Phelps2007 - Auschwitz

Auschwitz
Derrik B.

Largest concentration camp
There were 3 main camps
- Auschwitz I
  - Auschwitz I was the main camp
  - The camp was about 22 square miles long
  - The first prisoners at Auschwitz were transfered from Sachsenhausen
  - The best known of the physicians was Dr. Josef Mengele
37 miles west of Krakow, is where they are located
One of the commanders was the SS lieutenant Colonel Arthur Liebenschel
- Auschwitz II
  - Construction began in October of 1941
  - It had the largest total prisoners population
  - SS guards patrolled Auschwitz II
  - There were facilities for a killing center
- Auschwitz III
  - It was established in October 1942
  - From May 1941 until October 1942, the SS transported prisoners from Auschwitz I to the " Buna Detachment"
  - Prisoners deployed at Buna, lived at Auschwitz III
- Subcamps
  - Between 1942 and 1944 the SS established 39 subcamps a t Auschwitz
  - Some subcamps were located in Marauia
  - Auschwitz inmates were employed on huge farms
  - They also had to work in coal mines, stone quarries, and Fisheries
- Well known inmates
  - Anne Frank
  - Elie Wiesel
  - Berrard offer
- Time line
  - Spring 1940. First prisoners from Dachau arrive in Auschwitz and start building the concentration camp.

Auschwitz

Maxwell P.

One of the largest concentration camp
- 3 main camps
  - Auschwitz I
  - Auschwitz II
  - Auschwitz III
Background info on Auschwitz
- Auschwitz concentration camps were a major part in the Holocaust
- The number of people killed there is almost impossible to know all numbers are just estimates
- 90% of death were Jews
  - Auschwitz I was the original camp
  - Served as the administrative center for the whole camp
  - Site of roughly 70,000 deaths, mostly poles, and soviet POW's

Auschwitz II (also known as Birkenau)
- Was an extermination cap
- An estimate of deaths are 1.1million Jews, 75,000 Polish people, and 19,000 Roma (Gypsies)
- Auschwitz camps were founded on May 20,1940 lasted until 1945
- Was under command of Rudolph Hoss
The Camp
- 728 Polish prisoners were the first residents of Auschwitz I
- At any time the camp held between 13,000-16,000 inmates
- In 1942 that number reached 20,000
- Most Jews were inprisoned in Auschwitz II
- Due to harsh work requirments, combined with poor nutrition and hygiene, led to hight death rates among prisoners
- Any prisoner who broke rules were sent for punishment or sent to standing cells
- Standing cells were 1.5 meters square
- There were 4 men to a cell n they could do nothing but stand due to the size of the cell
- They also had starvation cells were they got no food or water until they were dead
- Also had "Death Cells", which was a tiny room that had a tiny window, eventually the prisoner would run out of oxygen and die
- They were also hung by there hands which were tied be hind there back, sometimes they hung there for hours even days!!
- On September 1941 they began testing Gas Chambers
- Once testing with chambers were a success they were used from 1941-1942
- About 60,000 were killed in chambersAfter the War
- After the war the camp served through most of 1945 as an or NKVD prison
- Over several years the camp remained in a state of disrepair
- Polish government restored Auschwitz I into a museum
- Museum honors the victims of Nazism
- The rest of the camp was not restored
- The museum has several elements from the original Auschwitz I
  - An example is the restored gas chambers