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Poland

Krakow and Oświęcim
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Walking up to this, my bones literally shook, my knees began to buckle as i witnessed a horror I could not fathom. This is where they took Jews in broad daylight and shot them dead with a firing squad. The wall was riddled with bullet holes. Every single inch of it was covered, not a single missed spot, meaning it was heavily used, daily. Once a Jew walked into this courtyard he knew only one thing, he fate was sealed and there was no way out.
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Walking up to this, my bones literally shook, my knees began to buckle as i witnessed a horror I could not fathom. This is where they took Jews in broad daylight and shot them dead with a firing squad. The wall was riddled with bullet holes. Every single inch of it was covered, not a single missed spot, meaning it was heavily used, daily. Once a Jew walked into this courtyard he knew only one thing, he fate was sealed and there was no way out.

NikonD7000 John Chandler Auschwitz Berkinau Poland Black and White PhotolooksNikonD7000 John Chandler Auschwitz Berkinau Poland Black and Whi

  • Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm 1.4G, f3.5, ISO100, 50mm, HDR, 3 Exposures Handheld<br /> <br /> I found some sunflowers in the flower market at Krakow.
  • Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm 1.4G, f1.4, ISO100, 50mm, HDR, 3 Exposures Handheld<br /> <br /> Small wooden boxes at the market center in Krakow
  • Nikon D7000, Nikkor 14-24mm 2.8G, f9, ISO 100, 21mm, HDR, 5 Exposures<br /> <br /> The beheaded woman at the Krakow Plaza Center. I know there is a story behind this object, in fact I believe it was relocated as I've seen this exact same object in someone else picture in flickr. I think its a roman mythological story of some kind. I hope one day to fill in the missing piece to this puzzle.
  • Nikon D7000, Nikkor 14-24mm 2.8G, f14, ISO 100, 16mm, HDR, 5 Exposures<br /> <br /> This is the main plaza which is simply gorgeous, all around me were these old buildings and so many tourists. The locals like to hang out as it contains the most restaurants per square foot in one spot, which I believe is listed in the Guinness book of world records. So need less to say this location is super packed with some many things to see.
  • Work will set you free. Its important to me, you realize why I've uploaded these images. Personally I find them horrific but at the same time they must be shared as a reminder of what took places so our children and future generation see the terror that took places with the hope people learn from this and never allow it to happen again. In reality a part of me did not feel too motivated to capture the images but another part of me said, someone who can't make the trip out there can at least see it for themselves.
  • In Poland it is mandatory that all schools send the students to visit these concentration camps. Here you can see the electricity lines surrounding the camps. When I think of this, it reminds me that modern day prisons have more care for the prisoners than these concentration camps did. Think about this, the Nazi enslaved and caged innocent people in these horrible camps yet in modern day prisons that keep true life monsters they get better treatment and sometimes get parole and return to society. The Jews that entered these camps got no second chances and were on death row.
  • In the picture above you can see an actual representation of what life was really like in this very same room. They all slept side by side, crammed into a room, packed like sardines. Treated like cattle. I can't help but compare modern day prisons that house real monsters who killed people, rapists and murderers to Auschwitz where Jews lived in this room who had never killed or harmed anyone and certainly did not deserve it. Seems odd to me how we treat modern day thugs better than how the Nazi treated the Jews.
  • Hallways of each building filled with the pictures of the innocent. Faces that stare back you. The Nazi were extremely efficient and cataloging each person who came into the camp with one single person, to kill them.
  • Auschwitz was not big enough so they made Auschwitz 2 which is about 20 miles up north and here the house barracks were stables that kept horses and instead converted. Look carefully and tell me what you see...Now I will tell you the horror and the sheer terror of how the Nazi's housed the Jews. Each hole is where 3 jews slept and lived. So that means 9 Jews were packed like sardines, living one on top of the other. Very little room, sleeping on bricks with nothing more than hay and sometimes there was no hay. NO imagine that in the middle of a freezing winter. Many Jews simply died in these barracks. There were dozens of these.
  • Walking up to this, my bones literally shook, my knees began to buckle as i witnessed a horror I could not fathom. This is where they took Jews in broad daylight and shot them dead with a firing squad. The wall was riddled with bullet holes. Every single inch of it was covered, not a single missed spot, meaning it was heavily used, daily. Once a Jew walked into this courtyard he knew only one thing, he fate was sealed and there was no way out.
  • A closer view of what I call the execution wall. Notice how the wall is not smooth at all instead its riddled with what must be tens of thousands of bullet ricochets and holes.
  • Fences with high voltage was all around, there was no escaping and I don't think anyone ever manged to escape. Now in comparison to modern day prisons, even Alcatraz, some did escape but in Auschwitz not a single person ever escaped. The efficiency of who secure the compound was is just mind numbing crazy. something to this day can't be replicated.
  • A guard watch tower, they were in every corner. So even if you could get past the electric fence than you had to avoid been seen by the guards in the towers.
  • These were the barracks that housed the Jews. Each building numbered. I forget what they originally were, The town was originally a train station type of thing and the Nazi's converted it.
  • Each building in particular has a special name. I don't know what it meant and honestly did not care to know more about it as it was some elaborate naming system devised by the Nazi. From the outside the buildings look harmless but once inside it was another story, large rooms where they stuffed people and made them sleep on the floors.
  • I was told that in the mid 1940's there were no trees and no grass, it was totally devoid of flowers and wild life. An extremely hostile environment and at first I i was wondering why. The answer is shocking, when the burners are running, the ashes fall down and covered the land. So if you think it looks pretty now, well it was not back then, no trees at all.
  • The infamous hanging post. On a daily basis Jews were hung here and I believe this was done on purpose to put fear into the rest who witnessed this. Step out line, talk back to an officer and they brought you here and left you hanging.
  • Its insane how much security the camp has, as if one electrified fence was not enough they had two. The Nazi's were extremely efficient at devising a system to make it hard to escape from.
  • You'll forgive me if this image is slightly blurry but there was very little light inside as this is the gas chamber and i took picture handheld as tripods are not allowed. My hands were shaking. I trembled in thought. Thousands of Jews were gassed in this room. The Nazi dropped cyclone gas cans from an opening in the roof and fifteen minutes later bodies laid on the floor. I can not even begin to image the fear of being pushed and shoved into this small room. Auschwitz only had one gas chamber which was in operation day and night.
  • This room is beside the gas chamber, its the furnace. They collected the corpses and placed them into the furnaces that would burn every day, so imagine ash and soot falling down on the ground, only to realize that's human ash, which covered the ground and everything in the area.
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