Auschwitz - Birkenau Railway Line

Location: - Auschwitz Birkenau
Date Filmed: 7th March 2022
Equipment:
GoPro Hero 10
Zhiyun Crane M2 Handheld Gimbal
On three railroad unloading ramps or platforms, mass Jewish transport selections were made. Most determinations regarding who was eligible for labour and who was instantly executed were made by SS doctors.
Throughout the time the camp was in existence, the first unloading ramp, which was close to the main camp, was mostly used to service that area. On June 14, 1940, this location saw the first consignment of 728 Tarnów jail inmates unloaded. Later transports of Poles as well as some Jewish mass transports began to arrive here starting in 1942. During the years 1941-1942, prior to the construction of the Buna sub-camp, it was here at this ramp that the inmates building the Buna-Werke (the IG Farbenindustrie plant) boarded the train that took them to work and disembarked on their way back to the camp.
In 1942, the second ramp-the so-called "Alte Judenrampe"-began to operate. It was situated between the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau on the grounds of the Owicim freight terminal. Between 1942 and May 1944, the majority of the Jewish mass transports as well as the mass transports of Gypsies who were detained in the Birkenau camp starting in February 1943 landed here.
At early, there were irregular large-scale Jewish shipments. The first regularly scheduled selections occurred after July 4, 1942. After that date, selection was applied to almost all of the Jewish bulk transports to Auschwitz.
The third ramp was constructed in the Birkenau camp beginning in 1943, and it was put into use in May 1944 in anticipation of the arrival of shipments carrying Hungarian Jews. The railroad spur proceeded along this ramp all the way to the crematoria II and III and the gas chambers. In addition to the 430 000 Jews from Hungary, 67 000 Jews from the ód ghetto and some transports from the Terezin ghetto and Slovakia were unloaded at this ramp. From that time on, large-scale Jewish selections occurred within the camp in front of thousands of other captives. Additionally, this is where Polish transports that were taken to Auschwitz via the Pruszków transit camp during the Warsaw Uprising were unloaded.
For prisoners being transported from Auschwitz to satellite camps and other concentration camps, all three ramps also acted as embarkation ports.
Following the separation of families as they exited the train cars, everyone was lined up in two columns for the selection process that was carried out on the ramps. The ladies and children of both sexes were in one column, while the men and older boys were in the opposite. They were then directed to the camp doctors and other camp staff members who were performing selection. They made snap decisions on whether the people in front of them would live or die based solely on appearance, occasionally eliciting a quick declaration of their age and line of work.
Age was one of the principal criteria for selection. As a rule, all children below 16 years of age (from 1944, below 14) and the elderly were sent to die. As a statistical average, about 20% of the people in transports were chosen for labor. They were led into the camp, registered as prisoners, and assigned the next numbers in the various series. Of the approximately 1.1 million Jews deported to Auschwitz, about 200 thousand were chosen in this way. The remainder, about 900 thousand people, were killed in the gas chambers.
Source: www.auschwitz....
#auschwitz #auschwitzbirkenau #Holocaustrain #Auschwitztrain
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Everything in the video is filmed and recorded on location.
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[@WalkingHistories]

Incredible (yet horrific) history to capture. Thank you for sharing.

[@bfoz]

Wow, I'm not sure I would want to go there.

[@cherylstevens4717]

@bfoz Well don't go to birkenau then.

[@cherylstevens4717]

Place of horrors