Birkenau & Auschwitz

From the Tempel we drove 37 miles from Krakow to the Polish town of Oswiecim. It is here that infamous death camp of Auschwitz is located. We began our day in Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II, it was here that nearly one million Jews were executed by the Nazis in the four large crematorium that made up this death factory. While the cold wind and rain of the day made us uncomfortable as we explored the camp with Judith Altman who was deported here from Hungary in 1944, we also learned the story of Norman's Father and Uncle Jerry and Phil Ravski and Rich's father-in-law, Pincus Kolender as we learned about the horrififc day to routine in the camp. From Birkenau we drove over to the main camp at auschwitz I. during the war this camp was mostly used for Polish and Soviet POW's but it also was where Dr. Josef Mengele carried out his experiments on unwilling Jewish subjects. Today the camp houses much of the material that was confiscated from the Jews upon their arrival at Birkenau and stored in the section of the camp known as Canada. In addition, the only remaining gas chamber and crematorium of the Aushwitz complex is here and it was in this gas chamber that the Nazis first tested the use od the deadly Zyklon B gas.