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Auschwitz-Birkenau
Historical Background
Introduction
Auschwitz-Birkenau,
located in Oswiecim, Poland, was the largest Nazi
concentration camp and
extermination center. One sixth of Jews
murdered by the Nazis was gassed to death at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most well known of all the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers, for several reasons. For example,
more Jews were murdered there than at any other site during the Holocaust, and the victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau came from almost every
European country. In addition, Auschwitz-Birkenau continued to function as an extermination center long after others had been shut down.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was divided into three sections: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz). Auschwitz II,
the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau, was constructed as the main extermination center for European Jewry. It held the majority of prisoners
in the complex, including Jews, Poles, Germans and Gypsies. It contained
gas chambers and crematoria; these gas chambers
were the largest and most efficient extermination method used by the Nazis.
Arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Most Jews deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau were transported by rail, a method employed by the Nazis from 1941.
The German Transport Ministry and German Railways assisted the Nazis by providing special trains to transport Jews. The journey to
Auschwitz-Birkenau lasted anywhere between a few hours and ten days, with men, women and children crowded into cars without
food or water, insufficient air and no toilet facilities. In most cases, a number of people in each car died during the journey. In his well-known
book, Viktor Frankl describes his rail transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the following way:
“Fifteen hundred persons had been traveling by train for several days and nights… Suddenly a cry broke from the ranks of anxious passengers
‘There is a sign! Auschwitz!’ Everyone’s heart missed a beat at that moment. Auschwitz—the very name stood for all that was horrible: gas
chambers, crematoria, massacres. Slowly, almost hesitatingly, the train moved on as if it wanted to spare the passengers the dreadful realization
as long as possible: Auschwitz!”
Source: V. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning. (Washington Square Press, 1968) pp. 12-13. |
When a train arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazis opened the doors and rushed their prisoners out.
Disoriented prisoners were quickly forced to adjust to chaotic surroundings: barbed wire, prisoners in striped uniforms, dogs barking,
and smoke rising in the background.
Selektionen at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Newly arrived prisoners were immediately divided into two lines: men on one side and women and children on the other. The
SS doctors conducted
selektionen, sending the most “fit” for forced labor, whereas the majority were selected for immediate execution. These
selektionen were the first time that most of the Jewish families had been separated; although many Jewish families had managed to
remain together in the ghettos, once they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, men and women were separated and family units ceased to exist.
Moreover, selektionen often marked the last time that family members saw each other. In the following testimony, Jack Oran reflects on
selektionen upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau:
“When we got off the train there was sort of a relief to being outside in the fresh air. We didn't know what it meant, to the right
or to the left. Little did we know that to the left meant going... to the left meant elderly people, young people. To the right, we
didn't know what it's going to be with us when they marched us into Birkenau, into the camp.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives 0.3/8181 |
Holocaust survivor Alex Feuer also describes selektionen at Auschwitz-Birkenau:
“At the ripe old age of fifteen I arrived in Auschwitz, the infamous human extermination center. We were pushed like cattle into freight train
cars. After a five-day, unbelievable hard journey we arrived in Auschwitz. As we were being removed from the train our first view was SS men
with guns and guard dogs. The SS guards told us to leave the little belongings we had on the ground and line up. Little did we know at the
time that we were about to be selected for life or for death. As I stood in line a stranger tapped me on the shoulders from behind and told me in
Yiddish: ‘Little boy, stand on your feet. Stand on your toes when you come up to the German SS. Make yourself taller.’ I stretched and strained,
somehow knowing that my life depended upon the stranger's advice. I was selected to work in a road gang while my parents and my younger
brother were taken to the gas chambers.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives O.3/8521 |
Dehumanization
According to Nazi ideology the Nordic Aryan Germans were the Master Race. Other races were inferior to
them and the Jews were considered to be the “anti-race,” the exact opposite of the Germans, and an evil and destructive race. The Nazis
went to great efforts to strip the personal identities of those Jews whom they did select for slave labor, a process known as “dehumanization.”
At Auschwitz-Birkenau, the so-called “sauna” was the first stage in the process of dehumanization. At the “sauna,” prisoners selected for
forced labor were stripped of their clothes, showered, disinfected, shaved all over, and given an ill-fitting prisoner uniform and wooden clogs.
Registration numbers were tattooed into their left arms. Helena Citron, a Holocaust survivor, recalls her loss of identity in the “sauna” at Auschwitz-Birkenau:
“…So they rushed us there, to some building that was called the ‘sauna,’ meaning, the bathhouse. We stood there in line, for hours, in our
clothing, with our long hair, with everything, and we clung to each other, we felt safer when we were together…and then we had to take our
clothing off, and the SS were walking around in there, and we, young girls, had to walk around naked….they were yelling and screaming…and we
were in shock…not even embarrassed, just in shock….we were turned, almost instantly, into animals, because we didn’t even recognize one another.
It was as if we lost our humanity, and we lost our friends, because even my best friend stood next to me, and I didn’t recognize her…”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives, VD 185 [Hebrew] |
In her memoirs, Ruth Eliaz writes:
“…We had to hold out our left hand and they tattooed a number on all of us...At first, we didn’t understand the meaning of it, but very
quickly we did. From now on, we are no longer people. Like animals we were loaded onto cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz. Just like they put
numbers on animals in flocks, that’s what they did to us. The meaning of the number was that you no longer had an identity. From now on, I no
longer had a name. Now I was ‘73643.’ And when they asked me my name, I had to answer ’ 73643.’”
Source: R. Eliaz, Spirit of Life. (Tel-Aviv: Sifriyat Poalim, 1990) pp. 98-99. [Hebrew]
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After the “sauna,” all prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau were sent to forced labor at Auschwitz I and III (Monowitz), sub-camps,
or other concentration camps in the area.
Daily Life at Auschwitz-Birkenau
About 1,200 prisoners lived in each barrack at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Due to the overcrowded conditions, prisoners often slept on bare
floorboards, without sheets or blankets. It was almost impossible to maintain hygiene because of a lack of sanitary facilities, soap, towels,
toothbrushes or toilet paper.
Mornings began with roll call (appell), during which the Nazis counted thousands of prisoners. Prisoners had to stand completely
motionless and quiet for hours, even in extreme cold and heat, without proper clothing. Those who did not comply, or who stumbled and fell,
were shot. Ruth Eliaz remembers:
“The daily routine would begin early in the morning…we would wake up and immediately go to the appell…We had to stand still as
we were counted by the SS…we would have to wait until they counted all the sick ones and all those who were healthy...We had to stand
with minimal clothing in the cold winter days when it was snowing and raining until they had a full count. This would often take place for hours.”
Source: R. Eliaz, Spirit of Life. (Tel-Aviv: Sifriyat Poalim, 1990) p. 101. [Hebrew] |
After the initial roll call, prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau received a half-liter of coffee or tea substance. Afterwards, they had to march to their
places of work, and endure long hours of backbreaking labor. A workday was usually twelve hours long, with no rest. Anyone who rested, or even
paused briefly, was often brutally punished. After work, prisoners returned to the camp and stood for block inspection and evening roll call.
Interminable hunger was one of the hardest, most unrelenting aspects of daily life in the camp. The driving force of the body’s need for
food and its virtual absence in the camps became a constant obsession for prisoners, affecting their every waking moment. Many times the
need to find more food had a negative effect on the relationships between prisoners, and the battle to survive another day often muted
questions of conscience. Imre Kertesz, the Nobel Prize winner for literature, discusses hunger at Auschwitz-Birkenau:
“I had become a pit, a form of empty space, and my every effort, every attempt was directed toward eliminating, stuffing, or quieting this
bottomless pit, this constantly voracious void. I had eyes only for this: my mind could be in service only for this, my every action was motivated only
by this, and if I didn’t eat wood, iron, or stones, it was only for the simple reason that they were not chewable or digestable. For instance, I did try
to eat sand, and if I spotted some grass, I didn’t hesitate for a moment.”
Source: I. Kertesz, Fateless. (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992) p. 120. |
Amidst the horrible suffering, terrible conditions, and indescribable daily
horrors, there were many who displayed courage and heroism in different forms.
Victor Frankl remembers:
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece
of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing—the
last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way….”
Source: V. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning. (Washington Square Press, 1968) p. 164. |
Pearl Beinisch recalls:
“The fine toothed comb…a great blessing:.would help us fight the lice, which was the worst plague in camp…such a comb had become
the greatest treasure anyone could wish for in Auschwitz. Our block, however, only had one and it belonged to Rivka (Horowitz)…even
though it was irreplaceable and crucial to our very existence, Rivka would not withhold it from anyone who asked for it…The little comb went
from girl to girl, cleansing nearly a thousand heads in the barracks…It didn’t matter that some of its little teeth broke off in the process…The
important thing was to help the girls avoid the dreaded infestation. For Rivka, this was enough, and she continued lending her lifesaving comb
as long as it lasted.”
Source: P. Beinisch, To Vanquish the Dragon. (Jerusalem-New York: Feldheim Press, 1991) p. 356. |
Resistance at Auschwitz-Birkenau
In 1943 an underground was formed at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Roza Robota, a young woman from Ciechanow, Poland who was deported to
Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, helped smuggle tiny amounts of explosives from the ammunitions factory where she worked. She passed them
to underground members at Auschwitz I and to the
Sonderkommando
who worked in the crematoria at Birkenau.
In October 1944, the Sonderkommando revolted. After conducting an investigation, the Nazis arrested Robota and
three of her friends. Despite being tortured, they refused to divulge information about the underground, its members, or their activities.
On January 6, 1945, Roza and her three comrades were hanged.
Filip Mueller, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, who worked at the crematorium, recounts:
“I experienced a great deal at the crematorium, and I saw sights that the world ought never to hear about. It was not intended that I,
an eyewitness, should survive…I do not want, nor would I be able to describe everything in detail. There is too much, and it is so horrible
that many would not believe it. And even today, I cannot grasp all that I have witnessed…"
Source: O. Kraus and E. Kulka, The Death Factory-Documents on Auschwitz. (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1996) p. 26.
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Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. Upon entering Auschwitz-Birkenau, Soviet soldiers found only 7,650
prisoners living there. Most of the 58,000 remaining camp prisoners had been sent on
death marches at the end of 1944.
In total, over one million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Photographs
An aerial photograph of Camps I-II, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, June 26, 1944
Jews on a platform after alighting from a train, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, May 27, 1944 (1)
Jews on a platform after alighting from a train, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, May 27, 1944 (2)
Jews on the platform after alighting from a train, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, May 27, 1944 (3)
Woman with a yellow badge standing on a platform, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland
Selektion on the Auschwitz-Birkenau platform, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, May 27, 1944
Women and children deemed unfit for work on their way to the gas chambers, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland
A woman and children deemed unfit for work on their way to the gas chambers, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland
Men deemed fit for work after disinfection, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland
Women deemed fit for work, Auschwitz-Birkenau
Women sorting clothing, Auschwitz-Birkenau
Bunks in a building in Camp I, Auschwitz, Poland, 1941
Faucets and a sign declaring the need for hygiene, Auschwitz, Poland, 1941
For more photographs and information, see the
Auschwitz Album Online Exhibition .
Pages of Testimony
Pages of Testimony serve as symbolic gravestones, providing a unique memorial for victims of the Holocaust.
The following are five Pages of Testimony that were submitted to Yad Vashem, in memory of individuals who were murdered during
the Holocaust at Auschwitz:
Page of Testimony for Berta Rabinovics
Page of Testimony for Regine Wolff
Page of Testimony for Klara Berger
Page of Testimony for Ygnak Weissberger
Page of Testimony for Moshe Peltz
(For more information about Moshe Peltz, see
The Stories Behind the Names.)
You might want to print these Pages and take them with you on your journey to Poland. When you visit
Auschwitz-Birkenau, you can read the names and stories that are recorded on these Pages of Testimony.
For more Pages of Testimony, search the
Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names.
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