- Construction of the camp in the swampy terrain of Brzezinka was started on October 1941, even before the Berlin-Wannsee conference, held of January 1942, where it was decided to exterminate all Jews living in Europe. The number of victims held at the KL Auschwitz I had already grown to more than 20,000 and the main camp was not able to hold any more victims inside. Also the Reichsführer SS, Heinrich Himmler, had already in the summer of 1941, chosen Auschwitz as the place for mass extermination of Jews.

- The construction plan was enormous, with roads and a railroad track going in the middle of the camp. The camp was build in a shape of rectangle, with it's sides measuring 720 meters and 1130 meters. According to the plan, some 174 brick barracks were to be build on this swampy area. In the end, most of the buildings were wooden barracks, similar to the ones that the German army used for their horses. 

- KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau was mainly an extermination center, like Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibór, Belzec and Chelmno. It meant that even when the number of prisoners arriving to the camp was great, there was no need for a huge number of living quarters, as the victims were brought by a train to the unloading platform and from there, rushed to their deaths in the gas chambers. 

- The mass murder of Jews at KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau, began during the first few months of 1942. From here on, the crematoriums and gas chambers were expanded, to allow to murder even greater number of people.

- As the impending defeat of the German armed forces started to look certain, the gassing of Jews was ceased in November 1944. Also plans for an evacuation of the camp were prepared, which meant even more suffering for those, forced to march deeper into the Third Reich. 

- The destruction of evidence, telling about mass murder, was started already in the summer of 1944, shortly after the concentration camp of Majdanek had been captured intact by the Soviets, even with few of the SS-men still being around. The crematorium IV, which had been damaged during a revolt by the Sonderkommando, was leveled to the ground during the October - December of 1944. During the November - December of 1944, the rest of the technical equipment from gas chambers and crematoriums were dismantled and the buildings were prepared to be demolished by a dynamite. Only the crematorium V and it's gas chamber, remained operational until January 1945.

- However, not all evidence of the mass murders done in the camp, were destroyed by the time when the Soviets appeared to the camp on 27th of January, 1945.

- During the over 40 months of the camp existence, millions of victims and stories about suffering...you cannot hide behind your camera here...

- The place does not need any empty words.