Auschwitz was both a concentration camp for prisoners of war and a center for extermination by gas chambers. Because of its size and the number of its victims, the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp has become a symbol of the Nazis’ destruction of the Jews.
Heinrich Himmler, a high-ranking Nazi official, established the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland on April 27, 1940, for prisoners of war (mostly Polish and Soviet). They were forced to work, mainly in factories, foundries, or mines. Auschwitz covered an area of 40 km² and held a total of 11,000 prisoners.
Other forced-labor camps in the surrounding area would also contribute to the growth of the German economy.
In 1941, Himmler ordered the construction of a special camp, intended for the mass extermination of European Jews, on the site of the nearby village of Birkenau. After various experiments on prisoners of war, the Nazis used Zyklon B gas (a powerful insecticide) to kill the deportees.
Starting in July 1942, Nazi doctors carried out a selection process upon arrival at the camp: able-bodied deportees, shaved and tattooed with an identification number, were sent to work, while the elderly, the infirm, pregnant women, and children were sent to their deaths. A railroad track led to the camp, and in a single day, the victims could be unloaded, 3,000 of them gassed, and nearly 4,800 cremated.
R. Höss, the camp commander, organized the killing process in a highly systematic manner, divided into three stages: a undressing area (where clothing, shoes, eyeglasses, and dentures were collected, sorted, and distributed to the German population), a gassing area, and a crematorium area.
The camp doctors conduct “scientific” research aimed at the biological extermination of non-Aryan populations. Infants, twins, dwarfs, and pregnant women serve as “guinea pigs” for Dr. Mengele’s genetic experiments.
In late November 1944, faced with the advance of the Allied armies, Himmler ordered the destruction of all evidence of the genocide and the dismantling of the killing facilities. On January 17, 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp was evacuated. The “death march” forced 58,000 deportees onto the roads toward a distant concentration camp. They marched for several days in the cold and snow, without food. Many died along the way, shot by the Nazis or from exhaustion.
At least 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nearly one million European Jews were murdered there (including 69,000 Jews from France), as well as Roma. Jews accounted for 90% of the victims. The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was not the only extermination center, but it has become a symbol of Nazi barbarism. It was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.
Reference:
Shoah Memorial, 2011, Teaching About the Shoah: A Case Study—The Auschwitz-Birkenau Complex.
