This is the remains of Krematorium 2 at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This gas chamber killed around half a million people in 1943-1944 reaching a peak during the deportation of people from Hungary in May - June 1944.
More people were killed at this spot than anywhere else on the globe. Unfortunately as can be seen it is not protected against the elements although suggestions have been made to put a canopy or something similar over it.
Gas chambers two and three were made in a mirror image of each other at the head of the rail line which was laid to bring people due to be murdered directly to the point of death. Previously they had been unloaded at a siding around 2.5km from here and brought to this point either on foot or in lorries.
Prior to the construction of the gas chambers, people had been murdered in two houses located just outside the barbed wire fence called the red house and the white house.
I have placed many films of the holocaust on this site including interviews with witnesses.
Those interested should see also the films on Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno nad Ner and Majdanek. These camps are much less known that Auschwitz although they account for nearly twice as many Jewish deaths.
You can find these films by clicking on user's films (Od użytkownika) or by entering the name of these camps in the search engine.
During the second world war some six million Jewish people were murdered by the Nazis by gassing, shooting, starvation, deliberate spreading of disease or by other means. Around half of these victims were killed, mainly at these six camps in Poland.