The majority of Auschwitz victims died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was the largest mass murdering concentration camp in history. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the most unwanted place to go even though prisoners didn’t know where they were going when they were being deported. Many victims died in Auschwitz-Birkenau and today that camp is a reminder of the horrible events that took place during the Holocaust. Heinrich Himmler was the person who ordered the construction of Auschwitz.
“He also was the commander of the SS. “(www. history. com) “He ordered for Auschwitz II(Birkenau) to be built. (www. history. com) He went there and commanded that Auschwitz-Birkenau would be able to hold 100,000 prisoners. In 1941, Himmler briefed Commandant Hoss about the Final Solution, which was the Nazi plan to annihilate the Jews, Poles, gypsies, and others from Europe. “Lieutenant General Reinhard Heydrich formalised the Final Solution in a speech at the Wannsee conference. “(www. guardian. com) Rudolph Hoss was the first commandant of Auschwitz. “He identified the Silesian town of Oswiecim in Poland as a possible site for Auschwitz, the concentration camp.
When the camps were being built the Germans isolated the camps from the outside world with barbed wire fencing. “(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) Another big person in Auschwitz was Josef Mengele. He was known as the “Angel of Death” because of all the unusual medical experiments he led. Prisoners went through slave labor and gas chambers, but his experiments were the worst. “He was a German physician who started working at Auschwitz in 1943. “(www. history. com) “He injected serum into dozens of children’s eyeballs to change the color of their eyes, causing excruciating pain.
He also would inject chloroform into the hearts of twins to see if they would both die at the same time in the same way. “(www. history. com) Once Birkenau, a sub camp in Auschwitz, was built, the concentration camp started going into a routine. The majority of the first prisoners were Polish civilians. When Hitler wanted Jews to start going to concentration camps it turned into the Nazi plan(Final Solution) to murder all Jews in Europe. Women and men were split apart from each other. Before the prisoners entered Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dr. Mengele asked them their age, profession, and if they were in good health which determined whether they were sentenced to death or slave labor. When they got into Auschwitz-Birkenau they were all shaved to prevent the spreading of lice. Alex Zink was the company that used the human hair for clothing.
Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust, arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau when he was 13 in 1941. He went through the process of being shaved and being used as slave labor. “There were also dentists at (Auschwitz) Birkenau, but they weren’t there to help the prisoners, but to pull their gold teeth out. (Night) “Auschwitz-Birkenau was located on a former military base outside of Oswiecim, a town in Southern Poland near Krakow, one of the country’s largest cities. ” (www. history. com) It was in the village of Brzezinka. “Auschwitz-Birkenau was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. “(www. auschwitz. org) Its name was changed to Auschwitz, which also became the name of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz. “The construction of AuschwitzBirkenau began in the vicinity of Brzezinka. “(www. ushmm. org) This village was evacuated and nearby factories and homes were bulldozed.
Most of the Jews that went to AuschwitzBirkenau were from the Theresienstadt ghetto. Auschwitz was the largest of the concentration camps. “Auschwitz-Birkenau was established by the Nazis in 1940. “(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) It was originally called Auschwitz II, but was soon known as Birkenau. It was first a detention for political prisoners, but soon turned into the camp that exterminated Jews and others. “The camp had sections for women, men, gypsies, Austrian, and Jewish families. “(www. ushmm. org) “Every camp seemed better than (Auschwitz) Birkenau. (Night) Once the camp was set up they sent Jews and others there by train. “On the trains to (Auschwitz) Birkenau, the SS soldiers counted the amount of prisoners and if one was missing they threatened to shoot everyone. “(Night) Right when prisoners arrived, women and men were separated. All of the prisoners became equal when they were stripped of their ragged clothes, expensive suits, and overcoats. All victims received tattooed numbers like “A-7713. “(Night) They were given the choice to work or die. This all happened in the first year, 1940.
In 1941, prisoners were put through hard labor. New arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau went through selection which was where the SS would decide if they were fit to do labor. If they weren’t they were killed. They also had every hair on their bodies removed and were forced to run constantly. “In late 1941, the Final Solution was introduced to Nazi soldiers. ” (www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) Auschwitz-Birkenau was a good place for the “Final Solution” because it was close to the center of German occupied countries in the European continent.
Also it was close to the train that took the prisoners to concentration camps. “Arbitrary executions and torture happened daily in front of other prisoners. “(www. history. com) People were also split up when the skilled workers were moved to different camps while unskilled workers stayed where they were. “After everything that had happened so far, some Jews still believed in God and some did not. “(Night)
In 1942-1943, gas chambers and crematoriums were being used more. “In January 1942, the “Final Solution” was mostly dedicated to getting rid of the Jews. “(www. heguardian. com) Between January 1942 and March 1943, 175,000 Jews had gone to the gas chambers or bunkers and died. “In March 1942, there was a women’s camp built in Auschwitz with 6,000 prisoners but then in August was moved to AuschwitzBirkenau. “(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) By the middle of 1942, the majority of people being deported to Auschwitz were Jews.
“From the beginning of Auschwitz to March 1942 about 30% of prisoners were Poles and 57% were Jews. The next year that percentage changed to 60% of the prisoners were Jews. “(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. rg) “In the spring of 1942, 2 provisional gas chambers were constructed out of peasant huts known as bunkers. The main camp population grew from 18,000 in December 1942 to more than 30,000 in March 1943. ” (www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) The gas chambers and crematoria were finally finished in March 1943. “Gas chambers were disguised as showers to mislead victims. Each crematorium building had a disrobing area, a large gas chamber, and crematorium ovens. Four large crematorium buildings were constructed between March and June 1943. “(www. ushmm. rg)
Four more gas chambers were built because one chamber didn’t kill enough prisoners for the Nazis. “The stronger prisoners were chosen to be in the Sonder Kommando which was where they would throw their own people into the crematoriums. “(Night) At the end of 1943, the prisoner population was about 50,000 out of the original 120,000. In 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau had over 90,000 inmates. “It had become the most notorious killing site of all time”(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) In January of 1944, there were 27,000 women in the women’s camp at AuschwitzBirkenau.
Word started to pass around about what would happen to the prisoners once they entered the crematorium buildings. No one really knew because everyone who went in there didn’t come back, but prisoners finally figured it out and revolted. “On October 7, 1944, several hundred prisoners assigned to Crematorium IV in Auschwitz-Birkenau rebelled after learning that they would die anyways. The prisoners killed 3 guards and blew up the crematorium and gas chamber with explosives smuggled by the women who worked in those factories. In the end, all of the inmates involved were killed.
Also, the women who smuggled the explosives were hung in early January of 1945″(www. ushmm. org) “In November 1944, the Nazi’s realized that they were going to lose WWII, so Himmler ordered for the gassings to stop and for a cleaning operation to come in order. “(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) Their goal was to hide the murderous mess they made. Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945 by Soviet troops.
In January 1945, the SS destroyed any gas chambers or crematoriums that were left because Soviet forces were almost there. As soon as the Soviet army entered Krawkow, the Nazis ordered Auschwitz to be abandoned. “(www. history. com) Once the Soviets entered Auschwitz, they found thousands of ill and wounded inmates along with piles of corpses. “When Auschwitz was finally liberated, they found 836,525 items of women’s clothing, 348,820 items of men’s clothing, 43,525 pairs of shoes, 460 artificial limbs, and 7 tons of human hair left behind. “(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org)
“About 960,000 people died at Auschwitz from September 1941 to January 1945. (World Book, 892) “More people died at Auschwitz than at any death camps in history. Throughout the years of the Holocaust at Auschwitz-Birkenau there were many factors that ended up affecting history in a huge way. At the beginning, prisoners were affected when they were stripped of their belongings leaving them with nothing. Zyklon B was very successful which was the poison gas used in gas chambers to kill large amounts of inmates. “Approximately 1. 1 million Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Along with that 140,000-150,000 were non-Jewish Poles, 23,000 gypsies, 15,000 soviet prisoners of war, and 25,000 other.
Along with the 960,000 dead Jews there were also 24,000 Poles, 21,000 gypsies, 15,000 soviet prisoners of war, and 10-15,000 other died during the Holocaust. “(www. ushmm. org) “Many people died at Auschwitz-Birkenau but 9 out of 10 prisoners were Jews. “(www. auschwitz. org) “The people who got tattooed numbers, only 65,000 survived and it is estimated that only about 200,000 people went through Auschwitz and survived. “(www. jewishvirtuallibrary. org) When the Germans realized that they were going to lose the war, they tried to erase all evidence of the Holocaust.
They used bombs and fire to destroy buildings and records. This affected history because there are some today who believe that the Holocaust never happened. “Approximately 15,000 prisoners died during the evacuation marches from Auschwitz to subcamps. “(www. ushmm. org) When Soviet troops flooded the camps they found about 7,000 barely living prisoners in the camp. The Holocaust changed every single person who went through it. Wincentry Gawron was one of several imprisoned artists who survived the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
He sketched several pictures of life in camp once he was free. One of his paintings in particular was “Marching out to Abbruch”. For this picture, he only used a paper and pencil. “He drew it in 1942 and it is now at the Institute of Holocaust Studies at Oswiecim, Poland”(www. oberlinlibstaff. com) It is in the collection of Bombing of Auschwitz Group “Today Auschwitz is a museum and archive that is sponsored by the Polish government. “(World Book, 892) “The Auschwitz museum holds more than 100,000 pairs of shoes, 12,000 kitchen utensils, 3,800 suitcases, and 350 striped camp uniforms. (www. theguardian. com)
By 2011, about 30 million people had gone to the camp and seen the evidence of the Holocaust. There is still injustice even today, in 2013 there were still 30 surviving Auschwitz officials that some believe should be prosecuted. In conclusion, Auschwitz-Birkenau made a huge impact on history. Auschwitz was the largest of all death camps and also the most deadly. It affected people around it, but most definitely the victims that went through it. Auschwitz-Birkenau was a life-changing and history altering camp.