At top (left to right) Nazi SS personnel are shown with trains bringing Jews and others from throughout Europe to Auschwitz II, Birkenau; Jews are unloaded from the cattle cars at the rail platform inside Birkenau (left arrow points to gas chamber and crematorium I, right arrow points to gas chamber and crematorium II; photo Prof. Weis took of the rail arrival area as it appears today from the main entrance tower. Bottom row above shows the main gate of Auschwitz I in 1945 and with Prof. Weis today. All Nazi concentration and death camps had an entrance sign which said "Arbeit Mact Frei," "Work Will Make You Free."

Top row above (left to right) inside Auschwitz-Birkenau looking toward the main entrance in 1945; the same view in photo taken by Prof. Weis this summer; Prof. Weis on the outside of that same entrance today. Bottom row shows prisoners in one of the Birkenau barracks buildings when they were liberated by the Russians in 1945 and one of those same barracks buildings today.

As horrible as it is to imagine, women and children shown on the left in 1943 were taken right from the rail siding at Auschwitz II Birkenau to the gas chamber and crematorium since they were "unfit" for forced labor. On the right is the scene in a crematorium in Auschwitz I today.