Auschwitz, it was a place of horror, a place of pain, and of evil. What went on in there was part of in my opinion one of the worst things ever. I will now tell you some things I found out about Auschwitz.

First of all Auschwitz was the largest of the nazis concentration/death camps. It was originally a place for political prisoners and Russian prisoners of war. The camp commandant Rudolf Hoss was fine with killing them. It was their next job that he and Adolf Eichmann where going to have trouble with.

For each had one had a common problem. Both of them had never run a gassing facility before and had no idea how to go about it. Hoss had another fear as well. He could not think about shooting women and children. Gassing put his mind at ease.

The first shipment of Jews and only Jews arrived on January 2, 1942.They had been sent from Upper Silesia the providence where Auschwitz-Birkenau was located. After a selection those who were fit to work where sent to Auschwitz. The rest were sent to die.

The most medical of all the modes of killing was to get a phenol injection. Which was used in the early stages of Auschwitz. First it was injected into the vein, then directly into the heart. This procedure took place in 20. Two Jewish prisoners brought a victim in. The right arm was over the eyes. The left was extended out horizontally. This was so that they could see what was happening and so that the chest was unguarded. The average amount of time it took to die was two minutes twenty two seconds.

On March 1,1941 Himmler made his first visit to Auschwitz. During which he orders kommondant Rudolf Hoss begin massive expansions. A compound to be built. Capable of holding ten thousand prisoners. This was the beginning of Birkenau.

On March1942 Auschwitz became a death camp. In all two point two five million people were killed at least one hundred thousand people were housed.

The man in charge of all this Rudolf Hoss. He of coarse was n my opinion weird. He had the prisoners build him a lovely new home. He also had an affair with a prisoner then tried to have her killed. Konrad Morgen saved her. Then the SS killed her at the end of the war. He also put up the sign on the gate to build false hope.

The first gas chanber at Birkenau was a Polish cottage. It had two names; Bunker1 and the little red house. It became a gas chamber on March 20, 1942.

In June 1942 a second gas chamber was opened. It was called the little white house as well as Bunker2. it to was a cottage. In 1942 alone, 200,000 Jews were murdered in Bunkers1 and 2. Both were torn down after the creation of the first crematorium in 1943.

The gas chambers, disguised as showers, were built to use zyclon-b pellets. Zyclon-b was a crystallic form of prussic acid. It leaves a blue stain as a calling card. A German company originally created it for commercial use as a pest-killing agent. The nazis used as a people killer. After the gassings gold teeth, jewelry, and women’s hair was removed and shipped to Berlin.

The bodies were stored in cellars. Then taken to a crematorium to be disposed of. Depending on the size of the corpse up to three of them could be disposed of at once.

The train rails originally only ran near Birkenau. The nazis extended them through it. So that the Hungarian Jews could be killed immediately upon arrival. Even though the gas chambers were nowhere near the barracks they could be seen everywhere.

405,222 people were registered. Unfortunately those who were sent to the gas chamber upon arrivel weren’t registered. Those who got registered and then gassed had the words sonder-behandbung which means special handling which was code for gassing put on their cards.

Dr. Konrad Morgen was a judge Sent to Auschwitz to investigate corruption. For instance things weren’t up to SS standards. The shootings at the black wall were illegal, but the injections in block 11 were legal. Plus some of the metal and hair was being horded by Hoss for his own personal gain.

Block 10 was a medical research facility headed by Josef Mengle. There you could live longer or kill you immediately. Since you are a human guinea pig

Brian Rutschmann 7^th Social Studies Rossville Jr. High Holocaust Project Spring 2003

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