During World War II, men, women and children were transported from across Europe to Auschwitz-Birkenau, horrendous journeys in which they were packed into cramped cattle cars.
They arrived onto an unloading platform, known as the ramp, where Nazi doctors made selections, deciding who would be murdered immediately and who would be used for slave labor.
Many of those rail tracks are abandoned but still exist within the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, stark reminders of the industrial nature of the killing. But they also extend beyond the memorial site, cutting through fields and running along family homes and a bus station, aging testaments of the horrors making their mark on life today.
In all, 1.1 million people perished at Auschwitz in gas chambers or from disease, starvation and exhaustion. About 90% of the victims were Jewish, while Poles, Roma and Sinti, and Soviet prisoners of war were also among the victims.
The camp was liberated by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945.
Nazi Germany established its largest extermination camp in Oswiecim — the name of the Polish town that was called Auschwitz under German occupation — because it was centrally located in Europe, with the railway infrastructure making it possible to transport Jews there from all across Europe — from Belgium, France and the Netherlands, from Italy and from Hungary.
On the grounds of Birkenau there is a memorial in the form of a rail carriage dedicated to the memory of the 420,000 Hungarian Jews who were deported to Auschwitz from May to July 1944.
On Monday, the world will mark the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, with elderly survivors of Nazi atrocities gathering with state leaders and royalty.
