Page 169 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Krakow

A USCHWITZ-BIRKENA U  167

Kanada
“Kanada” was the nickname of the
barracks where property stolen from
prisoners was stored. It was the
preferred place to work at Auschwitz II-
Birkenau as it offered opportunities for
inmates to pilfer items to barter for
food or medicine later.

0 metres 200
0 yards 200 The Sauna
New arrivals selected for work
were deloused and disinfected in
this building, which became known
as the “sauna”. Periodic disinfections
of existing prisoners were also
carried out here.

The Ash Pond
Tons of ash – the remains of hundreds of thousands
of Auschwitz victims – were dumped in ponds and
troughs dug around the outskirts of the camp.

KEY
1 Towers and barbed wire isolated
the camps from the outside world.
2 Large gas chambers and
crematoria (from 1943)
3 Area of expansion, nicknamed Barracks
“Mexico”, never completed. The conditions of the living quarters at the
camps were terrible. With little or no sanitation,
4 Wooden barracks, with 500– poor nutrition and no medical care, diseases
600 people living in each. such as typhus spread rapidly. This image shows
5 Hell’s Gate a typical wooden barracks at Birkenau shortly
after liberation.