As an appendix to my recent article ‘The Geography of Auschwitz and Origins of the ‘Holocaust’ Myth’; (1) I thought I would point out that the famous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (lit. ‘Work makes you Free’) main entrance to Auschwitz, while often pictured with and/or mistakenly conflated with the even more famous ‘Gates of Death’ of Auschwitz with the latter only being in use between May 1944 and September/October 1944. (2)
This is the famous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ entrance of Auschwitz:
These are the even more famous ‘Gates of Death’ of Auschwitz:
Now the problem here is while both these sites are commonly cited together or used as ‘iconic’ images in truth they are rather different things since the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ entrance of Auschwitz is at Auschwitz I (the ‘Stammlager’), while the ‘Gates of Death’ are Auschwitz-Birkenau (aka Auschwitz II) and are basically two completely different and unrelated entrances – one rail and one road – to two completely different concentration camps albeit both part of the Auschwitz camp group.
We can see this easily by looking at their location on the map:
The ‘Gates of Death’ of Auschwitz-Birkenau are on the left about a kilometre or so away from the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ main gate of Auschwitz I in a straight line, which helps you to understand that these two locations have next to nothing to do with each other as they are different entrances for different concentration camps.
The point being that because the two images/sites are so conflated and confused with each other by the ‘Auschwitz Memorial Museum’ as well as the ‘Holocaust Industry’ in general – especially as it relates to ‘Holocaust tourism’ – there is little to no understanding among the general public (even some historians have trouble with this) that these are two different sites at two different camps: neither of which have anything to do with genocide whatsoever.
It does however help you – the reader – to situation yourself within the world of Auschwitz and to know your Auschwitz I from your Auschwitz-Birkenau.
References
(1) This is available here: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-geography-of-auschwitz-and-origins
(2) Idem.