Auschwitz

=**__Auschwitz__**= Auschwitz was a Nazi concentration camp designed to hold Polish political prisoners Roma, Sinti people, Jahovah's Witnesses, Soviet soldiers and Jewish people. It was operated during 1940 to 1945 by the SS and liberated by the Soviet Union in January 27 1945. An estimated 1.1 million people died in the Auschwitz camps. 'It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II–Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III–Monowitz, also known as Buna–Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps.'

=**__ Information __****__ : __**=
 * Operated ** : May 1940 – January 1945
 * Other names ** : Birkenau
 * Location: ** Oświęcim, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
 * Operated by ** : the German Schutzstaffel (SS), the NKVD (after WWII)
 * Original use: ** Army barracks
 * Inmates ** : mainly Jews, Poles, Roma, Soviet soldiers
 * Killed: ** 1.1 million (estimated)
 * Significance: ** ‘as the place of the "final solution of the Jewish question in Europe". From early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over Nazi-occupied Europe.’ It was an extermination camp where Jews went to when they were captures

=**__ People: __**=
 * Primo Levi ** was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was born on July 31, 1919 and died on April 11, 1987 in his hometown of Turin at age 67. He was captured and taken to Auschwitz where he spent eleven months there before the camp was liberated by the Red Army on January 18, 1945. He was one of the twenty Italian Jews of 650 who left the camp alive.


 * Josef Mengele ** was a German SS soldier and scientist famous for his gruesome experiments on hereditary traits on identical twins. He was nicknamed the Angel of Death.He was born on March 16 1911. He was refined, intelligent and popular in his town. He studied philosophy at Munich and medicine at Frankfurt University. In 1935, his dissertation dealth with racial differences in the structure of the lower jaw. In 1937, he joined the Nazi part, then in 1938, he went to the SS. In 1942, he was wounded at the Russian front and was pronounced unfit for duty. After that he volunteered to go to the concentration camp, he was sent to the death camp, Auschwitz.Mengele began his career at Auschwitz in the spring of 1943 as the medical officer responsible for Birkenau's “Gypsy camp”; several weeks after its liquidation, Mengele undertook a new position as Chief Camp Physician of Auschwitz II (i.e., Birkenau), in November 1943, still under Wirths' jurisdiction. Approximately 30 physicians served at Auschwitz during the period in which Mengele was assigned to the camp. As a requisite feature of their “rounds,” medical staff performed “selections” of prisoners on the ramp, determining from among the mass of humanity arriving at Auschwitz who would be retained for work and who would perish immediately in the gas chambers. Known as the “Angel of Death,” or sometimes as the “White Angel,” for his coldly cruel demeanor on the ramp, Mengele is associated more closely with this “selection duty” than any other medical officer at Auschwitz, although by most accounts he performed this task no more often than any of his colleagues. Undoubtedly, this association is partially explained by his postwar notoriety, but the ubiquitous image of Mengele at the ramp in so many survivors' accounts has also to do with the fact that Mengele often appeared “off-duty” in the selection area whenever trainloads of new prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, searching for twins.

The story of **Mala Zimetbaum** is quite similar to the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet. She was a Polish born Jewish girl was sent to Auschwitz with her polish boyfriend Edward Galinski. She was born on January 24 1922 and on June 24 1944; they tried to escape from the death camp but were captured and imprisoned in separate cells. On September 15, Galinski was hung and Mala slit her wrists with a razor blade interrupting her execution. Many believe that she was grief stricken by the death of her boyfriend and wanted to die her own way.

=__**Timeline:**__= // Feb 21 1940 - // Army barracks is deployed into a concentration camp // May 20 1940 - // First prisoners, 30 German career criminals arrive // June 14 1940 // - First mass transport // March 1 1941 - // inspectors come and demand both the expansion of Auschwitz I camp facilities to hold 30,000 prisoners and the building of a camp near Birkenau for an expected influx of 100,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Himmler also orders that the camp supply 10,000 prisoners for forced labor to construct an IG Farben factory complex at Dwory // Sept 3 1941 // - The first gassings of prisoners occur in Auschwitz I. The SS tests Zyklon B gas by killing 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 other ill or weak prisoners // Feb 15 1942 // - The first transport of Jews from Bytom (Beuthen) in German-annexed Upper Silesia arrives in Auschwitz I. The SS camp authorities kill all those on the transport immediately upon arrival with Zyklon B gas. // April 29 1942 - // first transport of Slovakian Jews arrive // June 20 1942 // - Polish political prisoner Kazimierz Piechowski (prisoner 918), and three other prisoners, escaped from Auschwitz I. None were recaptured. // August 4 1942 // - First transport of Jews from Belgium are deported to Auschwitz. Due to rescue efforts by resistance groups in Belgium, approximately 25,000 of the country's 57,000 registered Jews find hiding within the country and survive the war. // January 1, 1943 – March 31, 1943 - // German SS and police authorities deport approximately 105,000 Jews to Auschwitz // January 29 1943 - // The Reich Central Office for Security orders all designated Roma residing in Germany, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to be deported to Auschwitz. // February 26 1943 - // First transport of Roma from Germany arrive // March 13 1943 - // Out of a transport of 2,000 Jews from the Kraków Ghetto, 1,492 are gassed in the basement gas chamber of Crematorium II at Birkenau in the evening. // July 19 1943 // - Largest mass hanging at Aushwitz, public gallows constructed of train rails and railroad ties, specifically constructed to simultaneously hang 12 Polish prisoners, part of the Survey Kommando, for helping three prisoners escape. // February 21 1944 - // Primo Levi arrives at Auschwitz from Italy // April 7 1944 - // Two Jewish prisoners, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, escape and pass a 32-page report of what is happening in the camp to Jewish officials in Slovakia. Their information becomes known as the Vrba-Wetzler report. // May 2 1944 - // The first two transports of Hungarian Jews arrive in Auschwitz. Throughout May and June 1944, Hungarian Jews are deported to the camp at a rate of 12,000 a day // May 22 1944 - // Romani-Sinti, deported from the Netherlands arrive in Auschwitz-Birkenau. // June 6 1944 // - The Allies land in Normandy, France to begin the liberation of Western Europe. // June 24 1944 - // Polish born Jewish girl Mala Zimetbaum (prison no.19880) and her Polish boyfriend Edward "Edek" Galinski (prison no. 518) escape from Birkenau.They were imprisoned in separate cells in Block 11; both were sentenced to death. On September 15, 1944, Galinski was hung. Mala slit her wrists with a razor blade interrupting her execution. // July 7 1944 // - In response to the publication of the Vrba-Wetzler Report, governments around the world put pressure on Regent Miklós Horthy of Hungary to halt the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, which he does on July, 7 1944 // August 2-3 1944 // - 2,897 men women and children perish in the gas chamber, 1,400 surviving men and women are transferred to Buchenwald and Ravensbruck for slave labor. An estimated 20,000 Roma were killed there in Aushwitz. Among the murdered are Romani mischlinge, used by Nazi race scientist Eva Justin in her pseudoscientific race research. // August 12-13 1944 // - Almost 6,000 residents of Warsaw are transported to Auschwitz in response to the Warsaw Uprising (approximately twice as many females as males, including over a thousand children). // September 3 1944 - // Anne Frank is transported to Auschwitz along with her mother Edith and sister Margot // Sept 4 1944 - // A transport of 3,087 predominantly Polish men, women, and children from Warsaw arrive in Auschwitz in retribution for Warsaw uprising // Sept 13 and 17 1944- // A transport of 3,087 predominantly Polish men, women, and children from Warsaw arrive in Auschwitz in retribution for Warsaw uprising // Nov 25 1944 // - As Soviet forces approach, SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the destruction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers and crematoria. During this attempt to destroy the evidence of mass killings, prisoners are forced to dismantle and dynamite the structures. // Nov 27 1944 // - Twenty Jewish children, 10 boys and 10 girls ages 5–12, are selected from Block 10, by Josef Mengele at the behest of Kurt Heissmeyer. The children are sent toNeuengamme concentration camp. There they are infected with tuberculosis and subjected to medical experimentation. They are ultimately murdered by being hanged in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school in Hamburg. // Jan 18-27 1945 // - As Soviet units approach the camp, the SS evacuates prisoners to the west. Tens of thousands, mostly Jews, are forced to march to the cities of Loslau and Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia. // Jan 24 1945 - // Soviet troops enter the Auschwitz camp complex and liberate 7,000 prisoners, including children. // March 11 1946 - // British troops capture the camp's first commandant, Rudolf Höss, who is living as a farmer called Franz Lang. // April 16 1947 // - Poland sentences Rudolf Höss to death on April 2, 1947 and he is hanged on April 16.

=__**Gallery**__=

A topographical map of Auschwitz and the surrounding area from September 1942. The Sola River runs through the center of the map, past Auschwitz I. (Courtesy of Niels Gutschow) A map of the Plan Vom Interressengbiet - "zone of interest" - for Auschwitz, February 1942. The massive Auschwitz II (Birkenau) camp appears at center. The smaller cluster of buildings at right is Auschwitz I. The camp at Monowitz, which would eventually be known as Auschwitz III, does not appear here; it would not be built until November. (Courtesy of Auschwitz Museum) The //Kommandantur// or command center, envisioned for Auschwitz concentration camp, depicted from from various angles. (courtesy of the Auschwitz museum) Plan of artillery and prisoner barracks at Auschwitz I. Reconnaissance photograph of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) taken September 13, 1944, by an American B-24 bomber during the bombing of the IG Farben factory. Falling bombs are visible at left. Rudolf Höss (1900–1947), the first commandant of Auschwitz

Mala Zimetbaum

Josef Mengele Primo Levi

//Sources:// wikipedia http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189 http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/ http://www.auschwitz.dk/auschwitz.htm