Auschwitz was a Nazi camp that functioned as both a concentration camp and a killing center. The Nazis murdered about one million Jewish people in the Auschwitz camp complex, most in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In addition to being a site of mass murder and imprisonment for Jews, Auschwitz was a site of suffering and mass death for other groups of people including Poles, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war, among others.
Throughout German-occupied Europe, the Germans arrested those who resisted their domination and those they judged to be racially inferior or politically unacceptable. People arrested for resisting German rule were mostly sent to forced-labor or concentration camps. The Germans deported Jews from all over occupied Europe to killing centers in occupied Poland, where they were systematically murdered. Transit camps such as Westerbork, Gurs, Mechelen, and Drancy in western Europe and internment camps like Bolzano and Fossoli di Carpi in Italy were used as collection centers for Jews, who were then deported by rail to the killing centers. According to SS reports, there were more than 700,000 prisoners registered in the concentration camps in January 1945.
At the Wannsee Conference in Berlin in January 1942, the SS (the elite guard of the Nazi state) and representatives of German government ministries estimated that the "Final Solution," the Nazi plan to kill the Jews of Europe, would involve 11 million European Jews, including those from non-occupied countries such as Ireland, Sweden, Turkey, and Great Britain. Jews from Germany and German-occupied Europe were deported by rail to the killing centers(sometimes referred to as "extermination camps”) in occupied Poland, where they were killed. The Germans attempted to disguise their intentions, referring to deportations as "resettlement to the east." The victims were told they were to be taken to labor camps, but in reality, from 1942 onward, deportation for most Jews meant transit to killing centers and then death.
On this map, the Majdanek camp is marked as a killing center. In the past, many scholars counted the Majdanek camp (located just outside the city of Lublin) as a sixth killing center. However, based on newer research, Lublin-Majdanek is usually classified as a concentration camp. According to this research, German authorities used Majdanek primarily as a place to concentrate Jews who were being temporarily spared for use as forced laborers. Occasionally, especially after Belzec ceased operating in late 1942, Jews were sent to Majdanek as part of Operation Reinhard to undergo selection. Jews selected as unfit for labor were murdered at Lublin-Majdanek either by shooting or in the camp's gas chambers.
Auschwitz was a Nazi concentration camp complex located in German-occupied Poland. Unlike other Nazi concentration camps, it also included a killing center where the Nazis murdered Jews in gas chambers. In total, the Nazis deported 1.1 million Jewish people to Auschwitz from all over Europe. Most were murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival. In total, the Nazis murdered about one million Jews in Auschwitz.
This map shows the Auschwitz camp complex in the summer of 1944.
The SS established Auschwitz in spring 1940 as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners. It was located in German-occupied Poland on the outskirts of the town of Oświęcim. Over the next several years, the camp was expanded and transformed into a sprawling camp complex. In March 1942, the SS began operating a killing center at Auschwitz where they murdered Jewish people from all over Europe.
By 1944, the Auschwitz camp complex included multiple camps that served different purposes. The largest of the Auschwitz camps included the Auschwitz main camp (Auschwitz I); Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II), which included the killing center; and Auschwitz-Monowitz (Auschwitz III). There were also numerous smaller subcamps.
At Auschwitz, the Germans killed about 1.1 million people, including approximately 1,000,000 Jews; 70,000 Poles; 21,000 Roma and Sinti; and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war.
In October 1941, the Nazi authorities at Auschwitz began building a second camp located in the Polish village of Brzezinka (called Birkenau in German). Beginning in March 1942, Auschwitz-Birkenau functioned as both a concentration camp and a killing center, where the Nazis murdered Jews in gas chambers. From November 1943 to November 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau was designated as a separate camp and officially referred to as Auschwitz II.
Between 1941 and 1944, the SS authorities at Auschwitz established almost 50 subordinate camps, also called subcamps. These subcamps varied in their design and purpose, but all supported the economic and ideological goals of the SS. At the subcamps, prisoners were forced to work in farming, animal husbandry, forestry, construction, and various industries (such as coal mining, armaments production, and chemical factories).
On January 17, 1945, the SS began evacuating the Auschwitz camp complex. The SS forced tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, on death marches. Prisoners from Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Monowitz were forced to march either northwest for 55 kilometers (approximately 30 miles) to Gliwice (Gleiwitz) or due west for 63 kilometers (approximately 35 miles) to Wodzisław Śląski (Loslau). Once they arrived in Gliwice and Wodzisław Śląski, most prisoners were put on unheated freight trains and transported to other concentration camps in Germany. There were also death marches from Auschwitz subcamps. During the marches, SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not continue. Prisoners suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure.
The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was subordinate to the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps. Originally subordinate to the SS Main Office, the Inspectorate was transferred to the SS Operations Main Office after World War II began. In March 1942, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was incorporated into the SS Economic-Administrative Main Office and remained subordinate to that agency until the end of World War II.
In November 1943, the SS decreed that Auschwitz-Birkenau and Auschwitz-Monowitz would become independent concentration camps. The commandant of Auschwitz I remained the SS garrison commander of all SS units assigned to Auschwitz and was considered the senior officer of the three commandants. SS offices for maintaining prisoner records and managing prisoner labor deployment continued to be located and centrally run from Auschwitz I. In November 1944, Auschwitz II was reunified with Auschwitz I. Auschwitz III was renamed Monowitz concentration camp.
Auschwitz Camp Commandants
Commanders of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex were:
SS Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Hoess from May 1940 until November 1943
SS Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Liebehenschel from November 1943 until mid-May 1944
SS Major Richard Baer from mid-May 1944 until January 27, 1945.
Commanders of Auschwitz-Birkenau while it was independent (November 1943 until November 1944) were
SS Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Hartjenstein from November 1943 until mid-May 1944
SS Captain Josef Kramer from mid-May to November 1944.
The commandant of Monowitz concentration camp was
SS Captain Heinrich Schwarz from November 1943 until January 1945.
Author(s):
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
Critical Thinking Questions
How might the local population have been aware of this camp, its purpose, and the conditions within? How would you begin to research this question?
Did the outside world have any knowledge about these camps? If so, what actions were taken by other countries and their officials? What choices do other countries have in the face of mistreatment of civilians?
How does this camp demonstrate the complexity and the systematic nature of the German efforts to abuse and kill the Jews?
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