Birkenau – Right Side of the Little Wood
This is the right side of the Little Wood. People were made to wait here for what they had been told was a disinfecting Birkenau shower.
The ruins in the distance are those of the gas chambers and ovens of Krematorium V, their actual destination. A fence blocked their view but the screams of those further along the Nazi destruction line could be heard.
This photograph comes from an album discovered after liberation by a female prisoner. Most people create family albums to hold memories of their children, their travels, the people they loved. This SS photographer created one too.
The people in this photograph had just stepped off the trains — packed into cattle cars for days, without food, water, or sanitation. Look closely at them. These were the people the Nazis considered dangerous. Not long after this photograph was taken, they were killed.
< Birkenau Camp Hospital | Birkenau Little Wood Entrance >