t make people suffer.

 

Below: Even in this secluded corner of Birkenau, the ever-present barbed wire fence.

 

Below: A watch tower, barbed wire fencing, railroad tracks, ruins, all part of Birkenau.

 

Below: The main watch tower is in the background. Note the sheer size of the facility.