Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II were both death camps for Jews, Poles, POW's and other people. They were sent there for forced labor and then to be killed after they are worked to death. There were even children that were killed in the death camps.  Millions of people were killed in these two death camps.
On May 27,1940 a concentration camp (Auschwitz) was established on the outskirts of Oswiecim on the order of Heinrich Himmler. It was made to hold 10,000 inmates. Himmler visited Auschwitz in March 1941 and commanded its enlargement to hold 30,000 prisoners. He also ordered construction of a second camp for 100,000 inmates. After March 1942 the SS developed a gigantic extermination complex at Birkenau which included so-called bathing arrangements. In reality these were nothing else but disguised shower heads used for the gassing of prisoners with the intent to cause death using Zyclon-B pellets. Auschwitz II was an extensive complex made up of wooden structures which were originally built to stable fifty-two horses. During World War II Nazi's murdered more than one million people in the camp. At this time it was the world's largest collective grave. In 1942, the most massive murder campaign in history began in Auschwitz when Nazi's put in operation a plan to destroy the entire Jewish population of Europe. 

This comp at first was home for Russian prisoners of war , almost all of them died shortly after they arrived because of the poor camp conditions. Some of them were outright killed. The first transport of prisoners arrived June 1940 and the SS administration and staff was established. On March 1, 1941, the camp population was 10,900. The camp quickly developed a reputation for torture and mass shootings. May 1940, Pole's were evicted from the vicinity of the barracks (most of them were executed). 300 Jews from the large Jewish community of Oswiecim were pressed into service. In February 1943, a section for Gypsies was established at Auschwitz II. In September 1943 an area was reserved for Czech Jews deported from Theresienstad, so-called "Family Camp". Gas chambers and crematorium's were opened in March.

At Auschwitz children did not fare well; they were often killed upon arrival. Children born in camp were generally killed on the spot. Josef Mengele (camp doctor) would torture and inflect incredible suffering on the Jewish children. "Patients" were put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death, and exposed to other traumas. Likewise at Auschwitz, Clauberg's colleague, Dr, Herta Oberauser, killed children with oil and evipan injections, removed their limbs and vital organs, and rubbed ground glass and sawdust into his patients wounds. A case in which the mother does not want to leave her child Josef Mengal would draw his gun and shoot both the mother and her child. Near the end of the war, in order to cut expenses and to save gas, they would order to put children directly into ovens or throw them in open burning pits.
On September 3, 1941, experimental gassing on soviet prisoners using Zyclon-B. The last gassings took place on November 1944. The camp had 4 crematorium's with gas chambers. The SS also used fire pits and funeral piles to burn bodies. When in operation, the crematorium's at Auschwitz had a capacity for incinerating 350 bodies per day (2-3 bodies in each). The crematorium's were used to ultimately  dispose of the bodies. All this was, was to satisfy Hitlers demand for a final solution to the Jewish question. At the end of the war, in an effort to remove all traces of crimes they committed, the SS began dismantling and raising gas chambers, crematorium's, and as well as burning documents. 

During World War II only one man managed to get prisoners out of Auschwitz and that was Oscar Schindler. By mistake 300 Schindler women were routed on a train to Auschwitz. A Schindler survivor, Ann Duklaver Perl, later recalled, "I knew something had gone wrong, they cut our hair real short and sent us to the showers. Our only hope was Schindler would find us". Schindler did find them and rescued them from the death camp.
After WWII, in October 1946, Nuremburg Medical Trials began, lasting until August 1947. 23 German physicians and scientists were accused of performing vile and potentially lethal medical experiments on camp inmates. Josef Mengal was not accused. Fifteen defendants were found guilty and eight were acquitted. Of the fifteen, seven were given the death penalty and eight imprisoned.
Neither Auschwitz I or Auschwitz II were good places to be taken to. These death camps are still known very well today. It was a disaster behind those walls and electric fences. In the end ONE MILLION people were killed.

 

 

Jacob Crow

7th Social Studies

Rossville Jr. High

Holocaust Project

2004

Bibliography