These Pictures Show The Barbaric Inhumanity Of Auschwitz Concentration Camp
"Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future." — Auschwitz survivor and author Elie Wiesel
The entrance of Auschwitz concentration camp after its liberation in Jan. 1945.
Jan. 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by Soviet forces in WWII.
From 1940 to 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex was the largest of the Nazi death camps, was comprised of three central hubs and dozens of subcamps. By the time it was liberated in 1945, some 1.1 million people — 90% of them Jews — had been murdered within its walls.
These pictures show the brutal and inhumane reality of life as an Auschwitz prisoner and the strength of survivors who, years later, returned to the former concentration camp as a brave reminder that its history must never again be repeated.
Warning: Some viewers may find the following images disturbing.
The arrival of Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau, in German-occupied Poland, June 1944.
The arrival of a deportation train, bringing Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, circa 1942.
The barbed wires of Auschwitz, circa 1945.
A group of SS officers in Auschwitz: From left, Karl Hoecker, Dr. Josef Mengele, Karl-Friedrich Hoecker, and Richard Baer, who was a commandant of Auschwitz from May 1944 to Dec. 1944.
A photo of women deemed fit for work, taken in May 1944
Women in the barracks at Auschwitz, Jan. 1945.
Auschwitz prisoners before the liberation by the Soviet army in Jan., 1945.
Cremation furnaces at Birkenau-Auschwitz in Feb. 1945.
A pile of discarded glasses of murdered prisoners, circa 1939.
Child prisoners are photographed in the 1940s on the orders of camp physician Josef Mengele, who carried out experiments on children and twins.
Seven tons of hair from murdered prisoners were found after the liberation of the Auschwitz, 1945.
A 15-year-old Russian boy, Ivan Dudnik, is rescued in 1945.
Jewish youth rescued from the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp show their camp tattoos on board a refugee ship on July 15, 1945.
Jack Rosenthal, who was born in Romania and at 14 was imprisoned at Auschwitz and other concentration camps, stands outside Auschwitz I on Jan. 26, 2015.
People tour of Auschwitz II-Birkenau on Dec. 28, 2018.
Miroslaw Celka, 93, from the Polish city of Sosnowiec, visits Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 2017.
Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 2018.
Holocaust survivor Moshe Aelion at the old railway station in Thessaloniki, Greece, on March 18, 2018, during a commemoration marking the departure of the first train from the northern Greek city to Auschwitz.
Auschwitz camp survivors, accompanied by their families, lay candles at the Victims Monument in Oswiecim, Poland, on Jan. 27, 2016.
The main entrance of the former Nazi death camp on Jan. 16, 2019.
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Gabriel H. Sanchez is the photo essay editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York City.
Contact Gabriel H. Sanchez at gabriel.sanchez@buzzfeed.com.
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