Unfortunately, historical memory is a short-dealing thing. Seventy years since the end of World War II, and many have a vague understanding, what Auschwitz is, or the Auschwitz concentration camp, as it is customary to be called in world practice. However, there is an alternate generation that felt the horrors of Nazism, hunger, mass exterminations and how deep can moral falling. Based on the preserved documents and testimony of witnesses, which do not know what kind of concentration camp of the Great Patriotic War, modern historians represent a picture of what happened, which, of course, cannot be exhaustive. Calculate the number of victims of the Hellic Machine of Nazism seems to be impossible in mind the destruction of documents by the SC-SES, and simply the lack of thorny reports on the dead and killed.
What is Auschwitz's concentration camp?
The complex of buildings for the detention of prisoners of war was built under the auspices of the SS according to the Hitler directive in 1939. Auschwitz concentration camp is located near Krakow. 90% of those contained in it were ethnic Jews. The rest is Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, Gypsies and representatives of other nationalities that total Killed and tortured were about 200 thousand.
The full name of the concentration camp is Auschwitz Birkenaau. Auschwitz - Polish name, it is customary to use mainly on the territory of the former Soviet Union.
The story of the concentration camp. The content of prisoners of war
Although the Auschwitz concentration camp is sadly known for the mass destruction of the peaceful Jewish population, he initially thought of several other considerations.
Why was the Auschwitz selected? This is due to its convenient location. First, he was on the border, where the third Reich ended and Poland began. Auschwitz was one of the key shopping hubs with comfortable and well-established transport paths. On the other hand, the close-up of the forest helped hide the crimes committed there from unnecessary eyes.
The first buildings of the Nazis built the barracks of the Polish army on the spot. For construction, they used the work of local Jews in the subypervo. At first, German criminals and Polish political prisoners were sent there. The main task of the concentration camp was the content in isolation dangerous to the well-being of Germany and the use of their labor. Prisoners worked six days a week, and Sunday was a weekend.
In 1940, the local population living near the barracks was forcibly expelled german army For the construction of additional buildings on the released territory, where there were crematoriums and cameras. In 1942, the camp was stored with a solid reinforced concrete fence and a wire under the current of high voltage.
However, such measures did not stop certain prisoners, although cases of escape were extremely rare. Those who have had such thoughts, knew that with any attempt all their cellmates would be destroyed.
In the same 1942, at the NSDAP conference was concluded about the need for the mass destruction of Jews and the "final decision of the Jewish question". At first, German and Polish Jews referred to Auschwitz and other German concentration camp. Then Germany agreed with the allies on the conduct of "cleaning" in their territories.
It is necessary to mention that not everyone easily agreed to it. For example, Denmark was able to save their subjects from an imminent death. When the government was reported on the planned "hunt" of the SSS, Denmark organized a secret crossing of the Jews to a neutral state - Switzerland. Thus, more than 7 thousand lives were saved.
However, in general statistics destroyed, inflamed hunger, beatings, unbearable labor, diseases and inhuman experiments of 7,000 people - this is a drop in the sea of \u200b\u200bspilled blood. In total, during the existence of the camp, it was killed by different estimates from 1 to 4 million people.
In mid-1944, when the war was unleashed by the Germans made a steep reversal, the SSEs tried to send to the West prisoners from Auschwitz to other camps. Massively destroyed documents and any evidence of a merciless slaughter. The Germans destroyed the crematoriums and gas chambers. In early 1945, the Nazis had to release most of the prisoners. Those who could not escape, wanted to destroy. Fortunately, thanks to the offensive Soviet army Several thousand prisoners managed to save, including children over which experiments conducted.
Structure of the camp
Just 3 large camp complex shared Auschwitz: Birkenau-Auschwitz, Monovitz and Auschwitz-1. The first camp and Birkenau were subsequently combined and represented a complex of 20 buildings, sometimes several floors.
The tenth block occupied not the last place for terrible content conditions. There were medical experiments, mainly over children. As a rule, such "experiments" did not seek scientific interest as another way of sophisticated bullying. Especially among the buildings elected eleventh block, he caused horror even at local guards. There was a place for torture and executions, sent here the most unradited, tormented with merciless cruelty. It was here that attempts were made for the first time attempts by mass and the most "effective" extermination with the help of the poison "cyclone-b".
A wall for executions was designed between these two blocks, where, according to scientists, about 20 thousand people were killed.
Also on the territory there were several gallops and furnaces for the burning. Later gas cameras were constructed, capable of destroying up to 6 thousand people per day.
The arrived prisoners were distributed by German doctors on those who are able to work, and those who immediately sent to death into the gas chamber. Most often to disabled weak women, children and old people.
The survivors were kept in close conditions, almost without food. Some of them drags the bodies of the dead or cut off the hair, which went to textile factories. If the prisoner was able to hold out a couple of weeks, got rid of it and took a new one. Some fell into a "privileged" category and worked for the fascists with tailors and mercenaries.
Deported Jews were allowed to take from home no more than 25 kg of weight. People took with them the most valuable and important. All things and money remaining after their death went to Germany. Before it was necessary to disassemble and sort all valuable than the prisoners were engaged in the so-called "Canada". This name has acquired the place due to the fact that previously "Canada" called valuable gifts and hotels sent from abroad to the Poles. Labor on "Canada" was relatively softer than in general in Auschwitz. Women worked there. Among the things you could find food, so that in "Canada" prisoners did not suffer from hunger. SSEsovtsy did not begged to pester beautiful girls. Often there were rape.
First experiments with "cyclone-B"
After the 1942 conference, the concentration camps begin to turn into a car, the purpose of which is mass destruction. Then the Nazis first testified the effect of exposure to "cyclone-b" in humans.
"Cyclone-B" is a pesticide, a poison based on bitter irony, the remedy was invented by the famous scientist Fritz Gaber, a Jew who died in Switzerland a year after the arrival of Hitler's power. Gabera relatives died in concentration camps.
The poison was known for his strong action. It was convenient to store it. The "cyclone b" used to destroy the lice was available and cheap. It is worth noting that the gas-shaped "cyclone-b" is still used in America to carry out mortal executions.
The first experiment was conducted in Auschwitz-Birkenaau (Auschwitz). In the eleventh block, the Soviet prisoners of war were driven and poisoned through the holes. For 15 minutes stood an incessant cry. The dose was insufficient to destroy everyone. Then the Nazis fell asleep more pesticide. This time worked.
The method turned out to be extremely effective. The Nazi concentration camp of the Seconders began to actively apply "Cyclone-B", building special gas chambers. Apparently, not to create a panic, and maybe because of the fear of retaliation, the SSS said that the prisoners need to take a shower. However, for most prisoners was no longer a secret that they will never come out of this "soul".
The main problem for the SSP was not to destroy people, but in getting rid of the corpses. At first they buried them. This method was not too effective. When burning stood unbearable stench. The Germans were built by the Germans to build crematoriums, but the incessant terrible screams and the horrific smell became an ordinary phenomenon in Auschwitz: the traces of crimes of such a scale were very difficult to hide.
Conditions of Life SSEsovtsy in the camp
The concentration camp of Auschwitz (Auschwitz, Poland) was a real town. It was all for the life of the military: dining rooms with abundant good nutrition, cinema, theater and all human benefits for the Nazis. While the prisoners did not even receive the minimum number of food (many died in the first-second week from hunger), the SS will continuously dively have enjoying life.
The features of Auschwitz, have always been a welcome service for a German soldier. Life here was significantly better and safer than those who fought in the east.
However, there was no place more than decomposing all human nature than Auschwitz. The concentration camp is not only a place with a good content, where for endless murders of the military threatened, but also the complete absence of discipline. Here the soldiers could get out all that only wanted and what could be descended. Through Auschwitz walked huge cash flows at the expense of property managed from deported persons. Accounting was leaning after the sleeves. And how could it be calculated exactly how much should the treasure be replenished if even the number of arriving prisoners was not taken into account?
SSEsovtsy did not hesitate to pick themselves precious things and money. They drank a lot, alcohol often found among the belongings of those killed. In general, employees in Auschwice did not limit themselves in anything, leading a rather idle lifestyle.
Doctor Josef Mengele
After Joseph Mengele was wounded in 1943, he was considered unsuitable for continuing service and sent a doctor to Auschwitz, the death camp. Here he had the opportunity to fulfill all his ideas and experiments who were frankly insane, cruel and meaningless.
The bosses ordered Mengele holding various experiments, for example, on the topic of the influence of a cold or height per person. So, the experiment on the temperature effect of Joseph conducted, looking with the prisoner from all sides, until he died of hypothermia. Thus, it turned out at what temperature of the body comes irreversible consequences and death.
Mengele loved to conduct experiments on children, especially above the twins. The results of his experiments became the death of almost 3 thousand minors. He did forced operations on sex change, transplant organs, conducted painful procedures, trying to change the color of the eyes, which, ultimately, led to blindness. This, in his opinion, was the proof of the impossibility for the "unclean" to become a real Aryan.
In 1945, Josef had to run. He destroyed all reports on his experiments and, issued fake documents, escaped to Argentina. He lived a quiet life without deprivation and oppression, never being caught and punished.
When captured prisoners?
In early 1945, the position of Germany has changed. Soviet troops began active offensive. The Siems had to start evacuation, which then was called "death march". 60 thousand prisoners were ordered to go to the West. Thousands of prisoners were killed on the way. Weakened by hunger and unbearable prisoners had to go through more than 50 kilometers. All who lagged behind and could not go further, immediately shot. In Gliwice, where prisoners arrived, they were sent in freight cars in concentration camps in Germany.
The liberation of concentration camps, in the end of January, when there were only about 7 thousand sick and dying prisoners in Auschwice, which could not leave.
Life after liberation
The victory over fascism, the destruction of concentration camps and the liberation of Auschwitz, unfortunately, did not mean the complete punishment of all the culprits of atrocities. The happening in Auschwitz remains not only the very bloody, but also one of the most impudent crimes in the history of mankind. Only 10% of all who directly or indirectly dealt with the mass destruction of the civilian population were convicted and punished.
Many of those who are still alive, do not feel guilty. Some refer to a propaganda car, which designed the image of the Jew and made him the culprit of all the unfortunate Germans. Some suggest that the order is an order, and in the war there is no place to reflement.
As for the concentration camps who were saved from the death of the concentration camps, it seems to be more not necessary to wish. However, these people turned out to be brightened to the arbitrary of fate. Houses and apartments where they lived were long assigned by others. Without property, money and relatives who died in the Nazi death car, they needed to survive again, even in the post-war time. You can only amaze the power of the will and courage of people who passed through concentration camps and managed to survive after them.
Museum Auschwitz
After the end of the war, Auschwitz, entered the UNESCO World Heritage List and became a museum center. Despite the huge flow of tourists, it is always quiet here. This is not the museum in which something can please and pleasantly surprise. However, he is very important and valuable as an inapproprifying cry from the past of innocent victims and moral fall, the bottom of which is infinitely deep.
The museum is open to everyone, the entrance to it is free. Excursions are held for tourists in various languages. In Auschwice-1, visitors are invited to look at the barracks and repository of personal items of the dead prisoners who were sorted with German pedantry: glasses, mugs, shoes, and even hair. It will also be possible to visit the crematorium and the shot of the wall, where flowers are brought to this day.
On the walls of the blocks you can see the inscriptions left by the captives. In the gas chambers to this day, traces from the nails of the unfortunate, sorew in terrible flour remained on the walls.
Only here you can fully imbued with the horror of what happened, to see with your own eyes the living conditions and the scale of the destruction of people.
Holocaust in artworks
One of the works that are implancing - "refuge" Anna Frank. This book in letters and notes tells the vision of war by the Jewish girl, who, together with his family, managed to find shelter in the Netherlands. The diary was conducted from 1942 to 1944. Records are interrupted on August 1. Three days after that, the German police arrested the whole family.
Another famous work is the "Schindler Ark". This is a story about the manufacturer of Oscar Schindler, who is struck by the horrors occurring in Germany, decided to do everything possible to save innocent people, and sent thousands of Jews to Moravia.
According to the book, the film "Schindler List", which received many prizes of various festivals, in that Oscars, and highly estimated by the critics community.
The policy and ideology of fascism led to one of the largest catastrophes of humanity. The world does not know more cases such a massive, unpunished murder of peaceful people. The story of delusions, which led to the tremendous suffering, affecting the whole of Europe, should remain in the memory of mankind as a terrible symbol of what will never be allowed.
I want to tell you about the concentration campus Auschwitz. It is located 50 km from Krakow. After his inspection, we have plans to go to the Czech Republic.
Two hours drive from the hotel where we stopped, and we were already in place. A few words about Polish roads: they are very narrow, one strip of movement in each direction. If you wish to overtake - do not overtake. All go strictly according to the rules. If there is a sign of 50 km / hour, then all go 50 km. Poland itself is very clean, all towns are outstanding, small, neat.
Auschwitz's concentration camp is customary called Auschwitz-Birkenau - that way he was named German and was listed in all the documentation. This camp was founded in 1940-1945 near the city of Auschwitz, which in 1939 by the decree of Hitler was joined by the territory of the Third Reich.
The terrible number of people were killed in this place - about 1,300,000 people, of which about 1,000,000 were Jews. When you hear such a figure - she is entrusted to your memory and makes you think about this terrible pain, which people experienced. On the territory of the camp in 1947, a museum was created, which is included in the list world Heritage UNESCO. Here we arrived here.
The entrance to the camp is free. There are also free parking, but it is necessary to get there, not paying attention to the girls who call for a paid parking lot.
When we left the car and began to approach the entrance to the camp, we were covered by a terrible feeling of fear. This atmosphere of "pain" will reign for years. I will tell you it worth seeing and feel on yourself. Let many and say that there is bad energy and all that, but, without seeing it with its own eyes - you will never understand what was then, in the 40s.
The concentration camp was laid a railway, which was driven by the compositions loaded by people. People of different nationality were collected by country and cities and were overlooking one camp. Pick up all: old men, children, men and women. The whole "cities" were loaded into the compositions, not referring to where they were taken. People did not know that they would go to the place where their life would stop ...
The loaded compositions went to the territory of the camp, where they were met by Germans with automata in their hands and the doctor Joseph Mengel under the nickname "Angel of Death" - for his good smile, but terrible goals. It was the doctor who decided to live, and who does not. On average, ¾ brought went to gas chambers - these were not workable old people, children and patients. There were 4 gas chambers in the camp and 4 crematorium. Mengel's favorites were twins and dwarfs. He took them for his experiments and research.
Part of people went to work on industrial enterprises of various companies. There was a case in history when the German industrialist Oscar Schindler saved about 1000 Jews, bought them for work in his factory.
And the rest of the people, mostly women, were taken into a group called "Canada" for personal use by the Germans as servants and slaves, as well as to sort the property of prisoners arriving at the camp. The name "Canada" was chosen as a mockery over Polish prisoners - in Poland the word "Canada" was often used as an exclamation at the sight of a valuable gift. Previously, Polish emigrants often sent gifts to their homeland from Canada.
Prisoners lived in barracks built from wood.
Inside there was a heating oven with two chimneys and racks in three tiers for sleep. People were forced to be in terrible conditions.
Inside the barracks on the walls you can find scratched words. Last words.
barak-shower
Bucked prisoners once a week. Swimming passed through the barracks - first the first Barak washes, then the second and so on.
barak kitchen
Served on the territory of the camp, too prisoners. There was a separate Barak-kitchen, where the food was preparing.
Also existed separate territory With barracks, where there were particularly dangerous prisoners - these were people who knew something and could disclose the information not necessary for Germans.
In this camp, as in any other, there is a road "death". It was on this road that the prisoners in gas cameras were conducted.
On this road stand stands with photos of what happened. How is it inhuman! What should be crazy, to create such evil and write down everything that happens.
road to gas cameras
Before people started in the chambers, they were undressed in a special room. Things of people went on sorting. All things have persisted for us unknown. After the camp was released - huge warehouses of things of prisoners (glasses, toothbrushes, shoes, etc. were found.
that's how now the place looks like, where there was a room for undressed people
People's corpses were mostly burned in the pits. People rushed to the layers and worried the logs. All this burned to the Tla.
Occasionally people burned in the furnaces. Basically, these were people over which experiences were carried out or even killed in small quantities.
On the camp is a memorial stove. It has records in those languages \u200b\u200bof peoples whose representatives have been tortured here, including in Ukrainian. On this plate you can see many small pebbles. These pebbles bring Jews. Jews the stone symbolizes eternity.
After examining Auschvitz 2, we went to see what the Auschwitz represents 1. He is very close.
It has more solid brick buildings. Auschwitz 1 looks like a separate city.
On the territory of Auschwitz 1 there are gates with all the famous inscription made from the cast iron "Arbeit Macht Fre" ("Labor Release"). By the way, in 2009, this inscription was abducted and sawed on 3 parts for transportation in Sweden. The criminals were treated and punished, and the inscription was replaced with a copy made by restoration in 2006.
Many prisoners wanted to end the life of suicide, touched to barbed wire under voltage. Someone managed to reach it, and someone shot the guard that was on sightseeing gear.
In 1945, on January 27, Soviet troops under the command of Marshal Konev freed Auschwitz, in which at that time there were about 7.6 thousand prisoners.
It is difficult to talk about it, but it was and it remembers our grandparents and grandmothers. Nowadays, the number of old people remained, which were still children in this camp. It is worth it to pay tribute and make a big bow for survived and carried it all on their shoulders.
Let this terrible past remain over his shoulders and will not disturb the present. After all, in the present there is a lot of wonderful and we think that we are the next point of our route.
The word Auschwitz (or Auschwitz) in the minds of many people is a symbol or even quintessence of evil, horror, death, the concentration of the most unthinkable inhuman makers and torture. Many today are challenging what, according to former prisoners and historians, it happened here. These are their personal right and opinion. By visiting Auschwitz and seeing huge rooms with ... glasses, tens of thousands of footwear, tons of cut hair and ... children's things ... you have an emptiness inside. And the hair moves from horror. The horror of awareness that these hair, glasses and shoes belonged to a living person. Maybe the postman, and maybe a student. An usual worker or merchant on the market. They had a girl. Or a seven-year-old child. Which they cut off, removed, threw into a shared bunch. To still hundreds of the same. Aushvitz. Place evil and inhumanity.
The young student Tadeusch Dzhinski arrived in the first echelon with prisoners as I said in yesterday's report, the concentration camp of Auschwitz began in 1940, being a camp for Polish political prisoners. The first prisoners of Auschwitz were 728 Poles from prison in Tarnov. At the time of founding in the camp there were 20 buildings - former Polish military barracks. Some of them were converted to the mass content of people, and 6 more buildings were additionally built. The average number of prisoners ranged within 13-16 thousand people, and in 1942 he reached 20 thousand. The Auschwitz camp became the basic camp for a whole network of new camps - in 1941, 3 km was built a Camp of Auschvitz II - Birkenaau, and in 1943 - Auschwitz III - Monovitz. In addition, in 1942-1944, about 40 branches of the Auschwitzim camp, built near metallurgical plants, plants and mines, which were subordinate to the concentration camp Auschwitz III. A Camp of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II - Birkenau turned entirely into a combine to destroy people.
In 1943, the tattoo was tattooed on hand. Babies and young children number applied most often on the hip. According to information State Museum Auschwitz, this concentration camp was the only Hitler's camp, in which the prisoners tattooed numbers.
Depending on the causes of the arrest, the prisoners received triangles of different colors, which, together with the numbers, sewed into camp clothes. Political prisoners relied the triangle of red, criminal offenses - green. Black triangles received gypsies and antisocial elements, Jehovah's Witnesses - Purple, Homosexuals - Pink. Jews wore a six-pointed star consisting of a yellow triangle and a triangle of the color that corresponded to the cause of the arrest. Soviet prisoners of war had a stripe in the form of letters SU. The campwear was pretty thin and almost did not protect from the cold. The underwear changed with the interval of several weeks, and sometimes even once a month, and the prisoners did not have the ability to wash it, which led to the epidemics of the rapid and abdominal typhoid, as well as scabies
Prisoners in the Auschwitz I camp lived brick blocks, in Auschwitz II -Birkenau - mainly in wooden barracks. Brick blocks were only in the female part of the Auschwitz II camp. For the existence of the Auschwitz I camp, about 400 thousand prisoners of different nationalities, Soviet prisoners of war and prisoners of the corps No. 11, which awaiting the Gestapo police tribunal, consisted here. One of the disasters of the camp life was the verification on which the number of prisoners was checked. They lasted several, and sometimes over 10 hours (for example, 19 hours on July 6, 1940). The camp authorities very often declared free verification, during which prisoners had to squat or stand on their knees. There were calibrations when they needed to keep hands raised upstream hours.
Housing conditions in different periods were very different, but they were always catastrophic. Prisoners who were delivered at the very beginning first echelons, slept on a straw scattered on the concrete floor.
Later introduced litters from the hay. These were thin mattresses stuffed with a small amount. In a room in which 40-50 people barely placed, about 200 prisoners sleeping.
With the increasing number of prisoners in the camp, there was a need to seal their residence. Appeared three-tier Nara. On one tier lay 2 people. In the form of a litter was, as a rule, the labeling straw. Prisoners were hidden with spillings and what was. In the Auschwitz Nara camp were wooden, in Auschwitz Birkenau, both wooden and bricks with wooden flooring.
The toilet Camp of Auschwitz I compared with the conditions in Auschwitz-Birkenau looked a real miracle of civilizer
fedry Barack in Aushwitz Birkenaau camp
Wash room. Water was only cold and access to her prisoner was just for a few minutes a day. It was possible to wash the prisoners extremely rare, and for them it was a real holiday
Plate with room of residential block on the wall
Until 1944, when Auschwitz became a factory for destruction, most of the prisoners were sent for exhaustive work. At first they worked on the expansion of the camp, and then they were used as slaves at the industrial facilities of the Third Reich. Daily columns of exhausted slaves came out and went through the gate with the cynical inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work free). The prisoner should have been running, without a second holiday. Work paces, meser portions of food and constant beatings increased mortality. During the return of prisoners to the camp, killed or exhausted, which could not move, fiber or brought on the wheelbar. And at this time, for them, around the gate of the camp played a spiritual orchestra consisting of prisoners.
For each dweller Auschwitz, block number 11 was one of the most terrible places. Unlike other blocks, its doors have always been closed. The windows were completely closed. Only on the first floor there were two windows - in the room where the duty of the Esvestia was carried. In the halls with the right and left side of the corridor, prisoners, awaiting the sentence of an emergency policeman, who came to the Auschwitz camp from Katowice once twice a month. Within 2-3 hours of its work, he extended from a few dozen hundreds of death sentences.
Tight cameras, in which there were sometimes a huge number of people waiting for the sentence, had only a tiny bogged window under the most ceiling. And from the side of the street near these windows stood tin boxes, flapped these windows from the inflow of fresh air
Surprised before execution were forced to undress in this room. If there were few them on this day, then the sentence was performed right here.
If there were a lot of sentences, they were taken to the "Wall of Death", which was located behind a high fence with a blind gate between 10 and 11 buildings. On the breast of the extended people, the ink pencils applied large numbers of their camp number (until 1943, when there were tattoos on hand) so that it was later easily identified by the corpse.
Under the stone fence in the yard 11 of the block, a large wall of black insulating plates was constructed, covered by absorbing material. This wall has become the last facet of the life of thousands of people sentenced to the Gestapo court to death for the unwillingness to betray their homeland, an attempt to flight and political "crimes."
Fiber death. The sentences were shot by reporter or members of the political department. To do this, used a small-caliber rifle so as not to attract the sounds of shots too much attention. After all, a stone wall took place at all, behind which there was a highway.
In the Auschwitz camp there was a whole sentence system for prisoners. It can also be called one of the fragments of deliberate destruction. The prisoner was punished for a torn apple or found in the field of potatoes, malfunction during operation or for too slow work. One of the most terrible places of punishment, often brought to the death of the prisoner, was one of the basements of 11 corps. Here in the distant room there were four narrow vertical hermetic carcers with dimensions of 90x90 centimeters in perimeter. In each of them, the door was located at the bottom
Through this door, the punished was forced to squeeze inside and closed it on the goal. In this crate, a person could only stand standing. So he stood without food and water as much as I wanted the SSEs. Often it was the last punishment in the life of the prisoner.
Directions of punished prisoners in standing cans
In September 1941, the first attempt was made by the mass destruction of people with gas. About 600 Soviet prisoners of war and about 250 patients with prisoners from the camp hospital in small batches were placed in sealed basement chambers 11 of the housing.
Along the walls of cameras, copper pipelines with valves have already been carried out. On them in the cameras received gas ...
The names of the destroyed people were made in the "Book of the Daystream" Camp Auschwitz
Lists of people sentenced to the Emergency Police Court of Death
Found notes left by sentenced to death on paper shreds
In Aushwitz, except adults, children who were sent to the camp with their parents were also located. These were children of Jews, Roma, as well as Poles and Russians. Most Jewish children died in gas chambers immediately after arriving at the camp. The rest after strict selection were sent to the camp, where they obeyed the same strict rules as adults.
Children were registered and photographed as well as adults and were designated as political prisoners.
One of the most terrible pages of the history of Auschwitz were medical experiments of the SS doctors. Including the children. So, for example, Professor Karl Cabuberg in order to develop a rapid method of biological destruction of Slavs over the Jews in Corps No. 10 experiments on sterilization. Dr. Joseph Mengele in the framework of genetic and anthropological experiments conducted experiments on twin children and children with physical disabilities. In addition, various kinds of experiments were carried out in Auschwitz, the toxic substances were rubbed into the epithelium of prisoners, the skin transplant was carried out, etc.
Conclusion on the results of X-ray radiation conducted during experiments with the twins Dr. Mengele.
A letter to Heinrich Himmler, in which he orders to start a series of sterilization experiments
Maps of entries of anthropometric data of experimental prisoners as part of the experiments of Dr. Mengele.
Pages of the book of accounting of the dead, on which the names of 80 boys who died after the injections of phenol as part of medical experiments are indicated
List of liberated prisoners placed in the Soviet hospital for treatment
Since the fall of 1941, a gas chamber in which gas "Cyclone B" is used in the Auschwitz camp. It was released by DeGesch, which for the period 1941-1944 of the sale of this gas received about 300 thousand brands of profit. For killing 1500 people, according to the commandant, Auschwitz Rudolf Guessa needed about 5-7 kg of gas.
After the liberation of Auschwitz, a huge amount of cans from the "cyclone b" used were found on the camp warehouses and banks with unused content. During the period 1942-1943 only in Auschwitz, according to documents, about 20 thousand kg of crystals "Cyclone B" were delivered
Most of the doomed to death Jews arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau with the conviction that they are taken to "for the settlement" to East Europe. Especially this concerned Jews from Greece and Hungary, which the Germans even sold the non-existent areas for development and land or offered work at fictitious factories. That is why people aimed at destroying the camp often brought with them the most valuable things, jewelry and money.
Upon arrival at the unloading platform, people selected all things and values, the SS doctors took the selection of deported people. Those who were disabled were sent to gas chambers. According to the evidence of Rudolf Goshss, there were about 70-75% of the arrivals.
Things found in Auschwitz warehouses after the liberation of the camp
Model of the gas chamber and crematorium II Auschvitz Birkenaau. People convinced that they were sent to the bath, so they look relatively calm.
Here the prisoners are forced to remove clothing and distill in the next room imitating the bath. Under the ceiling were shower openings through which water never flowed. About 2,000 people started the room at about 210 square meters, after which the doors were closed and gas was supplied to the room. People died for 15-20 minutes. Golden teeth were pulled by the killed, the rings and earrings were filmed, the women cut their hair.
After that, the corpses were transported to the furnaces of crematoriums, where the fire buzzed continuously. In the event of overflowing furnaces or during when it was damaged from the overload of the pipe, the bodies were destroyed in the burnt places behind the crematoriums. All these actions were performed by prisoners included in the so-called group "Sondercoma". At the peak of the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp, its number was about 1000 people.
Photography made by one of the member of Sonderkomando, on which the burning process is visible dead people.
In the Auschwitz Crematorium camp, it was located behind the camp fence. There was a morgue, which was converted into a temporary gas chamber.
Here in 1941 and 1942, Soviet prisoners of war and Jews from Ghetto located on the territory of the Upper Silesia were destroyed.
In the second hall, there were three dual furnaces in which up to 350 bodies were resulted in a day.
In one retort, 2-3 corpses were placed.
Ordered to build a new camp near the Polish city of Auschwitz (about 60 km west of Krakow). The concentration camp of Auschwitz (or in German Auschwitz) quickly became the largest Nazi concentration camp and death camp. By the time of liberation, it consists of three large camps and 45 extra.
Auschwitzim-1 ("The main camp") was the primary camp. There were placed prisoners, there was a place of medical experiments, as well as block 11 (place of cruel torture) and a black wall (execution). Above the entrance to Auschwitz-1 was placed the infamous inscription: "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work is free"). In Auschwitzime-1, the entire camp complex was also managed.
Auschwitzim-2 (or "Birkenau") was built at the beginning of 1942 about 3 km from Auschwitz-1 and was the real center of killing the death camp of Auschwitz. It was in Birkena who were held terrifying selections at Rama (railway platform), after which people stood in a queue for disguised gas chambers. Birkenau was much larger than Auschwitz-1, it accommodated most of the prisoners, including individual sections for women and Gypsies.
Auschwitzim-3 (or "Bun Monovitz") was built by the latter as "housing" for the workers' prisoners at the Buna synthetic rubber plant in Monovice. In 45 other camps, prisoners were also placed, which were used for forced labor.
Arrival and selection in Auschwitz
Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, asocial citizens, criminals, prisoners of war were collected, stamped into cars for livestock and trains were sent to Auschwitz. When the trains arrived in Auschwitzim-2, or Birkenaau, re-arrived ordered to leave all their things in the car, get out of the train and build on the railway platform known as the ramp.
The families who arrived together immediately cruelly shared: the SS officer, as a rule, a doctor, divided people into two groups. Most women, children, older men and those who looked disabled or sick, were sent to the left; Most young men and those who looked strong enough to withstand heavy work were built to the right.
To be left to the left meant immediate death in gas chambers, and those who remained to the right became prisoners of the camp. (Most prisoners will die later from hunger, hard work and / or torture). At the end of the selection, the Sviewyzim prisoner group (it was called "Canada") collected all things remaining in the train, and sorted them to huge heaps, which were then kept in warehouses.
These things (including clothing, glasses, medical devices, shoes, books, photos, jewelry and prayer scarves) periodically packaged and sent back to Germany.
Gas cameras and crematoriums in Auschwitz
People who were sent to the left was the majority. They did not know that they were selected for killing. The whole system of massacres was built on preserving this secret. If the victims knew that they were heading for their death, they would definitely be obeyed.
But they did not know, so the victims performed what the fascists wanted from them. They were reported that they were going to send them to work and that for this you need to pass disinfection and shower.
They were started in the first room, where it was necessary to remove all the clothes. Fully undressed, men, women and children led to a large room, which looked like a big shower (on the walls even hung mocks of shower horns).
The doors were tightly closed into the hole in the roof or in the window of the granules "Cyclone-B", which turned into poisonous gas as soon as he came into contact with air.
Gas killed quickly, but still not instantly. The victims finally understand that this is not a shower, clogged on each other, trying to find clean air under the ceiling. The rest scratched into the door, breaking the fingers into the blood.
After everyone in the room was dead, it was necessary to ventilate the room and bring the body. This was engaged in special teams (Sonderkanda) collected from prisoners. Also in their duties included to be seized and remove all gold from them, and then place the bodies in the crematorium.
Although in Auschwitz-1 was a gas chamber, most of the massacres occurred in Auschwitzime - 2: there were four main gas chambers in Birkenau, each of which had its crematorium. Each of these gas chambers was able to kill about 6,000 people per day.
Those who were sent to the right during the selection at the Ramp, passed through the humiliating procedures for the transformation into camp prisoners.
They selected all the clothes and all personal belongings, they were abused by naked. They were given striped prison clothing and a couple of shoes, which were often not in size. Then everyone registered, the number was pulled on the arm and transferred to one of the Auschwitz's camps to work.
Newly arrived were thrown into a brutal, unfair, monstrous camp life. During the first week in Auschwitz, the majority found out which fate has suffered their loved ones, those who were sent to the left. Some never recovered from this news.
In the barracks, prisoners slept on the wooden beds on four. The toilet served a bucket, which was usually overwhelmed by the morning.
In the morning, all prisoners were built before the barrier for the roll call. Standing on the street with a clock during roll call, in the heat and cold, in itself was torture.
After roll-call, the prisoners went to the place where they had to work during the day. While one prisoners worked on the factories, others worked outside. After many hours of hard work, the prisoners returned to the camp for the next roll call.
The food was scarce and usually consisted of a bowl of soup and bread. Hunger and extremely difficult labor intentionally brought prisoners to death.
Medical experiments in Auschwitz
In addition, at Rama, Nazi doctors were chosen among the newly arrived objects for experiments. Most of them were interested in twins and dwarfs, but they were selected for experiments and people with any other features, for example, with eyes of different colors.
In Auschwitz, there was a team of doctors who conducted experiments, but the two most famous are Dr. Karl Casaberg and Dr. Joseph Mengele. Dr. Clauberg focused on finding ways to sterilize women using such unconventional methods as x-ray radiation and injection of various substances in the uterus. Dr. Mengele experimented with identical twins, hoping to find the secret of cloning "True Aryans".
When, at the end of 1944, the fascists realized that the Russians were successfully promoted towards Germany, they decided to destroy the evidence of their atrocities in Auschwitz. Himmler ordered to destroy the crematorium, and human dust was buried in huge pits and covered with grass. Many warehouses were devastated, their contents were sent back to Germany.
In mid-January 1945, the Nazis brought the last 58 thousand prisoners from Auschwitz and sent them to death. They planned to drive these exhausted prisoners to the camp closer or inside Germany.
On January 27, 1945, the Russians reached Auschwitz. When they entered the camp, they found 7650 prisoners who stayed behind. The camp was released, prisoners were free.
24-02-2016, 09:15
From the concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, Auschwitz gradually turned into a place where the largest mass murder in history occurred. 1.1 million people were killed here, more than 200 thousand children. "One image crashed into my memory, crashed at that very moment, as I was described. It was the image of the "procession" of empty baby strollers - property stolen from the dead Jews, which was taken from Auschwitz to the side of five pieces in a row. A prisoner who saw this column says that she drove past him for an hour "- writes Lawrence.
In the spring of 1940, the construction of one of the first Nazi concentration camps near the town of Auschwitz began in Novy Reich. Only eight months ago, it was southwestern Poland, and now - German Upper Silesia. In Polish, the town was called Auschwitz, in German - Auschwit. It should be noted that the functions of the camps in the Nazi state were different. Concentration camps, such as Dachau (created in March 1933, just two months after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany), differed significantly from death camps - such as Treblinka, which appeared only by the middle of the war. The history of Auschwitz is interesting, the most infamous of them, which has become both a concentration camp, and the death camp ...
None of the Germans, even those who used to be fanatical Nazis, was not recognized as "welcomed" the existence of death camps, but many completely approved the existence of concentration camps in the 1930s. After all, the first prisoners who fell into Dakhau in March 1933 were mainly political opponents of the Nazis. Then, at the dawn of the Nazi regime, the Jews have rejoiced, humiliated and beaten, but the direct threat was considered rather left politicians of the previous government.
The mode in Dakhau was not just cruel; Everything was arranged so to break the will of prisoners. Theodore Eyka - the first commandant of the camp - elevated violence, merciless and hatred, which the Nazis experienced to their enemies, in a certain system and order. Dakhau is sadly known for physical sadism that reigned in the camp: the spanking and cruel beatings were commonplace. The prisoners could kill, and the death of them to write off to the "murder when trying to escape" - many of those who hit Dakhau, and died. But the truly regime of Dakhau was held not so much on physical violence, no matter how terrible, undoubtedly, it was neither how much on moral humiliation.
Poland Nazis despised for her "Eternal Bardak". In relation to the Poles, Nazis had no disagreement. They despised them. The question was in the other - what to do with them. One of the main "problems", which the Nazis had to decide was the problem of Polish Jews. Unlike Germany, where the Jews accounted for less than 1% of the population and where most of them were assimilated, there were 3 million Jews in Poland, most of which lived by communities; They were often able to find out on the beard and in other "signs of their faith." After Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, immediately after the start of the war (under the conditions of the secret part of the German-Soviet Covenant on non-aggression signed in August 1939), more than two million Polish Jews were in the German occupation zone.
Another problem for the Nazis, which they themselves created, became the search for housing for hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans, which at that time moved to Poland. Under the contract between Germany and the Soviet Union, the ethnic Germans from the Baltic countries, from Bessarabia and other regions, shortly before the occupied Stalin, was allowed to emigrate to Germany - "return home, in the Reich", as the slogan of that time. Obsess ideas about the racial purity of the "German blood", people like Himmler, considered their duty to give the opportunity to all the Germans to return to their homeland. But one difficulty arose: where, in fact, they come back?
By the spring of 1940, Poland was divided into two parts. There were areas that officially became "German" and entered the "New Reich" as new imperial districts - Reichsgau - Reichsgau Western Prussia - Danzig (Gdansk); Reichsgau Warteland (also known as Vartagau) in the West of Poland in the Pozenny area (Poznan) and Lodz; And the upper silesia in the Katowiz area (it was this area that included Auschwitz). In addition, education called the Governor General, which included the cities of Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin, was created at the largest part of the former Polish territory, which included Most Poles.
Over the age of one and a half years, about half a million ethnic Germans were burned in the new part of the Reich, while hundreds of thousands of Poles were evicted from there to make room for arriving Germans. Many Poles simply plunged into the commodity wagons and taken to the south, to the Governor-General, where they were simply thrown out of the wagons, leaving without food and without a roof over her head. It is not surprising that in January 1940 Goebbels wrote in his diary: "Himmler is now engaged in moving the population. Not always successful. "
In relation to the Jews, Himmler accepted another decision: if the ethnic Germans need a living space, which was obvious, then you need to pick it up with the Jews and make them live on a much smaller area than before. The solution to this problem was the creation of ghetto. Ghetto, which became such a terrible approach of the Nazi persecution of Jews in Poland, was originally created for those terrible conditions that were ultimately agreed. Like more in the history of Auschwitz and the Nazi "final decision of the Jewish question", those fatal changes that occurred in the ghetto during their existence, initially not included in the plans of the Nazis.
The Nazis believed that Ideally, the Jews would just make it impossible to "go away", but since at that time it was impossible, they needed to be isolated from all the others: because, as Nazis believed, Jews, especially Eastern European, were carriers of all diseases. In February 1940, while the departation of Poles to the Governor-General was complete, it was announced that all the Jews of Lodz should "move" to the city district, allotted under the ghetto. Initially, such ghetto was planned only as a temporary measure, a place to conclude Jews before deporting them somewhere. In April 1940, the Lodz Ghetto was taken under protection and the Jews were forbidden to leave its territory without the permission of the German authorities.
Initially, Auschwitz was conceived as a transit concentration camp - on the Nazi Jargon "Quarantine" - in which they were supposed to be contained before departing to other Camps Reich. But after a few days after the creation of the camp, it became clear that it would function independently, as a place of permanent conclusion. The camp in Auschwitz was designed for detention and intimidation of the Poles at a time when the whole country was ethnically retired, and Poles as a nation intellectually and politically destroyed.
The first prisoners who arrived in Auschwitz in June 1940 were, however, not the Poles, but the Germans - 30 criminals translated here from the concentration camp of Zacshenhausen. They were supposed to become the first capo-prisoners who would act as the SS control agents over Polish prisoners.
The first Polish prisoners of Auschwitz fell into the camp for various reasons: on suspicion of work on the Polish underground or in the fact that they were members of one of social groups, especially persecuted by the Nazis (as, for example, priests and intelligentsia), or simply because they did not like any German. Many of the first group of Polish prisoners transferred to the camp on June 14, 1940 from Tarnow Prison were university students. The very first task for all new prisoners was simple: they had to build a camp themselves. At this stage of the existence of the camp in Auschwitz, not so many Jews were sent, since the policy of creating the ghetto across the country was still in full swing.
By the end of 1940, Rudolf Hess - Commandant Camp - already created the main structures and principles, according to which the camp will function next four years: Capo, which controlled every moment of the life of prisoners; The most severe regime that allowed the guards to punish prisoners arbitrarily, at their discretion - often simply without any reasons; The conviction that reigns in the camp that if the prisoner failed to somehow see from the team directed to dangerous work, he is waiting for a quick and unforeseen death.
By the end of 1940, Hess has already created the main structures and principles according to which the camp will function next four years: Capo, which controlled every moment of the life of prisoners; The most severe regime that allowed the guards to punish prisoners arbitrarily, at their discretion - often simply without any reasons; The conviction that reigns in the camp that if the prisoner failed to somehow see from the team directed to dangerous work, he is waiting for a quick and unforeseen death. But besides this, in those the first months of the camp there was another phenomenon, which brighter symbolized the Nazi camp culture, was a block 11. This unit was a prison in prison - a place torture and murders.
In 1941, Auschwitz, designed for 10 thousand prisoners, began to expand. From July 1941, Soviet prisoners of war were sent to Ovwitz, the main images of military political officers - commissioners. From the very moment of arrival in Auschwitz, the appeal to these prisoners was different from the treatment of the rest. Incredibly, but the fact - even given those tortures that were already going on in the camp: with this group of prisoners were also worse. Ezhi Beletsky heard how they mocked them, even before saw them themselves: "I remember terrible cries and moans ..." They came up with a friend with a career with gravel on the edge of the camp, there and saw Soviet prisoners of war. "They joined the batchers filled with sand and gravel," says Belletsky. "It was not an ordinary camp work, but some hell, who specially created for Soviet prisoners of war." Capo beat the working commissars with sticks, and those who observe all these SSEECH guards have encouraged those: "Let's guys! Bates them! "
In 1941, the prisoners of Auschwitz became a victim of the Nazi program called "Euthanasia adults". At first, injections were used to kill disabled people, but then the favorite method was the use of carbon monoxide in cylinders. Initially, this happened in special centers equipped mainly in former psychiatric hospitals. There were built gas chambers, designed in such a way that the shower resembled outwardly resembled.
Later, at the end of August or early September 1941, more " effective method destroy people. " The basement of the block 11 was tightly isolated, and it naturally became the most suitable place to carry out an experiment with the gas "cyclone B". By the beginning of 1942, "Experiments" with the cyclone began to be carried out right in the camp crematorium, which was much more convenient ... In the fall of 1941, the deportation of German Jews began. Many of them turned out to be first in the ghetto, and then in Auschwitz and other camps. As part of the "final decision of the Jewish question" began poisoning gas and "useless" Jews from the surrounding Auschwitz territories.
In the fall of 1941, 10 thousand Soviet prisoners of war were sent to Auschwitz, which were to build a new birkenaau camp (Brzezinka). Polish prisoner Kazimierm Smolen witnessed their arrival. "Snow was already walking that for October a rarity; Their (Soviet prisoners of war) unloaded from cars three kilometers from the camp. They were ordered to remove clothing and plunge into women with disinfectant solution, and in Auschwitz (to the main camp) they were already naked. They were completely depleted. Soviet prisoners became the first in the main camp, who was twisted on the body camp numbers. " It was another "improvement", invented in Auschwitz, the only camp in the Nazi state, where the prisoners identified in this way. " The conditions for the work and content of our prisoners of war were so heavy that the average life expectancy of Soviet prisoners of war in Birkenau was two weeks ...
By the spring of 1942, Auschwitz began to turn into a unique institution in the Nazi state. On the one hand, some prisoners were still taken to the camp, assigned them the sequence number and forced to work. On the other hand, now there was a whole category of people who were killed through hours, and sometimes minutes after profit. No other Nazi camp functioned in a similar way. There were such death camps, like Helmno, and such concentration camps, like Dakhau; But it was not similar to Auschwit.
After the defeat of the Germans, near Moscow, Soviet prisoners of war, they stopped sending them to Auschwitz - they were sent to work on military plants, and their place in the camp was taken by deported Slovak Jews, and then French, Belgian and Dutch. In the spring of 1942, women and children were sent to the camp, until then, he was a purely male institution. Jews arrived by echelons, and if they were not suitable for work, they mercilessly got ruthless. New gas cameras appeared in Auschwitz: "Red House", "White House". However, the process of extermination of people in Auschwitz remained ineffective and improvised. As the center of mass killings of Auschwitz was still far from "perfection", and its throughput was very limited ...
In the history of the Auschwitz and the Nazi "final decision of the Jewish question", 1943 became a turning point. By the beginning of the summer of 1943, four connected crematoriums were already acted in Auschwitz-Birkenau. In general, these four crematorium were ready to destroy about 4,700 people daily. Crematorium and gas chambers Birkenau became the center of a huge semi-industrial complex. Here, selected Jews were first sent to work into one of numerous small camps nearby, and then, when they were considered unsuitable for work after several months of terrible appeal, they were transported to the zone of destruction of Auschwitz-Birkenaau, which was located a few kilometers from the working camps.
Over time, already around Auschwitz functioned already 28 podlagels, which were located near various industrial facilities across the entire Upper Silesia: from the cement plant in a bowl to the weapons in Aintrachthette, from the power station of the Upper Silesia to a giant camp in Monovice, built to serve the chemical enterprise for the production of artificial rubber IG. Farben. About 10,000 prisoners of Auschwitz (including the Italian scientist and writer Primo Levi, who after the war will try in their books to comprehend the causes of the cruelty of the Nazi regime) were placed in Manovitz. By 1944, more than 40 thousand prisoners worked as slaves at various industrial enterprises across the entire Upper Silesia. Approximately estimated that Auschwitz brought about 30 million brands of net income to the Nazi state, selling this forced labor to private concerns.
Auschwitz was famous for his medical experiments over prisoners. As part of the decision of the Jewish question, experiments were carried out on sterilization. Envyziti's prisoners even "sold" by Bayer, branch I.G. Farben, as experimental rabbits for testing new drugs on them. One of the messages from Bayer is the leadership of Auschwitz reads: "The part of 150 women arrived in good condition. However, we could not get the final results, because they died during experiments. We kindly ask you to send us another group of women in the same quantity and at the same price. " These women who died when testing experimental painkillers, cost the company at 170 Reichsmarock each.
Auschwitz became the place of the largest mass murders in history as a result of the events of 1944. Up to the spring of that year, the number of victims in this camp was a few hundred thousand people less than in the chest. But in the spring and at the beginning of the summer of 1944, Auschwitz earned at full capacity and even more, the period of the most monstrous and insane murders began, who had ever seen this camp. Most of the Jews who suffered and those who killed in this terrible time arrived from one country - Hungary.
Hungarians have always tried to conduct ingenious political game with the Nazis, eaten by two strong and contradictory feelings. On the one hand, they experienced a traditional fear of the power of Germany, and on the other hand, they wanted to cooperate with the defeating party, especially if the latter meant the opportunity to grab a piece of territory from East neighbor, Romania.
In the spring of 1941, the Hungarians supported their ally - Germany in the seizure of Yugoslavia, and later, in June, sent troops to participate in the war against the Soviet Union. But, when the promised "lightning war" was not crowned with success, tightened to a much longer period than expected, the Hungarians began to understand that they took the wrong side. In January 1943, the Red Army headed Hungarian forces on the Eastern Front, causing catastrophic losses: Hungary lost about 150 thousand people killed, wounded or prisoners. The new "reasonable" position, solved the Hungarian leadership, distance from the Nazis.
In the spring of 1944, Hitler decided to introduce his troops to the territory of an unreliable ally. Hungary remained one of the non-many Eastern European countries who had not yet been progress. It was a stunningly rich territory, and now, Hitler decided, it was time to seize these wealth to the Nazis. And of course, the species Jews became a special purpose of the Nazis. Jews in Hungary lived more than 760 thousand.
In connection with the difficult military situation and the growing need for forced labor, the Nazis should have given more attention to the selection of those Jews who could serve as the physical labor of the German military economy, from those who did not imagine any value for the Third Reich, and therefore should have been subject to immediate Destruction. Thus, from the point of view of the Nazis, Auschwitz became the ideal point of destination of the deportation of Hungarian Jews. He became a gigantic human sieve, through which specially selected Jews could get to the plants and Reich factories who used slave labor. By July 1944, Auschwitz received 440 thousand Hungarian Jews. Less than 8 weeks, more than 320 thousand people were killed here.
Everything was organized with German pedantry. The trains fought in the basement of the crematorium. Gas chambers of crematoriums 2 and 3 were located under the ground, so the delivery of "cyclone b", when people drove into the chamber and closed the door behind them, carried out almost directly. Standing outside, on the roof of the gas chamber, the SS members opened the dampers, getting access to hidden columns in the gas chamber. Then placed in the columns of the canisters with the "cyclone B" and lowered them, and when the gas reached the bottom again shared and the flaps were treated. Sonderkanda was supposed to get bodies from a gas chamber, to transport them with a small lift upstairs, to the furnaces crematorium, on the first floor. Then they again went to the chambers, carrying powerful fire sleeves with them, and washed off blood and excrement that covered the floor and walls.
Even the hair killed in the camp of the prisoners was set to the Reich service. An order was received from the Economic Department of the SS: collecting human hair with a length of two centimeters so that of them can be spinning threads. Of these threads, "felt socks for the crews of submarines and felt hoses for the railway" were made ...
When the end came, everything happened incredibly quickly. In January 1945, the Nazis blew up the crematorium, and on January 27, Soviet soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered the complex of the camps. There were about 8 thousand prisoners in the camp, which the fascists did not have time to destroy, and 60 thousand were grieved to the West. Rudolf Hess was executed in Auschwitz in April 1947 according to modern estimates, from 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million died in the camp. The stunning share of Jews amounted to 1 million people.
Despite the decision of the Nuremberg process, that the SS, in general, were a "criminal" organization, no one never even tried to defend the position that the work itself was already a war crime in OS in Auschwitz, - a position that would certainly support public opinion. The condemnation and sentencing, albeit the most soft, every member of the SS from Auschwitz, undoubtedly, would very clearly convey the idea of \u200b\u200bfuture generations. But that did not happen. Approximately 85% of the SSEs who served in Auschwitz and survived the war escaped punishment.
Auschwitz and the "final decision of the Jewish question" are the most disgusting act in the history. The Nazis brought their own crime to the world an understanding of what they can make educated, technically equipped people, if they have a cold heart. Knowledge of what they did, once bruised into the world, should not be forgotten. It still lies there - ugly, severe, waiting for the opening of the next generation. Warning for us and for those who come after us.
The article is written on the materials of the book Lawrence Rice "Auschwitz. Nazis and the final decision of the Jewish question ", M., Hummingbird, Alphabet-Anti, 2014.
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