The word Auschwitz brings a deep notion of fear, death and brutality when it comes to one’s mind. This place has a sorrow full history of massive killing of thousands of Jews as they were killed and starved to death by German authorities.
- Auschwitz concentration camp
The Germans, under the regime of Adolf Hitler built multiple camps among which Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp located near Cracow, Poland. These camps were established in 1940 to hold Polish political prisoners.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS:
It constituted three large camps: Auschwitz I (1940), Auschwitz II (Birkenau) (1941) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz) (1942). All the three kept prisoners and exploited them for forced labor along with inhumane treatment. The slogan on the gate of Auschwitz was ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ which means work sets you free. Labor became another form of Genocide as these innocent Jews were subjected to never ending torture until they die. They were forced to work under miserable conditions.
- Slogan of Auschwitz
One of the camp was used for the purpose of medical experiments on the prisoners and Jews. They functioned as a killing center for a longer period of time (Encyclopedia).
The victims who survived the death chamber, systematically lost their individual identity. Men’s hair was shaved; they were called by registration numbers rather than their names. Both men and women were forced to wear uniform. No hope for life, each day was no more than a struggle for survival under insufferable conditions.
During the holocaust Nazis killed 6 million Jews for the purpose of ethnic cleansing because Jews were a serious threat to German population. The concentration camps consisted four largest gas chambers which could hold almost 2,000 people at one time. More than 1 million people including men, women and children died at Auschwitz gas chambers. These chambers were also known as the killing centers.
Of all the three camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau had the largest population of prisoners. It was the major site for killing of Jews for Nazis ‘Final solution’. This camp was divided into ten sections each one separated by electrified barbed wires. Holocaust was the worst of all genocides that occurred in the history. Poisonous gas, Zyklon B was used to kill roughly 1 million people stuck in the gas chamber. After the deportation of Hungarian Jews, Auschwitz II gassed almost 6,000 Jews each day. It seemed impossible to escape the chambers as they were surrounded by German guards heavily equipped with guns and automatic rifles.
- 15 years old Jewish boy being rescued
Animals are treated in a better way than Nazis treated the Jewish population residing in different states of Germany. Very few people were lucky to start a new life after they were rescued by Soviet army, but the trauma remained for a longer time. The belief that Jews were inferior in race, lead to brutal killings which is still remembered as ‘Holocaust’.
The Final Solution 