Auschwitz concentration camp

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Holocaust

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Auschwitz I 1.2 Auschwitz II -Birkenau 1.3 Auschwitz III -Monowitz 1.3.1 Overview 1.3.2 Administration/Naming 1.4 Resources 2 Sources

Overview

Auschwitz is the name of a complex of over 40 concentration, labor, prison, and extermination camps built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. The main camps were:

Auschwitz-Birkenau Entrance and Main Track

    * Auschwitz I - the main camp and administrative headquarters in Oświęcim
    * Auschwitz II–Birkenau - a combined concentration and extermination camp in Brzezinka
    * Auschwitz III–Monowitz - a labor camp to staff a synthetic-rubber factory

Approximately 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz, of whom at least 1.1 million died. About 90% were Jews, others included 150,000 non-Jewish Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, 400 Jehovah's Witnesses, an unknown number of gay men, and tens of thousands of others of diverse nationalities. Many of those not killed in the gas chambers died because of starvation, forced labor, infectious diseases, individual executions, and medical experiments.

See List of Subcamps of Auschwitz
See Wikipedia article on Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Auschwitz I

• At Auschwitz I, the crematorium was in operation from August 1940 until July 1943, by which time the crematoria at Auschwitz II had taken over.^[1]

• From German Wikipedia:^[2]

At the end of January 1942, the number of detainees in the main camp had grown to 12,754. Among them were 1,305 Soviet prisoners of war. According to still available documents, a total of 36,285 people, including 9,997 registered Soviet prisoners of war, had been brought to the camp by this time. 1453 prisoners had been transported to other camps after their internment. Only 5 prisoners had managed to escape. 22,320 people had already died in Auschwitz at that time.

• From http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/auschwitz_i_stammlager_2

"Initially, most of those confined in the one-story stone buildings were Polish hostages, resistance fighters, and members of the Polish intelligentsia, who were scheduled to be killed—from the standpoint of the occupiers—in the interest of ensuring the ruling order. Later, people from all over Europe who were persecuted because of politics or race, as well as “asocials,” “preventive detainees,” “criminals,” and Jehovah’s Witnesses (Bibelforscher), were deported to Auschwitz.

In October 1941, more than 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war were deported from Wehrmacht POW camps to Auschwitz and housed in fenced-off blocks of Auschwitz I (Blocks 1–3, 12–14, 22–24) until March 1942. The SS used the members of the Red Army to build the Birkenau camp.

In March 1942, the camp SS set up a “women’s concentration camp” in Blocks 1 to 10 of the main camp. Most of the prisoners there were Jewish women from Slovakia.

By 1943 the number of inmates had grown to about 20,000 people, deployed at forced labor in the nearby SS-operated production facilities, agricultural activities, and experimental stations. In 1944, Auschwitz I (main camp) included a total of 28 two-story brick barracks."

• Block 1
• Block 2
• Block 3
• Block 4- "The Register Book of Block 4 at Auschwitz I contained an alphabetical register of the male prisoners staying in block 4 within the Auschwitz I parent camp…... Despite the fact that the prisoners were moved to block 23 (then to barrack 23), they continued to be recorded in the Register of Block 4 during the whole period, namely from March until August 22, 1942."^[3]
• Block 5
• Block 6
• Block 7
• Block 8
• Block 9

Block 25 - (dates?) "isolation facility, designated for female detainees identified by SS doctors as unfit for further labor within the concentration camp. When the population of female prisoners reached a critical point, they were relocated to gas chambers."^[4]

Auschwitz II -Birkenau

From https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-ii/the-organizational-structure/ : "The women’s camp opened in August 1942. Located in sector BIa, it expanded to take in BIb in July 1943. Over 10 thousand women of various ethnic origins (the majority of them Jews, but also including Poles, Germans, and others) were transferred to Birkenau from Auschwitz I, where they had been held temporarily since March 26, 1942."

" February 1943, was the Gypsy Family Camp (sector BIIe). Throughout its existence, a total of 23 thousand Roma and Sinti from Germany, Austria, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the lands annexed to the Third Reich were sent there. The camp was liquidated on August 2, 1944, when the approximately 4,2 thousand Roma prisoners still there were murdered in the gas chambers."

Auschwitz III -Monowitz

Overview

"There was a huge industrial complex build in Monowitz (I.G. Farben/Buna synthetic rubber factories). As the prisoners had to walk few miles from Auschwitz every day, a set of subcamps with Auschwitz III Monowitz was build nearby in 1942. Monowitz accommodations was about 10 000 - 12 000 prisoners."^[5]

Administration/Naming

"For most of its existence, Monowitz was a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp. After an administrative restructuring by the SS in November 1943, it became the third of the three main camps in the Auschwitz complex: KL Auschwitz I-Stammlager (Auschwitz I-main camp); Auschwitz II-Birkenau; and KL Auschwitz III-Aussenlager (Auschwitz III-subcamps). In November 1944, there was another reorganization: Auschwitz II became part of the main camp, and Auschwitz III was renamed Monowitz concentration camp"^[6]

Resources

• Death Books of Auschwitz - Fragments - Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum (Volume 1, 1995)

by Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Available at some libraries, see WorldCat for locations. https://archive.org/details/SterbebuecherVonAuschwitzFragmente-StaatlichesMuserumAuschwitzBirkenau-Band1-1995/page/n198/mode/1up

• https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/auschwitz-prisoners/
  • about the available data: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/about-the-available-data/

Sources

1. ↑ [Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp#Auschwitz_I] citing Piper, Franciszek (2000b). Długoborski, Wacław; Piper, Franciszek (eds.). Auschwitz, 1940–1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp. Vol. III: Mass Murder. Oświęcim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. ISBN 978-8385047872. OCLC 929235229.
2. ↑ https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZ_Auschwitz_I_(Stammlager)
3. ↑ https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/about-the-available-data/registration-documents/auschwitz-i-block-4/
4. ↑ https://www.theauschwitztours.com/inside-auschwitz/
5. ↑ Cited on Wikipedia. "Auschwitz III (Monowitz)". Krakow 3D. Archived from the original on 10 December 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20101210065408/http://www.krakow3d.com/auschwitz-iii-monowitz-nazi-camp.html (original webpage is now seems corrupted -ElaineMartzenApr2024
6. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, 'Monowitz concentration camp', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 1 October 2023, 09:33 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monowitz_concentration_camp&oldid=1178055027> [accessed 28 April 2024]Monowitz concentration_camp