Here are the remains of both Crematoriums. The Nazis blew them up to try and destroy them and hide evidence of their crimes against humanity. I described at length in a previous post the method used here, but briefly: Prisoners would be unloaded from the trains directly in front of the crematoriums and selected for labor or death right there on the train platforms. Those selected for immediate extermination, the vast majority, would walk the short distance to the underground entrance. Going down a short flight of stairs into a changing/undressing room. They would disrobe and exit out and to the right into a room designed to look like a fake shower room. Then the Nazis would toss canisters of Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide) pellets in through shafts in the ceiling that would vaporize upon contact with the air and become poisonous. The room would be sealed and it could take as long as 15 minutes for all of the prisoners to die. Afterwards, members of the Sonderkommando (a special group of other Jewish prisoners) would lift the bodies up to the furnace rooms to be burnt.
This is one of the saddest places on Earth, and leaves us with such heavy and saddened hearts.
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