Auschwitz

Auschwitz

Auschwitz, located thirty-seven miles west of Krakow, was the first concentration camp where Jewish people worked to death, or were automatically killed. This camp, compared to all the other camps, tortured the most people. At the camp there was a place called the "Black Wall," this was where the people were executed. In March of 1941, there was another camp that started its building. This second camp was called Auschwitz II, or Birkenau. It was located 1.9 miles away from Auschwitz I. In the town Monowitz, another camp was being built. This camp was called Auschwitz III, or Buna-Monowitz. Other camps that were located close to Monowitz were moved to Buna-Monowitz.

People that were forced to come to these camps were expelled from their homes, and their houses were destroyed purposely for building the camp, Birkenau. Birkenau had nine sub-units. Electrically charged fences that lined their borders separated the terrifying camps from each other.

In August 1942, the women’s section at Auschwitz I was moved to Birkenau. Nine hundred and ninety-nine women from Ravensbruck camp and other women from neighboring camps joined them. Birkenau now had over 6,000 women prisoners being held.

The population of Birkenau was the most densely populated one out of all the camps. It also had the most horrifying and cruel conditions out of all the camps in the complex. The prisoners at Birkenau mostly consisted of Jews, Poles, and Germans. There were a number of Gypsy and Czech Jew family camps located at Birkenau for a period of time also.

Birkenau and all the other sub-camps were mainly forced labor camps. The

most recognized of the labor camps were, Budy, Gleiwitz, Rajsko, and

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...res. The most moving area, for me, in the museum was the hall that had the shoes in it. The walls in the room were white, and the only walkway was a bridge. The lights were dimmed low, and this particular room it was dead silent. Beneath the bridge and crawling up the walls were dirty, faded shoes of all sizes worn by actual inmates. That really bothered me. It was an overall indescribable experience.

In my opinion, these camps were one of the world’s largest tragedies in our history. What the nazi’s did to these people was demented. Just reading through all my information, and getting a better idea of what went on, was terrifying. I saw numerous pictures, quotes, and stories and made me sick to my stomach. I have always been interested in concentration camps, and other topics related to this. So this was a very educational paper for me to write.