Auschwitz is really three camps - Auschwitz I which primarily housed Polish intelligentsia and political prisoners; Auschwitz II (or Birkenau) which was an extermination camp for Jews; and Auschwitz III which was a smaller slave labour camp. It was the largest camp that the Germans built, both in size and number of victims. The camp was liberated by the Soviets who took almost all of the documents that survived the German attempt to destroy all evidence of the camp.
More than 1 million people visit Auschwitz each year. Today our group is heading 70 kilometers southwest of Krakow to Oswiecim, the town in which Auschwitz is located. Germany incorporated the western part of Poland into greater Germany and changed the names of towns to German names. So Osciecim became Auschwitz.
The Germans opened their first camp in 1933 at Dachau as a location for political prisoners. Adolf Eichmann came up with the idea of isolating people in a concentration camp to separate, indoctrinate, and reshape them to fit into the new German world order. When the first few such camps were full, Eichmann inspected a site at Auschwitz which had been a former military camp. The infrastructure was in place with 10 brick barracks, kitchens, etc. It was geographically opportune, since it was in an industrial, coal mining area for which the Germans needed slave labor. The site was originally selected to house Polish political prisoners and the first transport in 1940 was of Polish men - the intelligentsia. In June of 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union and captured 2 million Soviet POW's. Majdanek was established for some of the Soviet prisoners and Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was then built (by the existing camp prisoners) for 10,000 Soviet POW's. 9 Polish villages were leveled to create it.
In 1942 the Wannsee Conference took place and the Nazis decided to rid Western Europe of all the Jews by exterminating them. They decided to use Auschwitz II (or Birkenau) for Jews of Western Europe. In 1942, the German company I G Farben got permission to build a factory near Auschwitz because of the plethora of raw materials found locally and the availability of slave labor from the camp. They were to produce synthetic gasoline. So Auschwitz III opened 6 kilometers from Auschwitz I. There were also 39 satellite camps in vicinity. ALL of this is Auschwitz. 100,000 people lived there, worked there, next to the crematoria. The survivors of Auschwitz are primarily those who worked in the factories.
This is the basic history,as I understood it, from our group guide, Basha, and our local guide at Auschwitz, Jerczy. I didn't want to take pictures, but took along a small camera. After a few pictures at the outside of Auschwitz I, the batteries died. I had a second set and they died as soon as we got to Auschwitz II. I think this sacred place did not want me to take photographs.
A map showing where the Jews came from who were brought to Birkenau for extinction:
The famous gate: "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes you Free) at the entrance to Auschwitz.
Crematory tower at Auschwitz I:
The entrance to Birkenau:
After this experience, drained and exhausted, we went to the Jewish Center in Oswiecim for lunch and to meet with the Director. He told us that the center has the important mission of educating groups who come there about Jewish life and culture in Oswiecim before the War and has a small synagogue that is restored for people who need to pray after visiting the camps.
It is all too overwhelming to write any more. There are so many stories - the Jewish story, the Polish story, the town's story, the story of the Koreans who were visiting Auschwitz today, the Israeli teens story who marched into Birkenau while we were there, arms linked and singing, and the Moslem families we saw at Birkenau wearing full coverings. What a crazy world!
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