Auschwitz concentration camp 2006 226175611 2008-07-17T04:25:42Z Vidor 1439530 :''"Auschwitz" redirects here. For the town, see [[Oświęcim]]'' {{Cleanup|date=July 2008}} {{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}} {{coor title dms|50|02|09|N|19|10|42|E|region:PL-MA_type:landmark}} {{Infobox World Heritage Site | Name = Auschwitz-Birkenau<br><small>German Nazi Concentration and<br>Extermination Camp (1940-1945)</small> | infoboxwidth= 250px | Image = [[Image:Birkenau gate.JPG|300px]] | imagecaption= Entrance, or so-called "death gate," to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the extermination camp, in 2006 | State_Party = {{POL}} | Type = Cultural | Criteria = vi | ID = 31 | Link = | Region = [[List of World Heritage Sites in Europe|Europe and North America]] | Year = 1979 | Session = 3rd }} {{The Holocaust}} '''Auschwitz-Birkenau''' (''{{Audio|Konzentrationslager_Auschwitz.ogg|Konzentrationslager Auschwitz}}'') was the largest of [[Nazi Germany]]'s [[concentration camp]]s. Its remains are located in [[Poland]] approximately 50 kilometers west of [[Kraków]] and 286 kilometers south from [[Warsaw]]. The camp took its name from the nearby town of [[Oświęcim]] (''Auschwitz'' in [[German language|German]]). Birkenau, the German translation of ''Brzezinka'', refers to the many birch trees surrounding the complex. The camp commandant, [[Rudolf Höß]], testified at the [[Nuremberg Trials]] that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has revised this figure to 1.1 million,<ref name="harmon-drobnicki">Brian Harmon, John Drobnicki, [http://nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/appendix-2-01.html Historical sources and the Auschwitz death toll estimates], [http://nizkor.org ''The Nizkor Project'']</ref><ref>Piper, Franciszek & Meyer, Fritjof. [http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/aktualnosci/news_big.php?id=563 "Die Zahl der Opfer von Auschwitz. Neue Erkentnisse durch neue Archivfunde"], ''Osteuropa'', 52, Jg., 5/2002, pp. 631-641, (review article).</ref> about 90 percent of whom were [[Jew]]s from almost every country in Europe.<ref name=Piper62>Piper, Franciszek Piper. "The Number of Victims" in Gutman, Yisrael & Berenbaum, Michael. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp'', Indiana University Press, 1994; this edition 1998, p. 62.</ref> Most victims were killed in Auschwitz II's [[gas chamber]]s using [[Zyklon B]]; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and so-called medical experiments. In 1947, in remembrance of the victims, Poland founded a museum at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. By 1994, some 22 million visitors — 700,000 annually—had passed through the iron gate crowned with the motto "''[[Arbeit macht frei]]''". The three main camps were: * Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp which served as the administrative center for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 people, mostly [[Poles]] and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[prisoners of war]]. * Auschwitz II ([[Brzezinka|Birkenau]]), an extermination camp or ''Vernichtungslager'', where at least 960,000 Jews, 75,000 Poles, and some 19,000 [[Romani people|Roma]] (Gypsies) were killed. Birkenau was the largest of all the Nazi extermination camps. * Auschwitz III ([[Monowitz]]), which served as a [[labor camp]] for the Buna-Werke factory of the [[I.G. Farben]] concern. There were also around 40 satellite camps, some of them tens of kilometers from the main camps, with prisoner populations ranging from several dozen to several thousand.<ref name=Gutman17>Gutman, Yisrael. "Auschwitz&mdash;An Overview" in Gutman, Yisrael & Berenbaum, Michael. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp'', Indiana University Press, 1994; this edition 1998, p. 17.</ref> See [[list of subcamps of Auschwitz]] for others. Like all [[Germany|German]] concentration camps, the Auschwitz camps were operated by [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s [[Schutzstaffel|SS]]. The commandants of the camp were the SS-Obersturmbannführers Rudolf Höß until the summer of 1943, and later [[Arthur Liebehenschel]] and [[Richard Baer]]. Höß provided a detailed description of the camp's workings during his interrogations after the war and also in his autobiography. He was hanged in 1947 in front of the entrance to the [[crematorium]] of Auschwitz I. Command of the women's camp, which was separated from the men's area by the incoming railway line was held in turn by [[Johanna Langefeld]], [[Maria Mandel]], and [[Elisabeth Volkenrath]]. ==The first camp: Auschwitz I== [[Image:Auschwitz gate (tbertor1).jpg|thumb||left|200px|The gates to Auschwitz I]] Following the [[Invasion of Poland (1939)|German invasion of Poland]] in September 1939, Oświęcim was [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|annexed by Nazi Germany]] and renamed Auschwitz. Auschwitz I was the original camp, and it served as the administrative center for the whole complex. It was founded on [[May 20]], [[1940]], on the basis of an old Polish brick army barracks (originally built by the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]]). A group of 728 [[Poland|Polish]] political prisoners from [[Tarnów]] became the first residents of Auschwitz on [[June 14]] that year. The camp was initially used for interning Polish intellectuals and resistance movement members, then also for Soviet Prisoners of War. Common German criminals, "anti-social elements" and 48 German [[homosexuality|homosexuals]] were also imprisoned there. [[Jew]]s were sent to the camp as well, beginning with the very first shipment (from Tarnów). At any time, the camp held between 13,000 and 16,000 inmates; in 1942 the number reached 20,000. The entrance to Auschwitz I was—and still is—marked with the sign ''“[[Arbeit macht frei|Arbeit Macht Frei]]”'', or ''“work makes (one) free”''. The camp's prisoners who left the camp during the day for construction or farm labor were made to march through the gate to the sounds of an orchestra. Contrary to what is depicted in several films, the majority of the Jews were imprisoned in the Auschwitz II camp, and did not pass under this sign. [[Image:Map detailing catchmnet area for Aushwitz.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Map in the Auschwitz Museum detailing catchment area for Auschwitz across Europe]] The SS selected some prisoners, often German criminals, as specially privileged supervisors of the other inmates (so-called: [[Kapo (concentration camp)|''kapo'']]). The various classes of prisoners were distinguishable by special marks on their clothes; Jews were generally treated the worst. All inmates had to work in the associated arms factories, except on Sundays, which were reserved for cleaning and showering and upon which there were no work assignments. [[Image:Aushwitz I gas chamber memorial.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Memorial in the gas chamber of Auschwitz I]]The harsh work requirements, combined with poor nutrition and hygiene, led to high death rates among the prisoners. Block 11 of Auschwitz (the original standing cells and such were block 13) was the "prison within the prison", where violators of the numerous rules were punished. Some prisoners were made to spend the nights in "standing-cells". These cells were about 1.5 metres square, and four men would be placed in them; they could do nothing but stand, and were forced during the day to work with the other prisoners. In the basement were located the "starvation cells"; prisoners incarcerated here were given neither food nor water until they were dead.<ref>[http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Kolbe.html Maximilian Kolbe<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> [[Image:Aushwitz I crematoria memorial.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Memorial in the crematorium of Auschwitz I. This facility was much smaller than those of Auschwitz II.]] Also in the basement were the "dark cells"; these cells had only a very tiny window, and a solid door. Prisoners placed in these cells would gradually suffocate as they used up all of the oxygen in the air; sometimes the SS would light a candle in the cell to use up the oxygen more quickly. Many were subjected to hanging with their hands behind their backs, thus dislocating their shoulder joints for hours, even days.<ref>Rees, Laurence. ''Auschwitz: A New History''. 2005, Public Affairs, ISBN 158648303X, p. 26</ref> [[Image:Execution yard at Aushwitz I.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Execution yard at Auschwitz I]] The execution yard is between blocks 10 and 11. In this area, prisoners who were thought to merit individual execution received it. Some were shot, against a reinforced wall which still exists; others suffered a more lingering death by being suspended from hooks set in two wooden posts, which also still exist.{{Fact|date=May 2008}} [[Image:Auschwitz-2.jpg|thumb||left|150px|Auschwitz I in winter]] On [[September 3]], [[1941]], deputy camp commandant SS-[[Hauptsturmführer]] [[Karl Fritzsch|Fritzsch]] experimented on 600 Russian POWs and 250 ill Polish inmates by cramming them into the basement of Block 11 and gassing them with [[Zyklon B]], a highly lethal [[cyanide]] based [[pesticide]].<ref name=Fritsch>[http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/new/index.php?tryb=news_big&language=EN&id=849 :: Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau w Oświęcimiu EN::<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> This paved the way for the use of Zyklon B as an instrument for extermination at Auschwitz, and a gas chamber and crematorium were constructed by converting a bunker. This gas chamber operated from 1941 to 1942, during which time some 60,000 people were killed therein; it was then converted into an air-raid shelter for the use of the SS. This gas chamber still exists, together with the associated crematorium, which was reconstructed after the war using the original components, which remained on-site. The first women arrived in the camp on [[March 26]] [[1942]]. From April 1943 to May 1944, the gynecologist Prof. Dr. [[Carl Clauberg]] conducted sterilization experiments on Jewish women in [[block 10]] of Auschwitz I, with the aim of developing a simple injection method to be used on the Slavic people. These experiments consisted largely of determining the effects of the injection of caustic chemicals into the uterus. This was extremely painful and many died during and shortly after. Dr. [[Josef Mengele]], who is well known for his experiments on twins and dwarfs in the same complex, was the camp "doctor". He regularly performed gruesome experiments such as castration without anesthetics. Prisoners in the camp hospital who were not quick to recover were regularly killed by a [[lethal injection]] of [[phenol]]. In block 24 there was a brothel (''Puff'') for prisoners as an element of propaganda showing how comfortable it was in the camp. ==The extermination camp: Auschwitz II (Birkenau)==<!-- This section is linked from [[Treblinka extermination camp]] --> [[Image:Auschwitz-Birkenau roll call 1944.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Roll call in front of the camp kitchen; SS photograph, 1944]] [[Image:Auschwitz-Birkenau birdseye1.JPG|thumb|200px|View of the railway sidings inside Auschwitz II-Birkenau, from the tower of the main guardhouse]] [[Image:Selection Birkenau ramp.jpg|right|thumb|200px|"Selection" on the unloading ramp at Birkenau, May/June 1944. To be sent to the right meant assignment to a work detail; to the left, the [[gas chamber]]s. This image shows the arrival of Hungarian Jews from [[Carpathian Ruthenia|Carpatho-Ruthenia]], many of them from the [[Berehove|Berehov]] ghetto; the image was taken by Ernst Hofmann or Bernhard Walter of the SS. The main entrance, or "death gate," is visible in the background. Courtesy of [[Yad Vashem]].<ref>[http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/home_auschwitz_album.html The Auschwitz Album, Yad Vashem<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> ]] Construction on Auschwitz II (Birkenau) began in October 1941 to ease congestion at the main camp. It was designed to hold several categories of prisoners, and to function as an [[extermination camp]] in the context of [[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler's]] preparations for the [[Final Solution of the Jewish Question]], the extermination of the Jews.<ref name=Gutman16>Gutman, Yisrael. "Auschwitz—An Overview'' in Gutman, Yisrael and Berenbaum, Michael. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp''. Indiana University Press 1998, p. 16.</ref> The Nazis had committed themselves to the Final Solution no later than January 1942, the date of the [[Wannsee Conference]]. The first gas chamber at Birkenau was "The Little Red House", a brick cottage that was converted into a gassing facility by tearing out the inside and bricking up the walls. It was operational by March 1942. A second brick cottage, "The Little Red House", was similarly converted some weeks later.<ref>Rees, Laurence. ''Auschwitz: A New History''. 2005, Public Affairs, ISBN 158648303X, p. 96-97, 101</ref> By July of 1942, the SS were conducting the infamous "selections", in which incoming Jews were divided into those deemed able to work, who were then admitted to the camp, and those who weren't, who were immediately gassed.<ref>Rees, Laurence. ''Auschwitz: A New History''. 2005, Public Affairs, ISBN 158648303X, p. 100</ref> From March to June of 1943, four new crematoria, Crematoria II, III, IV, and V, were completed and handed over to the SS authorities at the camp. With the construction of these crematoria in Birkenau the killing capacity of Auschwitz concentration camp was greatly expanded. The camp was staffed partly by prisoners, some of whom were selected to be kapos (orderlies) and [[sonderkommando]]s (workers at the crematoria). The kapos were responsible for keeping order in the barrack huts; the sonderkommando prepared new arrivals for gassing (ordering them to remove their clothing and surrender their personal possessions) and transferred corpses from the gas chambers to the furnaces, having first pulled out any gold that the victims might have had in their teeth. Members of these groups were killed periodically. The kapos and sonderkommandos were supervised by members of the SS; altogether 6,000 SS members worked at Auschwitz. Many people know the Birkenau camp simply as "Auschwitz"; it was larger than Auschwitz I, and more people passed through its gates than did those of Auschwitz I. It was the site of imprisonment of hundreds of thousands, and of the killing of over one million people, mainly Jews but also large numbers of [[Poles]], and [[Roma people|Gypsies]], mostly through gassing. ===The selection process=== [[Image:Plan of Gas Chambers at Aushwitz II.jpg|thumb|left|250px.|Plan of Gas Chambers at Auschwitz II. (A)-undressing chamber. (D)-Gas chamber. (E)-Holes for introduzing Zyklon B. (F)-Room where gold teeth and valuables were removed from the corpses. (H)-Crematoria chimneys. (I, J)-Dump sites for ashes. (M)-Sewage plants where ground-down bone fragments were dumped.]] Prisoners were transported from all over German-occupied Europe by rail, arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau in daily convoys. Arrivals at the complex were separated into two main groups. One group, about three-quarters of the total, went to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau within a few hours; they included all children, all women with children, all the elderly, and all those who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be fully fit. SS personnel told the victims that they were to take a shower and undergo delousing. The victims would undress in an outer chamber and walk into the gas chamber, which was disguised as a shower facility, complete with dummy shower heads. After the doors were shut, SS men would dump in the cyanide pellets via (depending on which crematorium) holes in the roof or windows on the side. In the Auschwitz Birkenau camp more than 20,000 people could be gassed and cremated each day. At Birkenau, the Nazis used a [[cyanide]] gas produced from [[Zyklon B]] pellets, which were manufactured by two companies who had acquired licensing rights to the patent held by [[IG Farben]]. The two companies were [[Tesch & Stabenow]], of [[Hamburg]], who supplied two tons of the crystals each month, and [[Degesch]], of [[Dessau]], who produced three-quarters of a ton. The bills of lading were produced at Nuremberg.<ref>Nuremberg Trial Documentation</ref> A second group of prisoners were used as slave labor at industrial factories for such companies as IG Farben and [[Krupp]]. At the Auschwitz complex 405,000 prisoners were recorded as slaves between 1940 and 1945. Of these about 340,000 perished through executions, beatings, starvation, and sickness. Some prisoners survived through the help of German industrialist [[Oskar Schindler]], who saved about 1,100 Polish Jews by diverting them from Auschwitz to work for him, first in his factory near Kraków and later at a factory in what is now the Czech Republic. Small numbers of arrivals at Birkenau were selected for other fates. Twins and dwarfs were picked to undergo medical experiments at the hands of doctors such as [[Josef Mengele]], who was also known as the “Angel of Death”. Also, women were periodically selected to work in "Canada", the part of Birkenau where prisoners' belongings were sorted for use by Germans. The name "Canada" was very cynically chosen. In Poland it was used as an expression used when viewing, for example, a valuable and fine gift. The expression comes from the time when Polish emigrants were sending gifts home from Canada. <!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Plan of crematoria at Aushwitz II.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Plan of Crematorium II and associated gas chamber at Auschwitz II. Victims we led into underground chambers (A) where they were orderd to strip. They were then led into gassing chamber (D) where officers would pour poision-gas granules into four holes (E) in the chamber's roof. The [[Sonderkommando]]s then moved bodies to area (F) and removed gold-teeth and checked openings of the victims' bodies for hidden valuables. Then they would put bodies onto carts (area F) and load them into ovens. The smoke would rise from the chimney (H). The ashes were periodically removed and dumped in pits (I) and other areas (marked J). Victims bones cleaned from the ovens were ground (to the consistency of rough [[salt]]) and tipped into the river above the sewage plant (M) at the top-left of the paln.]] --> ==Auschwitz III and satellite camps== {{see also|List of subcamps of Auschwitz}} The surrounding work camps, of which there were approximately forty, were closely connected to German industry and were associated with arms factories, foundries and mines. The largest work camp was Auschwitz III Monowitz, named after the Polish village of [[Monowice]]. Starting operations in May 1942, it was associated with the synthetic rubber and liquid fuel plant ''Buna-Werke'' owned by [[I. G. Farben]]. In regular intervals, doctors from Auschwitz II would visit the work camps and select the weak and sick for the gas chambers of Birkenau. The largest subcamps were built at [[Trzebinia]], [[Blechhammer]] and [[Althammer]]. Female subcamps were constructed at [[Budy]], [[Plawy]], [[Zabrze]], [[Gliwice|Gleiwitz]] I, II, III, [[Rajsko]] and at [[Lichtenwerden]] (now Světlá). ==Allies' knowledge of the camp== {{details|Auschwitz bombing debate}} [[Image:May311944 auschwitz.jpg|thumb|250px|Photograph of [[Birkenau]], taken [[May 31]], [[1944]], by a [[De Havilland Mosquito]] plane of the [[South African Air Force]], sent to photograph the fuel factory at nearby [[Monowitz]]. The photographic analysts missed the significance of the photograph; it was identified only in the late 1970s and analyzed by the CIA in 1978. Smoke can be seen issuing from an area behind [[Crematorium]] V]] Information regarding Auschwitz was available to the Allies during years 1941–1943 by accurate and frequent reports of Polish Army Captain [[Witold Pilecki]]. Pilecki was the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp, spending 945 days at Auschwitz not only actively gathering evidence of genocide and supplying it to the British in London by Polish resistance movement but also organizing resistance structures at the camp. Pilecki escaped on [[April 27]], [[1943]], but the claims of mass killings were generally dismissed as exaggerations. This changed with receipt of the very detailed report of two prisoners, [[Rudolf Vrba]] and [[Alfred Wetzler]] who escaped on [[April 7]], [[1944]] which finally convinced most Allied leaders of the truth about Auschwitz in the middle of 1944. <!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Crematoria at Auswitz II.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Picture of the crematoria ovens and floor rails at Birkenau. Crematorium II and III each had 15 muffles and Crematorium IV and V each had 8.]] --> [[Image:Birkenau25August1944.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Picture of Birkenau taken by an American surveillance plane, 25 Aug. 1944. Crematoria II and III and the holes used to throw cyanide into the gas chambers are visible.]] Detailed air reconnaissance photographs of the camp were taken accidentally during 1944 by aircraft seeking to photograph nearby military-industrial targets, but no effort was made to analyse them. (In fact, it was not until the 1970s that these photographs of Auschwitz were looked at carefully.) Starting with a plea from the Slovakian rabbi [[Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl|Weissmandl]] in May 1944, there was a growing campaign to persuade the Allies to bomb Auschwitz or the railway lines leading to it. At one point [[Winston Churchill]] ordered that such a plan be prepared, but he was told that bombing the camp would most likely kill prisoners without disrupting the killing operation, and that bombing the railway lines was not technically feasible. Later several nearby military targets were bombed. One bomb accidentally fell into the camp and killed some prisoners. The debate over what could have been done, or what should have been attempted even if success was unlikely, has continued heatedly ever since. During his second visit to the [[Yad Vashem|Holocaust Memorial]] in [[Jerusalem]] on [[January 10]], [[2008]], U.S. President [[George W. Bush]] mentioned to Secretary of State [[Condoleezza Rice]] that the U.S. should have bombed the death camp to stop the extermination of Jews there.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321932,00.html FOXNews.com - Bush Pushes Peace in Kuwait, Says U.S. Should Have Bombed WWII Death Camp - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> ==Resistance== ===Birkenau revolt=== By 1943 resistance organizations had developed in the camp. These organizations helped a few prisoners escape; these escapees took with them news of exterminations, such as the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jews transported from Hungary between May and July 1944. On [[October 7]] [[1944]], the Jewish [[Sonderkommando]]s (those inmates kept separate from the main [[Internment|camp]] and put to work in the gas chambers and crematoria) of Birkenau Kommando III staged an uprising. They attacked the [[SS]] with makeshift weapons: stones, axes, hammers, other work tools and homemade [[grenade]]s. They caught the SS guards by surprise, overpowered them and [[Explosion|blew up]] the Crematorium IV, using [[explosives]] smuggled in from a weapons factory by female inmates. At this stage they were joined by the Birkenau Kommando I of the Crematorium II, which also overpowered their guards and broke out of the [[compound]]. Hundreds of prisoners escaped, but were all soon captured and, along with an additional group who participated in the [[revolt]], [[executed]]. The girls from the [[munitions]] factory were brutally [[tortured]], but refused to name any of their co-conspirators.{{Fact|date=June 2007}} Destroyed crematoria were never rebuilt. There were also [[international]] plans for a general [[uprising]] in [[Auschwitz]], coordinated with an [[Allied]] [[air raid]] and a [[Armia Krajowa|Polish resistance]] attack from the outside.{{Fact|date=June 2007}} ===Individual escape attempts=== About 700 prisoners attempted to escape from the Auschwitz camps during the years of their operation, of which about 300 were successful. A common punishment for escape attempts was death by starvation; the families of successful escapees were sometimes arrested and interned in Auschwitz and prominently displayed to deter others. If someone did manage to escape, the SS would pick ten random people from the prisoner's block and starve them to death.<ref>Rees, Laurence. ''Auschwitz: A New History''. 2005, Public Affairs, ISBN 158648303X, p. 141</ref> Since the Nazi regime was designed to degrade prisoners to the standards of animals, maintaining the will to survive was seen in itself as an act of rebellion. [[Primo Levi]] was given this very teaching from his fellow prisoner and friend Steinlauf: "[that] precisely because the camp was a great machine to reduce us to beasts, we must not become beasts; that even in this place one can survive, and therefore one must want to survive, to tell the story, to bear witness; and that, if we want to survive, then it's important that we strive to preserve at least the skeleton, the scaffolding, the external shape of civilization."<ref>Primo Levi, ''[[If This Is a Man]]'', 1947</ref> In 1943 the 'Kampfgruppe Auschwitz' was organised with the aim to send out as much information about what was happening in Auschwitz as possible. They buried notes in the ground in the hope a liberator would find them and smuggled out photos of the crematoria and gas chambers.{{Fact|date=February 2008}} ==Evacuation and liberation== The gas chambers of Birkenau were blown up by the SS in January 1945 in an attempt to hide the German crimes from the advancing Soviet troops. On [[January 17]], [[1945]] Nazi personnel started to evacuate the facility; nearly sixty thousand prisoners, most of those remaining, were forced on a [[Death marches (Holocaust)|death march]] to the camp toward [[Wodzisław Śląski]] (German: [[Loslau]]). Those too weak or sick to walk were left behind; about 7,500 prisoners were liberated by the [[322nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|322nd Rifle Division]] of the [[Red Army]] on [[January 27]], [[1945]]. Among the artifacts of automated murder found by the Russians were 348,820 men's suits and 836,255 women's garments.<ref>Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. ''Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present''. 1997, Norton Paperback edition, ISBN 039331684x, p. 10</ref> ==Death toll== [[Image:May 1944 - Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau.jpg|thumb|Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944. Crematoria II and III are visible in the background.]] The exact number of victims at Auschwitz is impossible to fix with certainty. Since Germans destroyed a number of records, immediate efforts to count the dead depended on the testimony of witnesses and the defendants on trial at [[Nuremberg Trials|Nuremberg]]. While under interrogation [[Rudolf Höß]], commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp from 1940 to 1943,<ref>Wikipedia:Rudolf Hoess</ref> said that two and a half million Jews had been killed in gas chambers and about half a million died "naturally".<ref>Commandant of Auschwitz: Rudolf Höß. ISBN 1 84212 024 7, Appendix One, page 193</ref> Later he wrote "I regard two and a half million far too high. Even Auschwitz had limits to its destructive possibilities".<ref>Commandant of Auschwitz: Rudolf Höß. ISBN 1 84212 024 7, Appendix One, page 194</ref> When the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz on [[January 27]] [[1945]], they found about 7,600 survivors abandoned there. More than 58,000 prisoners had already been evacuated by the Nazis and sent on a final death march to Germany. ]]Communist Soviet and Polish authorities maintained a figure "between 2.5 and 4 million".<ref name="harmon-drobnicki">Brian Harmon, John Drobnicki, [http://nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/appendix-2-01.html Historical sources and the Auschwitz death toll estimates]</ref> The figure "4,000,000" was used on the original Auschwitz memorial plaques. The plaques did not specify the ethnicities of victims. In 1983 French scholar George Wellers was one of the first to use German data on deportations to estimate the number killed at Auschwitz, arriving at 1.613 million dead, including 1.44 million Jews and 146,000 Catholic Poles. A larger study started around the same time by [[Franciszek Piper]] used timetables of train arrivals combined with deportation records to calculate 1.1 million Jewish deaths and 140,000-150,000 ethnic Polish victims, along with 23,000 Roma and Sinti (Gypsies). This number has met with "significant, though not complete" agreement among scholars. According to Harmon and Drobnicki,<ref name="harmon-drobnicki" /> relevant estimates range from 800,000 to five million people. List of estimates in millions: 0.8-0.9,<ref>[[Gerald Reitlinger|Reitlinger, Gerald]]. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. South Brunswick: T. Yoseloff, 1968, p. 500.</ref> 1,<ref>Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961, p. 572.</ref> 1-2.5,<ref>Encyclopedia Judaica, Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1974. p. 855.</ref> 1.1<ref>Dawidowicz, Lucy. The War Against the Jews. New York: Bantam Books, 1979, p. 191.</ref><ref>Piper, Franciszek. "The Number of Victims" in Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Washington D.C. and Bloomington: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Indiana University Press, 1994, pp. 68-72.</ref><ref>Sofsky, Wolfgang. The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp. Trans. William Templer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, p. 43 in Galleys.</ref> 1.1-1.5,<ref>Sweibocka, Teresa. Auschwitz: A History in Photographs. Bloomington and Warsaw: Indiana University Press and Ksiazka I Wiedza, 1993, pp. 287-288.</ref> 1.13,<ref>Höss, Rudolf. Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant of Auschwitz. ed. by Steven J. Palusky, trans. by Andrew Pollinger. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992, p. 391.</ref> 1.2-2.5,<ref>Weiss, A. "Categories of Camps, Their character and Role in the Execution of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question," in The Nazi Concentration Camps, Jerusalem: Yad Veshem, 1984, pp. 132.</ref> 1.5-3.5,<ref>Bauer, Yehuda. A History of the Holocaust. New York: F. Watts. 1982. p. 215.</ref> 1.6,<ref>Bauer, Yehuda. "Danger of Distortion, Poles and Jews alike are supplying those who deny the Holocaust with the best possible arguments," Jerusalem Post, [[30 September]] [[1989]].</ref><ref>Wellers, Georges. "Essai de determination du nombre de morts au camp d'Auschwitz" Le Monde Juif, October-December 1983, pp. 127-159.</ref> 2,<ref>Billig, Joseph. Les camps de concentration dans l'economie du Reich hitlerien. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1973. pp. 101-102.</ref> 2.3,<ref>Polaikov, Leon. Harvest of Hate Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1956, p. 202.</ref> 2.5,<ref>"Auschwitz." The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, 1980.</ref><ref>Kamenetksy, Ihor. Secret Nazi Plans for Eastern Europe. New Haven: College and University Press, 1961, p. 174.</ref> 2.5-4,<ref>"Brestrafung der Verbrecher von Auschwitz," in Auschwitz: Geschichte und Wirklichkeit des Vernichtungslagers. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowolt, 1980, p. 211.</ref><ref>Czech, D. "Konzentrationslager Auschwitz: Abriss der Geschichte," in Auschwitz: Geschichte und Wirklichkeit des Konzentrationslagers. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowolt, 1980, p. 42.</ref><ref>Dunin-Wasowicz, Krzysztof. Resistance in the Nazi concentration camps, 1933-1945. Warsaw: PWN-Polish Scientific Publishers, 1982, p. 44.</ref><ref>Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939-1945: informator encyklopedyczny. Warsaw: Panst. Wydaw. Naukowe DSP, 1979, p. 369.</ref> 2.8-4,<ref>Madajczyk, Czeslaw. Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce; okupacja Polski, 1939-1945. Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawn Naukowe, 1970, pp. 293-94.</ref> 3 (only Polish victims),<ref>Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust. New York: Pergamon Press, 1988.</ref> over 3,<ref>Lane, Arthur Bliss. Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the American People. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948, p. 39</ref> 3.5,<ref>Bauer, Yehuda.<!-- Verify author please --> "Foreword," in Müller, Filip. Eyewitness Auschwitz. New York: Stein and Day, 1979, p. xi.</ref> 3.5-4.5,<ref>Kogon, Eugen. Der SS Staat. Berlin, 1974, p. 157.</ref> 4-5.<ref>Friedman, Filip. This Was Oswiecim: The Story of a Murder Camp. Translated from the Yiddish original by Joseph Leftwich. London: The United Jewish Relief Appeal, 1946, p. 14.</ref> ==Well-known inmates/victims== [[Image:Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial.JPG|right|250px|thumb|The [[English language]] memorial plate at Birkenau camp. The message is repeated in many languages.]] [[Image:Lethal gas crystal can & documnets.jpg|right|thumb|200px|A can of [[Zyklon B]] lethal gas granules and original signed documents detailing ordering of such gas as "materials for Jewish resettlement" on display at Auschwitz I]] [[Image:Auschwitz HD 01.PNG|thumb|Auschwitz I barracks]] [[Image:Barracks at Aushwitz II.jpg|thumb|200px|Bunk beds in the Auschwitz II camp. There were as many as four inmates per bunk. There could be as many as a thousand inmates per barrack like the one pictured.]] * [[Andreas Pius Cyrill of Zoltowski-Romanus|Count Andreas Pius Cyrill of Zoltowski-Romanus]], Polish noble, died [[September 4]] [[1941]], age 59. * [[Władysław Bartoszewski]], member of [[Armia Krajowa]], Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (twice) after 1989, imprisoned at Auschwitz [[22 September]] [[1940]] – [[8 April]] [[1941]] * [[Count Bernhard of Lubienski]], Polish noble, died 1942. * [[René Blum (ballet)|René Blum]], French-Jewish choreographer, founder of the Ballet de l'Opera; killed at Auschwitz on [[April 30]], [[1943]]. * [[Tadeusz Borowski]], Polish writer, later transferred to [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]]. * [[George Brady]], sent on the death march; escaped when a Soviet tank blew a hole in the building he was in. * Rebbe [[Menachem Mendel Taub]] of [[Kaliv]] * [[Hana Brady]], died in gas chamber at 13. * [[Leo Bretholz]], escaped from train en route, author of ''[[Leap into Darkness]]''. * [[Yehiel De-Nur]], Polish-Jewish writer, in Auschwitz for two years, survived, died [[17 July]] [[2001]]. * [[Robert Desnos]], French poet. * [[Laure Diebold]], French resistant, [[Compagnon de la Libération]] * [[Władysław Fejkiel]], Auschwitz Polish prisoner and chief physician for prisoner infirmary, Block 20 in the main camp in 1944. * [[Benjamin Fondane]], French-Romanian author, died October 1944. * [[Anne Frank]], teenage diarist from Amsterdam, held 7 weeks at Auschwitz, transferred to [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen-Belsen]] where she died of [[Typhus]]. * [[Hans Frankenthal]], German-Jewish author, survived. * [[Viktor Frankl]], Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, survived. * [[Franciszek Gajowniczek]], Polish Army Sergeant whose life was spared when Maximilian Kolbe took his place. Survived and died in 1995. * [[Józef Garliński]], Polish best selling writer who wrote numerous books in both English and Polish on Auschwitz and World War II, including the best selling 'Fighting Auschwitz'. Survived and died in 2005. * [[Kurt Gerron]], German-Jewish actor and film director, died [[November 15]] [[1944]]. * [[Dora Gerson]], German-Jewish cabaret singer and silent-film actress, died [[February 14]] [[1943]]. * [[Pavel Haas]], Czech composer, died [[October 17]] [[1944]] * [[Nicholas (Miklós) Hammer]], Hungrian born Jew, who was placed in Aushwitz I block 6 and worked in the Kanada I section. Subject of the biography [[Sacred Games]] by Gerald Jacobs. Unusual as he was in labour, concentration & death camps before being liberated. * [[Magda Herzberger]], Romanian-Jewish author and poet, survived. * [[Regina Jonas]], born 1902, first ordained female rabbi in Germany, rabbi at Neue Synagoge in Berlin, died [[october 12]][[1944]]. * [[Yitzhak Katzenelson]], Polish-Jewish poet, died [[1 May]] [[1944]]. * [[Imre Kertesz]], Hungarian writer, Nobel Laureate in Literature for 2002. * [[Peter Kien]], Czech artist, poet and librettist active in [[Terezin]], died from infectious disease soon after arrival in October 1944, age 25. * [[Maximilian Kolbe]], Catholic Saint, died [[14 August]] [[1941]] * [[Hans Krása]], Czech composer, murdered [[17 October]] [[1944]], age 44. * [[Rutka Laskier]], Polish teenager who wrote a diary. Dubbed the "Polish Anne Frank". * [[Olga Lengyel]], author of ''Five Chimneys'', survived * [[Primo Levi]], Italian-Jewish chemist and author, survived * [[Arnošt Lustig]], Czech-Jewish writer and novelist, the Holocaust is his lifelong theme, survived. * [[Count Mauritz of Potocki]], Polish noble, died 1942 * [[Irène Némirovsky]], French/Russian writer, died August 1942 , age 39. * [[Felix Nussbaum]], German-Jewish painter, died 1944. * [[Bernard Offen]], documentary filmmaker working in Poland and the United States to create ''[[Second Generation Witnesses]].'' * [[Harry Osers]] (born 1929) Czech Engineer, currently living in Caracas, Venezuela. * [[Witold Pilecki]], Polish soldier, the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp, escaped. * [[Samuel Pisar]], International lawyer, writer, survived. * [[Erich Salomon]], German photographer, died 1944. * [[Otto Selz]], German-Jewish Psychologist, died 1943. * [[Vladek Spiegelman]] (and wife Anja), parents of [[Art Spiegelman]], author of ''[[Maus]]''. Vladek Spiegelmann was the central character in ''Maus''. * [[Edith Stein]], Catholic Saint, died [[9 August]] [[1942]]. * [[Prince Ludwik Swiatopelk-Czetwertynski]], Polish noble, died [[May 3]] [[1941]], age 64. * [[Jack Tramiel]], born 1928. Polish-born businessman. Rescued by the U.S. Army in April 1945. Currently living in Monte Sereno, California, USA. * [[Viktor Ullmann]], Austrian Composer active in Prague, murdered [[18 October]] [[1944]], age 46. * [[Simone Veil]], nee Simone Annie Jacob ([[July 13]], [[1927]]-), French politician, survived. * [[Rudolf Vrba]], scientist, escaped to inform the world about Auschwitz. * [[Elie Wiesel]], Romanian-born American novelist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, survived. * [[Andriy Andriyovych Yushchenko]], father of [[Viktor Yushchenko]] (third president of Ukraine). ==After the War== [[Image:Auschwitzruins.jpg|thumb|450px|right|Ruins at Birkenau, with brick chimneys belonging to wooden barracks being prominent, 2002]] After the war the camp served until 1947 as an [[NKVD]] and [[Ministry of Public Security of Poland|MBP]] prison camp. The ''Buna Werke'' were taken over by the Polish government and became the foundation for the region's chemical industry. The Polish government then decided to restore Auschwitz I and turn it into a museum honouring the victims of [[Nazism]]; Auschwitz II, where buildings (many of which were prefabricated wood structures) were prone to decay, was preserved but not restored. Today, the Auschwitz I museum site combines elements from several periods into a single complex: for example the gas chamber at Auschwitz I (which had been converted into an air-raid shelter for the [[SS]]) was restored and the fence was moved (because of building being done after the war but before the establishment of the museum). However, in most cases the departure from the historical truth is minor, and is clearly labelled. The museum contains very large numbers of men's, women's and children's shoes taken from their victims; also suitcases, which the deportees were encouraged to bring with them, and many household utensils. One display case, some 30 metres long, is wholly filled with human hair which the Nazis gathered from the people before and after they were killed. [[Image:Birkenau.JPG|thumb|left|thumb|275px|Birkenau camp today]] Auschwitz II and the remains of the gas chambers there are also open to the public. The Auschwitz concentration camp is part of the [[UNESCO]] list of [[World Heritage Sites]]. The ashes of the victims of the SS were scattered between the huts, and the entire area is seen as a grave site. Most of the buildings of Auschwitz I are still standing. Many of them are now used as museums. The public entrance area (with bookshop, etc.) is outside the [[perimeter fence]] in what was the camp admission building, where new prisoners were registered and given their uniforms, etc. [[Image:Birkenau tower.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Entrance to French section of Birkenau, in 2006. A guard tower and two information boards for visitors can be seen on the left.]] Most of the buildings of Birkenau were burnt down by the Germans as the Russians came near, and much of the resulting brick rubble was removed in 1945 by the area's returning Polish population to restore [[farm]] buildings before winter. That explains the "missing rubble" cited as evidence by [[Holocaust denier]]s. By the site of its [[gas chamber]]s and [[incinerator]]s are piles of broken bricks which were thrown aside in the search for fallen re-usable intact bricks. Today, the entrance building remains plus some of the brick-built barracks in the southern part of the site, but of the wooden barracks, some 300 in number, just nineteen are still standing, eighteen of these in a row near the entrance building and one more, on its own, further away. Of most of the others just chimneys remain, two per barrack, one each end with a raised duct linking them, remnants of a largely ineffective means of heating. Many of these wooden buildings were constructed from prefabricated sections made by a company that intended them to be used as stables; inside, numerous metal rings for the tethering of horses can still be seen. At the far end of Birkenau are [[memorial]] [[Commemorative plaque|plaque]]s in many languages including [[Romani language|Romani]]. In 1979, the newly elected Polish [[Pope John Paul II]] celebrated [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] on the grounds of Auschwitz II to some 500,000 people. After the pope had announced that [[Edith Stein]] would be [[beatification|beatified]], some Catholics erected a cross near bunker 2 of Auschwitz II where she had been gassed. A short while later, a [[Star of David]] appeared at the site, leading to a proliferation of religious symbols there; eventually they were removed. [[Carmelites|Carmelite nuns]] opened a convent near Auschwitz I in 1984. After some Jewish groups called for the removal of the convent, representatives of the Catholic Church agreed in 1987. One year later the Carmelites erected the 8 metre (26 ft) tall cross from the 1979 mass near their site, just outside block 11 and barely visible from within the camp. This led to protests by Jewish groups, who said that mostly Jews were killed at Auschwitz and demanded that religious symbols be kept away from the site. Some Catholics{{Who|date=June 2007}} have argued that the people killed in Auschwitz I (as opposed to Auschwitz II) were mainly Polish Catholics (including at least one Catholic saint, [[Maximilian Kolbe]]). The Catholic Church told the Carmelites to move by 1989, but they stayed on until 1993, leaving the large cross behind. In 1998, after further calls to remove the cross, some 300 smaller crosses were erected by local activists near the large one, leading to further protests and heated exchanges. Following an agreement between the Polish Catholic Church and the Polish government, the smaller crosses were removed in 1999 but the large papal one remains. See [[Auschwitz cross]] for more details. In 1996, Germany made [[27 January]], the day of the liberation of Auschwitz, the official day for the commemoration of the victims of 'National Socialism'. The [[European Parliament]] marked the anniversary of the camp's liberation in 2005 with a minute of silence and the passage of this resolution: {{quote|[[27 January]] [[2005]], the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of [[Nazi Germany]]'s death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where a combined total of up to 1.5 million [[Jew]]s, [[Roma (people)|Roma]], [[Poles]], [[Russians]] and prisoners of various other nationalities, were murdered, is not only a major occasion for European citizens to remember and condemn the enormous horror and tragedy of the Holocaust, but also for addressing the disturbing rise in [[anti-semitism]], and especially anti‑semitic incidents, in Europe, and for learning anew the wider lessons about the dangers of victimising people on the basis of [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]], [[ethnic origin]], [[religion]], social classification, [[politics]] or sexual orientation.}} ===Other controversies=== The site of Auschwitz-Birkenau has undergone a major change since the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]]. During the Communist era, "foreign visitors were often shocked by the presentations", which glorified the role of the Soviet Army, according to the [[European Jewish Congress]].<ref>[http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=425 European Jewish Congress - Poland Wants to Change the Name of Auschwitz to Better Reflect German Role<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> For many years, a memorial plaque placed at the camp by the Soviet authorities stated that 4 million people had been murdered at Auschwitz. The Polish communist government also supported this figure. In the west, this figure was accepted, but some historians had their doubts.<ref name="harmon-drobnicki" /> After the collapse of the Communist government in 1989, the plaque was removed and the official death toll given as 1.1 million. [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust deniers]] have attempted to use this change as [[propaganda]], in the words of [[Nizkor Project|Nizkor]]: {{quote|Deniers often use the 'Four Million Variant' as a stepping stone to leap from an apparent contradiction to the idea that the Holocaust was a hoax, again perpetrated by a conspiracy. They hope to discredit historians by making them seem inconsistent. If they can't keep their numbers straight, their reasoning goes, how can we say that their evidence for the Holocaust is credible? One must wonder which historians they speak of, as most have been remarkably consistent in their estimates of a million or so dead. In short, all of the denier's blustering about the 'Four Million Variant' is a specious attempt to envelope the reader into their web of deceit, and it can be discarded after the most rudimentary examination of published histories.<ref>[[Nizkor Project|Nizkor]], [http://www.nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/four-million-02.html The Auschwitz Gambit: The Four Million Variant]</ref>}} Recently the Polish media, and the foreign ministry of Poland, have voiced objections to the use of the expression "[[Polish death camp]]" in relation to Auschwitz, as they feel that phrase might misleadingly suggest that Poles (rather than Germans) perpetrated the Holocaust. Most media outlets now show awareness of the offence this may cause, and try to avoid using such expressions (or issue an apology after using them).<ref>See, for example, this 2005 [http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1401179,00.html note] in ''[[The Guardian]]''</ref> On [[1 April]] [[2006]], a Polish Culture Ministry spokesman said that the government requested that [[UNESCO]] change the name from "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau" to emphasize that the camp was run by German Nazis and not by Poles.<ref>[http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/701163.html Poland seeks to change official name of Auschwitz death camp], ''Haaretz'', [[2 April]] [[2006]]</ref> On [[12 July]] [[2006]], UNESCO deferred a decision on Poland's request, pending further consultation.<ref>[http://www.30whc.org/en/?pid=99&id=30 Clarification regarding the decision on Auschwitz Concentration Camp]</ref> On [[28 June]] [[2007]] the United Nations World Heritage Committee officially announced that the new name is '''Auschwitz Birkenau. German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)'''.<ref name="unesco">UNESCO World Heritage Committee. ([[2007-06-28]]). [http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/363 World Heritage Committee approves Auschwitz name change".] Press release. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.</ref><ref>Lilley, Ray. ([[2007-06-28]]). [http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6742058,00.html "UNESCO committee renames Auschwitz."] Associated Press. ''Guardian Unlimited''.</ref> The Polish film directors [[Andrzej Munk]] and [[Andrzej Wajda]] were both given permission to film in Auschwitz for the films [[Passenger (film)|''Pasażerka'']] and ''Krajobraz Po Bitwie'' respectively. The TV-miniseries ''[[War and Remembrance]]'' also shot the Holocaust scenes in Auschwitz. However, permission was denied to Steven Spielberg for ''[[Schindler's List]]''. Subsequently, a "mirror" camp was constructed outside the infamous archway for the scene where the train arrives carrying the women [[Oskar Schindler|Schindler]] was trying to save. In February 2006, [[Poland]] refused to grant visas to [[Iran]]ian researchers who were planning to visit Auschwitz.<ref>[http://www.payvand.com/news/06/feb/1145.html Poland to Bar Iranian Team from Auschwitz], ''Payvand'', [[18 February]] [[2006]]</ref> Polish Foreign Minister [[Stefan Meller]] said his country should stop Iran from investigating the scale of the Holocaust, which [[President of Iran|Iranian President]] [[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]] has dismissed as false.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/14/iran.israel/ Iranian leader: Holocaust a 'myth' CNN, [[December 14]], [[2005]]]</ref> In Poland, denying the Holocaust by propagating "public and [[contradiction|contradicting]] facts" is a crime punished by a sentence of up to 3 years in prison (article 55, Dz.U. 1998 nr 155 poz. 1016). ==Auschwitz timeline== [[Image:Sonderkommando Heryk Mandelbaum & translator.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Sonderkommando Henryk Mandelbaum and translator talking to a group at Auschwitz II crematoria ruins]] * '''[[January 25]] [[1940]]''' The Germans decide to construct a concentration camp near [[Oświęcim]] (Auschwitz). * '''[[May 20]] [[1940]]''' The first concentration camp prisoners – 30 recidivist criminals from [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]] – arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp. * '''[[March 1]] [[1941]]''' Reichsführer SS and Chief of German Police [[Heinrich Himmler]] inspects Oświęcim (Auschwitz). Because nearby factories use prisoners for forced labor, Himmler is concerned about the prisoner capacity of the camp. On this visit, he orders both the expansion of Auschwitz I camp facilities to hold 30,000 prisoners and the building of a camp near Birkenau for an expected influx of 100,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Himmler also orders that the camp supply 10,000 prisoners for forced labor to construct an [[I.G. Farben]] factory complex at [[Dwory]], about a mile away. Himmler will make additional visits to Auschwitz in 1942, when he will witness the killing of prisoners in the gas chambers. * '''[[September 3]] [[1941]]''' The first gassings of prisoners occur in Auschwitz I. The SS tests [[Zyklon B]] gas by killing 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 other ill or weak prisoners. Testing takes place in a makeshift gas chamber in the cellar of Block 11 in Auschwitz I. The success of these experiments will lead to the adoption of Zyklon B as the killing agent for the yet-to-be-constructed Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. * '''[[January 25]] [[1942]]''' SS chief Heinrich Himmler informs [[Richard Gluecks]], the Inspector of Concentration Camps, that 100,000 Jewish men and 50,000 Jewish women would be deported from Germany to Auschwitz as forced laborers. * '''[[February 15]] [[1942]]''' The first transport of Jews from [[Bytom]] (Beuthen) in German-annexed [[Upper Silesia]] arrives in Auschwitz I. The SS camp authorities kill all those on the transport immediately upon arrival with Zyklon B gas. * '''[[December 31]], [[1942]]''' German SS and police authorities deported approximately 175,000 Jews to Auschwitz in 1942. * '''[[January 1]] - [[March 31]], [[1943]]''' German SS and police authorities deport approximately 105,000 Jews to Auschwitz. * '''[[January 29]] [[1943]]''' The Reich Central Office for Security orders all designated Roma (Gypsies) residing in Germany, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to be deported to Auschwitz. * '''[[February 26]] [[1943]]''' The first transport of Roma (Gypsies) from Germany arrives at Auschwitz. The SS authorities house them in Section B-IIe of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which becomes known as the "Gypsy family camp." By the end of 1943 more than 18,000 Roma (Gypsies) will have been incarcerated in the so-called family camp and as many as 23,000 Gypsies deported to the Auschwitz camp complex. * '''[[March 13]] [[1943]]''' Out of a transport of 2,000 Jews from the [[Kraków Ghetto]], 1,492 are gassed in the basement gas chamber of Crematorium II at Birkenau in the evening. This operation tests the gas chamber's ventilation and air extraction equipment installed by J.A. Topf engineer Heinrich Messing, who declared it operational earlier that day.<ref name=Gutman232>Pressac, Jean-Claude and Van Pelt, Robert-Jan "The Machinery of Mass Murder at Auschwitz" in Gutman, Yisrael & Berenbaum, Michael. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp'', Indiana University Press, 1994; this edition 1998, p. 232.</ref> * '''[[March 22]], [[1943]]''' Crematorium IV is handed over to the Auschwitz authorities.<ref name=Gutman234>Pressac, Jean-Claude and Van Pelt, Robert-Jan "The Machinery of Mass Murder at Auschwitz" in Gutman, Yisrael & Berenbaum, Michael. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp'', Indiana University Press, 1994; this edition 1998, p. 234.</ref> * '''[[March 31]], [[1943]]''' Crematorium II is handed over to the Auschwitz authorities.<ref name=Gutman232/> * '''[[April 1]] [[1943]] - [[1944|March 1944]]''' German SS and police authorities deport approximately 160,000 Jews to Auschwitz. * '''[[April 4]], [[1943]]''' Crematorium V is handed over to the Auschwitz authorities.<ref name=Gutman234/> * '''[[June 24]], [[1943]]''' Crematorium III is handed over to the Auschwitz authorities.<ref name=Gutman236>Pressac, Jean-Claude and Van Pelt, Robert-Jan "The Machinery of Mass Murder at Auschwitz" in Gutman, Yisrael & Berenbaum, Michael. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp'', Indiana University Press, 1994; this edition 1998, p. 236.</ref> * '''[[May 2]] [[1944]]''' The first two transports of Hungarian Jews arrive in Auschwitz. * '''[[July 7]] [[1944]]''' The deportation of Hungarian Jews is halted by order of Regent Miklos Horthy. * '''[[August 2]] [[1944]]''' SS camp authorities murder the last residents – just under 3,000 &ndash; of the so-called Gypsy family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The SS murders an estimated total of 20,000 Roma (Gypsies) in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. * '''[[1944|April 1944]] - [[1944|November 1944]]''' SS and Police authorities deport more than 585,000 Jews to Auschwitz. * '''[[October 7]] [[1944]]''' Members of the Jewish prisoner "special detachment" (Sonderkommando) that was forced to remove bodies from the gas chambers and operate the crematoria stage an uprising. They successfully blow up Crematorium IV and kill several guards. Women prisoners had smuggled gunpowder out of nearby factories to members of the Sonderkommando. The SS quickly suppresses the revolt and kills all the Sonderkommando members. On [[January 6]], [[1945]], just weeks before Soviet forces liberate the camp, the SS will also hang four women who smuggled gunpowder into the camp. * '''[[October 30]], [[1944]]''' The last selections take place on the arrival ramp at Birkenau. 1,689 people from a transport from Terezin are sent to the gas chambers.<ref name=Gutman563>Karny, Miroslav. "The Vrba and Wetzler Report" in Gutman, Yisrael & Berenbaum, Michael. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp'', Indiana University Press, 1994; this edition 1998, p. 563.</ref> * '''[[November 25]] [[1944]]''' As Soviet forces continue to approach, SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the destruction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers and crematoria. During this SS attempt to destroy the evidence of mass killings, prisoners will be forced to dismantle and dynamite the structures. * '''[[January 12]] [[1945]]''' A Soviet offensive breaches the German defenses on the Vistula; Soviet troops take Warsaw and advance rapidly on [[Kraków]] and Oświęcim. * '''January 18 - 27, 1945''' As Soviet units approach, the SS evacuates to the west the prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to the cities of Wodzisław and Gliwice in the western part of Upper Silesia. During the march, SS guards shoot anyone who cannot continue. In Wodzisław and Gliwice, the prisoners will be put on unheated freight trains and deported to concentration camps in Germany, particularly to Flossenburg, Sachsenhausen, Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, and Dachau, and to Mauthausen in Austria. In all, nearly 60,000 prisoners are forced on death marches from the Auschwitz camp system. As many as 15,000 die during the forced marches. Thousands more were killed in the days before the evacuation. * '''[[January 27]] [[1945]]''' Soviet troops enter the Auschwitz camp complex and liberate approximately 7,000 prisoners remaining in the camp. During the existence of Auschwitz, the SS camp authorities killed nearly one million Jews from across Europe. Other victims included approximately 74,000 Poles, approximately 21,000 Roma (Gypsies), and approximately 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war. * '''[[April 17]] [[1946]]''' Polish communist government decides to close down and dismantle the prison camp and build a mausoleum for the German camp. * '''[[April 16]] [[1947]]''' Execution of Rudolf Höß. The next day a group of last 206 prisoners of Oświęcim transferred to [[Central Labour Camp Jaworzno]], a former subcamp of Auschwitz. ==See also== * [[Central Labour Camp Jaworzno|Arbeitslager Neu-Dachs]] * [[Auschwitz Album]] - a collection of pictures taken at Auschwitz during its operation. * [[Auschwitz Trial]] * [[Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials]] * [[Höcker Album]] * [[List of Nazi-German concentration camps]] * [[Przyszowice massacre]] * [[Auschwitz Synagogue]] ==Notes== {{reflist|2}} ==Further reading== *Dlugoborski, Waclaw, and Franciszek Piper, eds. ''Auschwitz, 1940-1945: Central Issues in the History of the Camp'' Five Vols. Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2000. ISBN 8-385047875 *Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum, eds. ''Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994 ISBN 0253326842 * Rees, Laurence ''Auschwitz: A New History'' New York: Public Affairs, 2005 ISBN 1-58648-303-X * Gilbert, Martin ''Auschwitz and the Allies'' New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981 Photographs, maps. ISBN 0-03-057058-1 * Boyne, John ''The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas'' Great Britain: David Fickling Books, 2006 ISBN 0-385-75106-0 * Muller, Filip ''Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers'' Ivan R Dee Inc, 1999 ISBN 1-56663-271-4 * Nyisli, Miklos ''Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eye-witness Account'' Mayflower, 1977 ASIN B000QIZILC *Levi, Primo ''Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity (1986) 1993 (current edition includes "A conversation with Primo Levi by Philip Roth" New York: Collier Books ISBN 0-020-2919222 * van Pelt, Robert Jan. ''The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial''. Indiana University Press, 2002. ISBN 0253340160 ==External links== {{Commons|Auschwitz-Birkenau}} * [http://www.ajcf.org/ Auschwitz Jewish Center] *[http://www1.yadvashem.org/Odot/prog/index_before_change_table.asp ''Auschwitz: The Final Stop''] Categorized material on the camp from Yad VaShem] (accessed 02/03/08) *[http://www.auschwitz.org.pl Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum] (in English, Polish, and German] * [http://www.remember.org/auschwitz/ A Virtual Tour of Auschwitz/Birkenau] Annotated images of the camp (accessed 02/14/08) *[http://remember.org/camps/birkenau/index.html Interactive image map of Birkenau] * [http://www.auschwitz-oswiecim.pl Auschwitz-Birkenau and city Oswiecim] (in Polish) * [http://isurvived.org/AUSCHWITZ_TheCamp.html Data and summary facts] * [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5156918753541068347&q=auschwitz&hl=en Video footage from a 2003 visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau] * [http://isurvived.org/Lustig_AuschwitzAlbum.html Selected Photos from the Auschwitz Album with commentary by Oliver Lustig] * [http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/auschwitz Liberation of Auschwitz - 60th Anniversary] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum * [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005189 Holocaust Encyclopedia - Auschwitz] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum * [http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/start/index.php Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum] Official Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial * [http://www.remember.org/ Cybrary of the Holocaust] Holocaust education site * [http://www.annaheilman.net/index.html Anna Heilman] Anna Heilman is the last living survivor of the plot to blow up Crematorium IV at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her Holocaust experiences are discussed in her novel ''Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicle of Anna Heilman'' * [http://www.auschwitz-birkenau.org/ Auschwitz-Birkenau 2005] Photographs and commentary marking the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation * [http://www.remember.org/camps/ Photos From Auschwitz and Birkenau] Detailed Photos From Auschwitz and Birkenau by Alan Jacobs * [http://www.remember.org/auschwitz/ Virtual Reality panoramas of Auschwitz and Birkenau] Interactive Virtual Reality panoramas of Auschwitz and Birkenau * [http://remember.org/then-and-now/ Auschwitz, Then and Now Photo/Art Exhibit]Paintings by survivor Jan Komski – click and see an actual photo taken in the same place depicted in the painting * [http://www.cracow-life.com/guide/Auschwitz/auschwitz.php Auschwitz: A Visitor's Introduction] * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/ Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'] A comprehensive [[BBC]] documentary about the creation, evolution and aftermath of the Auschwitz camp * [http://www.wiesenthal.com/ The Simon Wiesenthal Center] An international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust * [http://65.18.208.71/bearingwitness/ Photos of Auschwitz 2003] Photos taken by [http://www.bearingwitnessjournal.com/story.htm?story=1R1P30 Laura Carboni] while participating in the annual multi-faith [http://www.houseofonepeople.org/events.htm?z=88 Bearing Witness] retreat. * [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=50%C2%B0+1%27+26%22,+19%C2%B0+12%27+18%22&ll=50.023889,19.205&spn=0.026138,0.086517&t=k Auschwitz] and [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=50%C2%B0+2%27+20%22,+19%C2%B0+10%27+30%22&ll=50.038895,19.175005&spn=0.02613,0.086517&t=k Birkenau] at Google Maps * [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-71-1579/conflict_war/echoes_of_auschwitz/ CBC Digital Archives - Life after Auschwitz] * [http://www.panoramy.net/thumbnails.php?album=30&lang=english_gb Panoramic photo gallery of Auschwitz-Birkenau] * [http://www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org C.A.N.D.L.E.S museum] (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors) Terre Haute, IN. Founded by Mengele Twin, Eva Korr * D. A. Brugiono and R. G. Poirier, The Holocaust Revisited: A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex. CIA report on WWII aerial photographs (1978, declassified in 2000), [https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/fall00/ch6_Holocaust_Revisited.pdf] * [http://www.auschwitz.dk The Holocaust: Crimes, Heros, and Villains] * [http://www.nddup.org.uk/auschwitz.htm Photos of Auschwitz - Birkenau] * [http://www.jewishkrakow.net JewishKrakow.net] A guide to Kazimierz, Krakow's Jewish Quarter. Also includes a section on [http://www.jewishkrakow.net/en/waryears/auschwitz Auschwitz] complete with picture gallery and travel information. {{World Heritage Sites in Poland}} [[Category:Auschwitz concentration camp| ]] [[Category:1940 establishments]] {{Link FA|pl}} {{Link FA|pt}} [[br:Auschwitz-Birkenau]] [[bg:Аушвиц (концлагер)]] [[ca:Auschwitz]] [[cs:Auschwitz - Birkenau]] [[cy:Auschwitz]] [[da:Auschwitz]] [[de:KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau]] [[et:Oświęcimi koonduslaager]] [[el:Στρατόπεδο συγκέντρωσης Άουσβιτς]] [[es:Auschwitz]] [[eo:Aŭŝvico (koncentreja komplekso)]] [[eu:Auschwitz]] [[fa:آشویتس]] [[fr:Auschwitz]] [[fur:Auschwitz]] [[gl:Auschwitz-Birkenau]] [[ko:아우슈비츠 강제 수용소]] [[hr:Auschwitz]] [[id:Kamp konsentrasi Auschwitz]] [[is:Auschwitz]] [[it:Campo di concentramento di Auschwitz]] [[he:מחנה הריכוז אושוויץ]] [[hu:Auschwitzi koncentrációs tábor]] [[ml:ഓഷ്‌വ്വിറ്റ്സ് തടങ്കല്‍പ്പാളയം]] [[nl:Auschwitz]] [[ja:アウシュヴィッツ=ビルケナウ強制収容所]] [[no:Auschwitz]] [[nn:Auschwitz]] [[pl:Auschwitz-Birkenau]] [[pt:Auschwitz-Birkenau]] [[ro:Lagărul de exterminare Auschwitz]] [[ru:Освенцим (концентрационный лагерь)]] [[simple:Auschwitz concentration camp]] [[sk:Koncentračný tábor Auschwitz-Birkenau]] [[sl:Auschwitz]] [[sr:Аушвиц]] [[fi:Auschwitz]] [[sv:Auschwitz]] [[ta:அவுஷ்விட்ஸ் வதை முகாம்]] [[vi:Trại tập trung Auschwitz]] [[tr:Auschwitz-Birkenau]] [[uk:Освенцім]] [[yi:אוישוויץ]] [[zh:奥斯威辛集中营]]