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Revision as of 13:28, 10 April 2002 by Magnus Manske (talk | contribs) (bold title, aligned image to right)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Auschwitz (Polish Oswiecim) is a town in Poland, around which the Nazis built several concentration camps during World War II. There were three main camps, and almost forty subcamps, in the area. The three main camps were:
- Auschwitz I, which served as the administrative centre for the whole complex, and the site for murder of roughly 70,000 Polish intellectuals and Soviet POWs
- Auschwitz II, which served as the site for the murder of roughly 1 million Jews and Romany
- Auschwitz III, which served as a labour camp for the IG Farben company
Auschwitz I
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Auschwitz I served as the administrative center for the whole complex. It was founded in spring 1940, on the basis of old Polish army barracks. It was initially used for interning Polish intellectuals and resistance movement members, then also for Soviet Prisonners of War. However Jews were also sent to the camp, beginning with the very first shipment (from Tarnow).
The entrance to Auschwitz I was marked with the cynical sign "Arbeit Macht Frei", "work liberates". It is reported that the camp's prisonners were made to march through the gate at the sounds of an orchestra. Contrary to what is depicted in several films, however, the majority of the Jews were imprisoned in the Auschwitz II camp, and did not pass under this sign.
The camp at Auschwitz I was used by the SS to research murder by the use of gas chambers. Several thousand people were killed in a bunker converted into a gas chamber, which was later converted into an air-raid shelter.
After the war, Auschwitz remained in the state of disrepair for several years; when restoring the site, the Polish government decided only to preserve Auschwitz II (where buildings were prone to decay), but not to restore it, while Auschwitz I was made a museum site.
As such, it combines elements from several periods into a single complex, for example restoring the gas chambers at Auschwitz I (which did not exist by the war's end), or moving the fence (because of building being done after the war but before the establishment of the museum). The camp was never intended to stand for centuries to come, and because of that, some of its elements are subject to reconstruction. However, in most cases the departure from the historical truth is minor, and is mentioned as such.
Auschwitz II
Auschwitz II (Birkenau) is the camp that most people know simply as "Auschwitz". It was the site of imprisonment of hundreds of thousands, and the murder of one to two million people, mainly Jews.
The camp's size was about 2.5 kilometers to 2 kilometers. It was divided to several sections, each of which was separated to fields. Fields as well as the camp itself were surrounded with barbred, electrified wire (that was used by some of the inmates to commit suicide).
The camp's main purpose, however, was not internment with forced labor (at Auschwitz III) but rather extermination. For this purpose, the camp was equipped with gas chambers and at least five crematoria that were used to burn the bodies.
Most people arrived to the camp by rail (a railway branch extended into the camp itself). There they were made to leave the railcars. Often, the whole transport would be sent to its death. Sometimes, the Nazis would choose ("selection") whom to kill immediately, and whom to imprison as labor force. Being a woman, child or an elder meant certain death in Auschwitz.
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See also:
Several authors, sometimes sympathetic to holocaust revisionism, have criticised what they claim to be historical inaccuracies about Auschwitz, perpetrated by the Polish government, Jewish lobby groups, popular literature and Hollywood; see for instance: Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust : From Auschwitz to Schindler; How History is Bought, Packaged and Sold (ISBN 0415928133).