Arbeit Macht Frei gate
Original gate into
Auschwitz main camp
As you exit from the rear of the Visitor's
Center at the Auschwitz Museum, you see the infamous "Arbeit
Macht Frei" gate immediately on your right. This gate was
the main entrance into the camp until it was expanded in late
1941.
Block 24, the former
brothel, is the building on the right
The photo above shows the Arbeit Macht
Frei gate into the Auschwitz I main camp. It was through this
gate that the prisoners walked each morning on their way to work
in the factories, marching to the beat of music played by the
camp orchestra, stationed in front of the kitchen building. After
a 10-hour day at the factory, the prisoners marched back through
this gate in the evening, again to the accompaniment of classical
music. Newly arriving prisoners were also greeted by orchestra
music as they passed through this gate after being registered
in the camp.
The first building that you see on the
left side, after walking through the gate, is Block 24, which
now houses the Auschwitz archives and the office of the Museum
director. Block 24 was formerly used as a brothel for the Polish
political prisoners. A sign near the corner of Block 24 tells
visitors that the corpses of prisoners, who were executed because
they had attempted to escape, were often displayed here as a
warning. There is no sign which identifies Block 24 as the former
camp brothel.
Arbeit Macht Frei gate
with Block 24 in background, January 2006
Photo Credit: José
Ángel López
The picture below shows the view looking
into the camp, just after you enter the gate. The first brick
building on the right, in the photo below, is Block 15, where
visitors begin their tour of the Museum exhibits. Block 17, to
the right on the first camp street but not shown here, is the
barrack building where Elie Wiesel and his father stayed for
three weeks before being sent to Auschwitz III to work in a factory.
Block 17 currently houses exhibits about the Yugoslavian prisoners
held at Auschwitz.
First view of camp
after passing through Arbeit Macht Frei gate
The area in front of the black-painted
kitchen building on the right, in the 1998 photo above, is where
the camp orchestra once stood. The camp orchestra was a regular
feature of all the Nazi concentration camps, and there were frequent
concerts in all the camps which both the inmates and the SS guards
attended.
Guard tower and barbed
wire fence indicate that this is a prison
To take a shortcut to the gas chamber
in the main camp: after you enter through the Arbeit Macht Frei
gate, turn left on the street that is just inside the gate. Go
to the end of the street and turn right. You will soon see an
opening in the fence, shown in the photo below, which leads to
the gas chamber building, located outside the camp.
Path leading to the
gas chamber in the main camp
Auschwitz I was originally a farm labor
camp, which consisted of 22 brick buildings, 11 on each side
of a large exercise yard. There were originally 8 two-story buildings
and 14 single-story buildings. Twenty of these original buildings
were fenced off with barbed wire to make the original prison
compound. Later new buildings were added in the exercise yard
to make a total of 28 barracks buildings in the Auschwitz I concentration
camp.
The photo below shows the Danger Sign
near the Arbeit Macht Frei gate, as you exit from the original
part of the main Auschwitz camp.
Sign warns prisoners
not to touch the electrically charged fence.
Exit from main camp
through the Arbeit Macht Frei gate
In the photo above, you can see part
of a large black and white photo at the end of the kitchen building
on the left. This is the spot where the camp orchestra played.
In the center of the photo is the gate house with Tower G on
top; on the right is Block 24, the camp brothel.
This page was last updated on May 25,
2008
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