New arrivals at the “Klagemauer” (wailing wall) after a week long trip in open railway cars.
Date: 1943-1944
Photo credit: National Archives, USHMM Photo Archives
Newly arrived prisoners were subjected to an initiation ritual: standing at attention facing this wall while chained to iron rings; this for at least hours, and sometimes days.
They were interrogated and brutally beaten. Today the wall is covered with numerous memorial tablets.(Photo credit: National Archives, USHMM Photo Archives)