The SS canteen

Oświęcim, 400 metres from the Arbeit macht frei gate

Site 6 of 12
In the programmes

A freight wagon on the tracks by the SS canteen, on the tracks of the first transports to Auschwitz.

This is where the camp garrison drank beer and watched films. Beside it stands a historic freight wagon on the tracks of the first transports.

The wooden canteen building stood four hundred metres in a straight line from the gate with the words Arbeit macht frei. SS men came here off duty: there was beer, cinema, performances, boxing matches were organised. Heinrich Himmler gave a speech in this same building during a visit to Oświęcim.

That distance is the heart of the whole programme. Four hundred metres from the camp gate there was a world in which people finished a shift and went out to enjoy themselves. There was no wall between the two and no passage from one reality to the other. It was one reality.

Beside the canteen, on the tracks that carried the first transports to Auschwitz, stands a historic freight wagon. The building houses an exhibition.

Photo: Auschwitz Subcamps. Our own description, based on field documentation, on material of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim and on historical studies.

Auschwitz Subcamps is a brand of KrakowOmnia sp. z o.o.

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