Auschwitz Concentration Camp:
Slaughterhouse of a Nation
By T. Ware
The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was the largest of its kind created by the Nazi regime. At this camp people were tortured, starved, and murdered. It had three main sections that placed incarcerated prisoners at forced labor. One camp also acted as a killing center. In September 1939, the town Oswiecim and surrounding area in Poland became Auschwitz.
The SS authorities established three main camps: Auschwitz I (which was formed in May 1940), Auschwitz II aka Auschwitz-Birkenau(which was formed in 1942), and Auschwitz III aka Auschwitz-Monowitz (which was formed in 1942).
In November 1943, it was decided by the SS that Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and Auschwitz-Monowitz (Auschwitz III) would become independent concentration camps. Auschwitz I was used for maintaining prisoner records and managing prisoner labor . This lasted until November 1944. In 1944, Auschwitz II was reunified with Auschwitz I and Auschwitz III was renamed Monowitz concentration camp.
Auschwitz 1
Auschwitz 1 was the main section established first. Construction of this began in May 1940 in an abandoned Polish army artillery barracks, located in a suburb of the city. It was near Oswiecim. The SS authorities deployed prisoners at forced labor to expand the physical outline of the camp. During the first year of the camp’s existence, the SS and police cleared a zone of approximately 40 square kilometers (15.44 square miles) as a “development zone” reserved for the exclusive use of the camp.
Auschwitz 1 was built to serve three purposes:
1)It was used to incarcerate real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland.
2) It was used to stock a supply of forced laborers for deployment in SS-owned, construction-related enterprises . It was also used later for armaments and other war-related production.
3) It served as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the population whose death was determined by the SS and police authorities.
Auschwitz I housed a gas chamber and crematorium that was used to carry out its mission. Initially, SS engineers constructed an improvised gas chamber in the basement of the prison block, Block 11. Later a larger, permanent gas chamber was constructed as part of the original crematorium in a separate building outside the prisoner compound.
At Auschwitz I, SS physicians carried out medical experiments in the hospital (Barrack Block 10). They conducted research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations, castrations, and hypothermia experiments on adults. The best-known physician was SS Captain Dr. Josef Mengele. Between the crematorium and the medical-experiments barack stood the "Black Wall," where SS guards executed thousands of prisoners.
Auschwitz II
Construction of Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau) began in the vicinity of Brzezinka in October 1941. This camp housed the largest total prisoner population.