The ramp or railroad platform where SS physicians carried out
selections. Immediately after disembarking from the trains, the
Jews were made to line up in two columns: women and children in
one, and men in the other. Next, the physicians separated the
strong and healthy people from the elderly, the sick, pregnant
women, and children. Those regarded as fit for labor were
placed in the camp. The others, usually 70-75% of each transport, were sent to their
deaths in the
gas chambers.
The entrance gate known to the prisoners as the "Death Gate" was
located in the main SS guardhouse. After May 1944, trains carrying
deportees entered the camp through the gate on a railroad spur.
Earlier, the trains stopped outside the camp.
