Oświęcim – Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp (Room of Shoes)

Much has already been written about this room at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the shoes that were taken from victims when they arrived at the concentration camp. There are around 25,000 pairs of shoes here, this would be about the number of shoes taken every day or two at the camp, to give this some sense of perspective. The leather smell from the shoes is also evident when visitors walk into the room as the shoes very slowly decay.

This photo was taken at Auschwitz in May 1944, when the female prisoners were given the task of sorting the shoes that had been taken from mostly Hungarian Jews.