Extraordinarily haunting drone footage of Auschwitz-Birkenau by BBC News. To wit:
Drone video shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today – 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet troops. The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year. Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people – the vast majority of them Jews – died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army.
Railway tracks into Auschwitz-Birkenau – Trains filled with victims from throughout occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost every day between 1942 and the summer of 1944.
Ruins of wooden huts at Birkenau – Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) was erected in 1941 solely as a death camp, the wooden huts are now in ruins with only brick fireplaces and chimneys remaining.
Entrance to Auschwitz I -The wrought-iron sign over the entrance bears the words Arbeit Macht Frei – “Work sets you free”. The brick-built buildings were the former cavalry barracks of the Polish Army.
Courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 at Auschwitz I – Block 11 was called “the Block of Death” by prisoners. Executions took place between Block 10 and Block 11 and posts in the yard were used to string up prisoners by their wrists.
(H/T: Kevin Whitty)
My main memory of visiting that place was being shown this tiny room – like the size of a cupboard under the stairs – and being told that the guards would put 6-8 people in there overnight; basically to suffocate them to death.
This was doing the rounds a while ago but well worth a watch – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQzqfsgftBo – man who saved 669 Jews gets a surprise.
This lady was also a legend: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-woman-saved-jewish-brothers-and-countless-children-from-auschwitz-in-world-war-ii-138562919-237429511.html
Wow, I’d never heard of that story before. Thanks
Just goes to show as well that pretty much everyone knew what was happening at the time.
He is some man
And to think that I’ve met a couple of idiotic people who denied this ever occurred.
Oh there’s one on here all the time.
The worst place ever I’ve been to in the whole wide world…
… and I once spent the night in Longford
Just shut up and have some respect. There aren’t enough other opportunities on this site to make pointless jokes without doing it on this post?
Its quite a place to visit alright, the collections of infants belongings – like little shoes and glasses – all piled up is particularly harrowing.
Anyway, when is the whole drone thing gonna end? Soon? Is it soon?
Am I the only one who thinks that s***loads of terrible filters have completely ruined this? They’re some amazing shots but they’ve been ruined with the filters. The terrifying thing about going to Auschwitz is how real it is. This doesn’t convey that at all.
I really hope you’re the only one. If you dismiss that video just because you have a problem with the colour grading you’re probably missing the point.