Why we came ........

After an even earlier start, which was too early for breakfast, our bus arrived at just after 06:10 on a Sunday morning, ready for our excursion to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp about a 90 minute drive away.
Established in 1940 Auschwitz I. was the first and oldest part of the main camp, (the number of prisoners fluctuated around 15,000, sometimes rising above 20,000), which was established on the grounds and in the buildings of pre-war Polish barracks.
Auschwitz II. The second part was the Birkenau camp (which held over 90,000 prisoners in 1944), also known as "Auschwitz II" This was the largest part of the Auschwitz complex. The Nazis began building it in 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, three kilometres from Oswiecim. The Polish civilian population were evicted, and their houses confiscated, replaced with the all too familiar wooden huts. The greater part of the apparatus of mass extermination was built in Birkenau, and the majority of the victims were murdered here.
Although no documents were ever found to prove the exact number of people who died within the two camps, it is widely thought that the number is over one million souls 🙏🙏❤️
with perhaps the most famous being a 15 year old diarist, Anne Frank.Leia mais