Auschwitz Concentration Camp: Difference between revisions
imported>Howard C. Berkowitz No edit summary |
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| publisher = UNESCO | | publisher = UNESCO | ||
| url = http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/363/}}</ref> | | url = http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/363/}}</ref> | ||
The location was picked for major expansion after [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s visit in March 1941, partially because Poles "considered this remote corner of their country too inhospitable to live in."<ref name=PW>{{citation | |||
| author = [[Gerald Posner]] and [[John Ware]] | |||
| title = Mengele: the Complete Story | |||
| isbn = 0070505985 | publisher = McGraw-Hill | year = 1986}}, p. 19</ref> | |||
==Establishment== | ==Establishment== | ||
[[Rudolf Hoess]], who had commanded [[Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp]], was selected as the first Auschwitz commandant. | [[Rudolf Hoess]], who had commanded [[Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp]], was selected as the first Auschwitz commandant. | ||
==Organization== | ==Organization== | ||
A member of the [[SS]]-[[WVHA]], the Commandant was in overall charge, commander of the [[Totenkopf-SS]] garrison and the director of the SS economic enterprises. | |||
==Operations== | ==Operations== | ||
In 1943, prisoner doctor-pathologist [[Miklos Nyiszli]] described what he saw on arriving: "...an immense square chimney built of red brigs tapering towards the summit. I was especially struch by the enormous tongues of flame rising betwen the lightning rods....I tried to realize what hellish cooking would require such a tremendous fire....A faint wind brought the smoke towards me. My nose, then my throat, were filled with the nauseating odor of burning flesh and scorched hair."<ref name=PW/> | |||
==Liberation== | ==Liberation== | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{reflist|2}} | {{reflist|2}} | ||
Revision as of 01:32, 11 November 2010
In the system of Nazi concentration camps, the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was the largest, both as an killing facility and slave labor camp. Estimates vary, but conservatively, 2 million people died there.
It was in service between 1940 and 1945, built on the suggestion of Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, Higher SS and Police Leader for southeastern Poland. [1] It has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, under the name ""Auschwitz Birkenau - German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)".[2]
The location was picked for major expansion after Heinrich Himmler's visit in March 1941, partially because Poles "considered this remote corner of their country too inhospitable to live in."[3]
Establishment
Rudolf Hoess, who had commanded Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, was selected as the first Auschwitz commandant.
Organization
A member of the SS-WVHA, the Commandant was in overall charge, commander of the Totenkopf-SS garrison and the director of the SS economic enterprises.
Operations
In 1943, prisoner doctor-pathologist Miklos Nyiszli described what he saw on arriving: "...an immense square chimney built of red brigs tapering towards the summit. I was especially struch by the enormous tongues of flame rising betwen the lightning rods....I tried to realize what hellish cooking would require such a tremendous fire....A faint wind brought the smoke towards me. My nose, then my throat, were filled with the nauseating odor of burning flesh and scorched hair."[3]
Liberation
References
- ↑ Auschwitz Concentration Camp: The Historical Timeline, Holocaust Research Project
- ↑ World Heritage Committee approves Auschwitz name change, UNESCO
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gerald Posner and John Ware (1986), Mengele: the Complete Story, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0070505985, p. 19