The Mass Murder of Jews at Auschwitz: An Overview
Auschwitz was a notorious site of mass murder during the Holocaust. The Nazis murdered about one million Jewish men, women, and children at Auschwitz.
Nazi Germany carried out the mass murder of Jews at many sites throughout Europe. Perhaps the most notorious is Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, the Nazis murdered about one million Jews and tens of thousands of non-Jewish prisoners.
Auschwitz as Concentration Camp and Killing Center
Auschwitz was a large camp complex in German-occupied Poland. It included multiple sites of imprisonment. It was both a concentration camp and a killing center.
The Nazis used concentration camps to imprison people they identified as enemies. The conditions in concentration camps were deadly, but the main purpose of the camps was imprisonment, not mass murder. The Nazis used concentration camp prisoners for forced labor. The Nazis created the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940 to imprison Polish prisoners. Over time, they also imprisoned many other groups of people there.
Beginning in 1941, the Nazis built killing centers to murder Jews and other victims using poisonous gas. The Nazi killing centers are also sometimes called “extermination camps” or “death camps.” The Nazis murdered Jews in killing centers as part of the “Final Solution”—the Nazi plan to murder Europe’s Jews. The Nazis began the systematic mass gassing of Jewish people at Auschwitz in 1942. At Auschwitz, most of the gas chambers were located in a part of the camp complex called Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Deportation of Jews to Auschwitz
The Nazis sent Jews to Auschwitz specifically to murder them. In total, the Nazis deported 1.1 million Jews to Auschwitz from all over Europe. At Auschwitz, the Nazis murdered Jews from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech lands (Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Slovakia.
Nazi German authorities deported Jews to Auschwitz by train, usually on freight cars. The train journey was often terrifying and even deadly. At Auschwitz, the Nazis unloaded transports of Jews onto train platforms commonly called “ramps.”
Selection of Jews on the Arrival Ramps at Auschwitz
When transports of Jews arrived at Auschwitz, Nazi officials usually carried out a selection process. The purpose of these selections was to identify physically fit, young, and healthy people for forced labor. Those people the Nazis thought were capable of work were usually registered as prisoners. The people who were considered incapable of physical labor were murdered in the gas chambers.
Mass Murder of Jews in Gas Chambers at Auschwitz
At Auschwitz, the Nazis murdered Jewish people in gas chambers. The Nazis lied to Jewish victims. They told the Jewish men, women, and children that they would be taken to bathe. They then instructed them to undress.
After they undressed, the Jews were directed to a sealed room. This room was usually disguised as a bathing facility. After the doors were closed, a Nazi official put Zyklon B pellets into the gas chamber through special openings. When these pellets were exposed to air, hydrogen cyanide was released. The hydrogen cyanide was a poisonous gas. It deprived the people in the gas chamber of oxygen, killing them by asphyxiation. This was an inhumane, terrifying, and often painful death.
The Nazis burned the bodies of their victims. They did so to cover up the evidence of mass murder. At Auschwitz, the Nazis burned corpses in specially built crematoria and in burning pits. Crematoria are sometimes called “ovens” or “furnaces.”
Jewish Prisoners in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp Complex
People chosen for forced labor at Auschwitz became prisoners. They worked in the Auschwitz concentration camp and subcamps, and in other Nazi camps. The Nazis classified Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners into different prisoner categories. These categories indicated why a person was imprisoned. The Nazis also categorized prisoners by ethnicity or nationality. Prisoners were forced to wear badges based on their prisoner category and nationality. Jewish prisoners were treated as a separate category. About half of all Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners were Jews.
Prisoners of Auschwitz were subjected to a dehumanizing intake process. They were forced to undress and bathe in a communal shower. Next, they were sprayed with a chemical to remove lice from their hair and bodies. The intake process included cutting long hair and shaving facial and body hair. It also included replacing civilian clothing with prisoner uniforms. Sometimes, but not always, these uniforms were blue and white striped. At Auschwitz, prisoners were no longer referred to by their names. Instead, they were called by newly assigned prisoner registration numbers. At Auschwitz, beginning in spring 1942, these numbers were tattooed on prisoners’ bodies. Auschwitz was the only Nazi camp where prisoners’ registration numbers were tattooed on their bodies.
For all people imprisoned in Auschwitz, daily life in the camp was horrific. They faced deliberate starvation, diseases and epidemics, deadly labor conditions, and physical abuse. Jewish prisoners were particularly targeted by camp authorities. Their mortality rate was the highest among all prisoner groups.
Liberation of Auschwitz
Soviet forces liberated a small number of prisoners in Auschwitz on January 27, 1945.
By that time, the Germans had killed about 1.1 million people from across Europe at Auschwitz. This included about one million Jews; 70,000–75,000 Poles; about 21,000 Roma; more than 14,000 Soviet prisoners of war; and 10,000–15,000 other people.
Critical Thinking Questions
Where were the camps located? How might the German population and the local community in Poland have been aware of this camp, its purpose, and the conditions within?
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 the example of this camp demonstrate the complexity and the systematic nature of the German efforts to abuse and kill the Jews?