This chilling drone video was shot by the BBC and shows the enormity of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today – over 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet soldiers. The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and thousands of tourists and survivors visit it every year.
Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp established by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Over a million people – most of them Jews – were murdered there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when the Soviet Army liberated it.
In this video you will see:
- Railway tracks leading into Auschwitz-Birkenau – The Trains filled with victims from all over occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost daily between 1942 and the summer of 1944.
- The Ruins of the wooden huts at Birkenau – Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) which was erected in 1941 solely as a death camp, the wooden huts are all ruins now with only the brick fireplaces and chimneys remaining.
- The Auschwitz I entrance – The wrought-iron sign over the entrance bears the infamous and chilling words Arbeit Macht Frei – “Work sets you free”.
- Auschwitz I – At first these brick-built buildings were the cavalry barracks of the Polish Army, they were turned into this evil purpose after Poland was occupied.
- Courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 at Auschwitz I – Block 11 was called “the Block of Death” by prisoners as executions took place between Block 10 and Block 11. The posts in the yard were used to string up prisoners by their wrists and let them hang for hours and sometimes days.