Photo album of the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp (Auschwitz)
"Auschwitz Album" - about 200 unique photographs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, collected into an album by an unknown SS officer, will be exhibited at the Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography in Moscow.
Historians rightly consider the Auschwitz album one of the most important evidence of the fate of the millions killed. The Auschwitz album is essentially a one-of-a-kind archive of documentary photographs of the active camp, with the exception of a few photographs of its construction in 1942-1943, and three photographs taken by the prisoners themselves.
Auschwitz concentration camp was the largest Nazi concentration death camp. More than 1.5 million people were tortured here different nationalities, of which about 1.1 million are European Jews.
What is the Auschwitz concentration camp?
The complex of buildings for holding prisoners of war was built under the auspices of the SS on the directive of Hitler in 1939. The Auschwitz concentration camp is located near Krakow. 90% of those held there were ethnic Jews. The rest are Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, Gypsies and representatives of other nationalities, who in the total number of those killed and tortured amounted to about 200 thousand.
The full name of the concentration camp is Auschwitz Birkenau. Auschwitz is a Polish name, commonly used mainly in the former Soviet Union.
Almost 200 photographs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp were taken in the spring of 1944, and methodically collected into an album by an unknown SS officer. This album was subsequently found by a camp survivor, nineteen-year-old Lily Jacob, in one of the barracks of the Mittelbau-Dora camp on the day of its liberation.
Arrival of the train at Auschwitz.
In the photographs from the Auschwitz album we see the arrival, selection, forced labor or killing of Jews who entered Auschwitz in late May - early June 1944. According to some sources, these photographs were taken on one day, according to others - over several weeks .
Why was Auschwitz chosen? This is due to its convenient location. Firstly, it was located on the border where the Third Reich ended and Poland began. Auschwitz was one of the key trading hubs with convenient and well-established transport routes. On the other hand, the closely approaching forest helped to hide the crimes committed there from prying eyes.
The Nazis erected the first buildings on the site of Polish army barracks. For construction, they used the labor of local Jews who were forced into captivity. At first, German criminals and Polish political prisoners were sent there. The main task of the concentration camp was to keep people dangerous to the well-being of Germany in isolation and use their labor. Prisoners worked six days a week, with Sunday being a day off.
In 1940, the local population living near the barracks was forcibly expelled by the German army in order to build additional buildings on the vacated territory, which subsequently housed a crematorium and cells. In 1942, the camp was fenced with a strong reinforced concrete fence and high-voltage wire.
However, such measures did not stop some prisoners, although cases of escape were extremely rare. Those who had such thoughts knew that any attempt would result in all their cellmates being destroyed.
In the same 1942, at the NSDAP conference, the conclusion was made about the need for the mass extermination of Jews and the “final solution to the Jewish question.” At first, German and Polish Jews were exiled to Auschwitz and other German concentration camps during the Second World War. Then Germany agreed with the allies to carry out a “cleansing” in their territories.
It should be mentioned that not everyone agreed to this easily. For example, Denmark was able to save its subjects from imminent death. When the government was informed about the planned “hunt” of the SS, Denmark organized the secret transfer of Jews to a neutral state - Switzerland. Thus, more than 7 thousand lives were saved.
However, in the general statistics of those killed, tortured by hunger, beatings, overwork, disease and inhumane experiences, 7,000 people are a drop in the sea of shed blood. In total, during the existence of the camp, according to various estimates, from 1 to 4 million people were killed.
In mid-1944, when the war unleashed by the Germans took a sharp turn, the SS tried to transport prisoners from Auschwitz to the west, to other camps. Documents and any evidence of the merciless massacre were massively destroyed. The Germans destroyed the crematorium and gas chambers. At the beginning of 1945, the Nazis had to release most prisoners. They wanted to destroy those who could not escape. Fortunately, thanks to the offensive of the Soviet army, several thousand prisoners were saved, including children who were experimented on.
Camp structure
Auschwitz was divided into 3 large camp complexes: Birkenau-Auschwitz, Monowitz and Auschwitz-1. The first camp and Birkenau were later united and consisted of a complex of 20 buildings, sometimes several floors.
The tenth block occupied far from last place due to terrible conditions of detention. Spent here medical experiments, mainly over children. As a rule, such “experiments” were not so much of scientific interest as they were another way of sophisticated bullying. The eleventh block especially stood out among the buildings; it caused terror even among the local guards. There was a place for torture and executions; the most careless people were sent here and tortured with merciless cruelty. It was here that attempts were made for the first time at mass and most “effective” extermination using the Zyklon-B poison.
Between these two blocks, an execution wall was constructed, where, according to scientists, about 20 thousand people were killed. Several gallows and incinerators were also installed on the premises. Later, gas chambers were built that could kill up to 6 thousand people a day. Arriving prisoners were distributed German doctors on those who were able to work, and those who were immediately sent to death in the gas chamber. Most often, the disabled were classified as weak women, children and old people. The survivors were kept in cramped conditions, with virtually no food. Some of them dragged the bodies of the dead or cut off hair that went to textile factories. If a prisoner managed to hold out for a couple of weeks in such a service, they got rid of him and took a new one.
Some fell into the “privileged” category and worked for the Nazis as tailors and barbers. Deported Jews were allowed to take no more than 25 kg of weight from home. People took with them the most valuable and important things. All things and money left after their death were sent to Germany. Before this, the belongings had to be sorted out and everything valuable was sorted, which is what the prisoners did on the so-called “Canada”. The place acquired this name due to the fact that previously “Canada” was the name given to valuable gifts and gifts sent from abroad to the Poles. Labor on "Canada" was relatively gentler than in general at Auschwitz. Women worked there. Food could be found among the things, so in “Canada” the prisoners did not suffer so much from hunger. The SS men did not hesitate to pester beautiful girls. Rapes often occurred here.
Living conditions of the SS men in the camp
Auschwitz concentration camp Oswiecim Poland Auschwitz concentration camp (Auschwitz, Poland) was a real town. It had everything for the life of the military: canteens with abundant good food, cinema, theater and all human benefits for the Nazis. While the prisoners did not even receive minimum quantity food (many died in the first or second week from hunger), the SS men feasted continuously, enjoying life.
Concentration camps, especially Auschwitz, have always been a desirable place of service for German soldier. Life here was much better and safer than that of those who fought in the East.
However, there was no place more destructive of all human nature than Auschwitz. A concentration camp is not only a place with good content, where the military man faced nothing for endless murders, but also complete absence disciplines. Here the soldiers could do whatever they wanted and whatever they could stoop to. Through Auschwitz there were huge cash flows at the expense of property stolen from deported persons. Accounting was carried out carelessly. And how was it possible to calculate exactly how much the treasury should be replenished if even the number of arriving prisoners was not taken into account?
The SS men did not hesitate to take precious things and money for themselves. They drank a lot, alcohol was often found among the belongings of the dead. In general, employees in Auschwitz did not limit themselves in anything, leading a rather idle lifestyle.
Doctor Josef Mengele
After Josef Mengele was wounded in 1943, he was deemed unfit to continue serving and was sent as a doctor to Auschwitz, the death camp. Here he had the opportunity to carry out all his ideas and experiments, which were frankly crazy, cruel and senseless.
The authorities ordered Mengele to conduct various experiments, for example, on the effects of cold or altitude on humans. Thus, Joseph conducted an experiment on temperature effects by covering the prisoner on all sides with ice until he died from hypothermia. In this way, it was found out at what body temperature irreversible consequences and death occur.
Mengele loved to experiment on children, especially twins. The results of his experiments were the death of almost 3 thousand minors. He performed forced sex reassignment surgeries, organ transplants, and painful procedures to try to change eye color, which ultimately led to blindness. This, in his opinion, was proof that it was impossible for a “purebred” to become a real Aryan.
In 1945, Josef had to flee. He destroyed all reports about his experiments and, using false documents, fled to Argentina. He lived quiet life without deprivation and oppression, without ever being caught and punished.
When Auschwitz collapsed
At the beginning of 1945, the situation in Germany changed. Soviet troops began an active offensive. The SS men had to begin the evacuation, which later became known as the “death march.” 60 thousand prisoners were ordered to go on foot to the West. Thousands of prisoners were killed along the way. Weakened by hunger and unbearable labor, the prisoners had to walk more than 50 kilometers. Anyone who lagged behind and could not go further was immediately shot. In Gliwice, where the prisoners arrived, they were sent in freight cars to concentration camps located in Germany.
The liberation of the concentration camps occurred at the end of January, when only about 7 thousand sick and dying prisoners remained in Auschwitz who could not leave.
Transcarpathian Jews are awaiting sorting.
Many trains came from Beregovo, Mukachevo and Uzhgorod - cities of Carpathian Ruthenia - at that time the part of Czechoslovakia occupied by Hungary. Unlike previous trains with deportees, cars with Hungarian exiles from Auschwitz arrived directly at Birkenau along newly laid tracks, the construction of which was completed in May 1944.
Laying tracks.
The routes were extended to speed up the process of screening prisoners for those still able to work and subject to immediate destruction, as well as to more efficiently sort their personal belongings.
Sorting.
After sorting. Efficient women.
Women fit for work after disinfestation.
Assignment to a labor camp. Lily Jacob is seventh from the right in the front row.
Most of the "able-bodied" prisoners were transferred to forced labor camps in Germany, where they were used in factories military industry who were under air attack. Others - mostly women with children and the elderly - were sent to the gas chambers upon arrival.
Able-bodied men after disinfestation.
More than a million European Jews died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops under the command of Marshal Konev and Major General Petrenko entered Auschwitz, which at that time housed more than 7 thousand prisoners, including 200 children.
Zril and Zeilek, brothers of Lily Jacob.
The exhibition will also include video recordings of Auschwitz survivors who recall the horror they experienced as children. Interviews with Lilya Jakob herself, who found the album, Tibor Beerman, Aranka Segal and other witnesses to one of the most terrible events in human history were provided for the exhibition by the Shoah Foundation - Institute visual history and Education from the University of Southern California.
A truck with the belongings of new arrivals to the camp.
Children of Auschwitz
Assignment to a labor camp.
After sorting. Unemployed men.
After sorting. Unemployed men.
Prisoners declared unfit for work.
Jews declared unable to work are awaiting a decision on their fate near Crematorium No. 4.
Selection of Jews on the Birkenau railway platform, known as the "ramp". In the background is a column of prisoners on their way to Crematorium II, the building of which is visible at the top center of the photo.
A truck carrying the belongings of new arrivals to the camp passes a group of women, possibly walking along the road to the gas chambers. Birkenau functioned as a huge enterprise of extermination and plunder during the period of mass deportations of Hungarian Jews. Often the destruction of some, disinfestation and registration of others were carried out simultaneously, so as not to delay the processing of constantly arriving victims.
A museum was created on the territory of the camp in 1947, which is included in the list World Heritage UNESCO
Above the entrance to the first of the camps of the complex (Auschwitz 1), the Nazis placed the slogan: “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”). The cast iron inscription was stolen on the night of Friday 12/18/2009 and found three days later, sawn into three parts and prepared for transportation to Sweden, 5 men suspected of this crime were arrested. After the theft, the inscription was replaced by a copy made during the restoration of the original in 2006.
Structure
The complex consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 2 and Auschwitz 3.
Auschwitz 1
After this area of Poland was occupied in 1939 by German troops, Auschwitz was renamed Auschwitz. The first concentration camp in Auschwitz was Auschwitz 1, which subsequently served as the administrative center of the entire complex. It was founded on May 20, 1940, on the basis of two- and three-story brick buildings of former Polish and earlier Austrian barracks. Due to the fact that it was decided to create a concentration camp in Auschwitz, the Polish population was evicted from the territory adjacent to it. This happened in two stages; the first took place in June 1940. Then about 2 thousand people living near the former barracks of the Polish army and the buildings of the Polish tobacco monopoly were evicted. The second stage of eviction, July 1940, involved residents of Korotkaya, Polnaya and Legionov streets. In November of the same year, a third eviction occurred; it affected the Zasole district. Eviction activities continued in 1941; in March and April, residents of the villages of Babice, Budy, Rajsko, Brzezinka, Broszczkowice, Plawy and Harmenze were evicted. In general, people were evicted from an area of 40 km" and it was declared the camp’s area of interest; in 1941-1943, subsidiary agricultural camps were created on this territory: fish farms, poultry and cattle farms.
On September 3, 1941, by order of the deputy camp commandant, SS Obersturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the first test of gas etching with Zyklon B was carried out in block 11, as a result of which about 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 other prisoners, mostly sick, died. The test was considered successful and one of the bunkers was converted into a gas chamber and crematorium. The cell operated from 1941 to 1942, and then it was rebuilt into an SS bomb shelter. The chamber and crematorium were subsequently recreated from the original parts and exist to this day as a monument to Nazi brutality.
Auschwitz 2
Auschwitz 2 (also known as Birkenau, or Brzezinka) is what is usually meant when talking about Auschwitz itself. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, Poles, Gypsies and prisoners of other nationalities were kept there in one-story wooden barracks. The number of victims of this camp was more than a million people. Construction of this part of the camp began in October 1941. There were four construction sites in total. In 1942, the operation of Section I began (there were men's and women's camps); in 1943-44 - camps located on construction site II (Gypsy camp, men's quarantine camp, men's hospital camp, Jewish family camp, warehouses and "Depot camp", that is, a camp for Hungarian Jews). In 1944, construction began on construction site III; Jewish women lived there in unfinished barracks in June and July 1944, whose names were not included in the camp registration books. This camp was also called “Depotcamp”, and then “Mexico”. Section IV was never developed.
New prisoners arrived daily by train to Auschwitz 2 from all over occupied Europe. Those who arrived were divided into four groups.
The first group, which made up approximately ¾ of all those brought, was sent to the gas chambers within several hours. This group included women, children, old people and all those who had not passed a medical examination to determine their full suitability for work. More than 20,000 people could be killed in the camp each day.
Auschwitz 2 had 4 gas chambers and 4 crematoria. All four crematoria came into operation in 1943: 1.03 - crematorium I, 25.06 - crematorium II, 22.03 - crematorium III, 4.04 - crematorium IV. The average number of corpses burned in 24 hours, taking into account a three-hour break per day for cleaning the ovens, in the 30 ovens of the first two crematoria was 5,000, and in the 16 ovens of crematoria I and II - 3,000.
The second group of prisoners was sent to slave labor in industrial enterprises various companies. From 1940 to 1945 In the Auschwitz complex, about 405 thousand prisoners were assigned to factories. Of these, more than 340 thousand died from disease and beatings, or were executed. There is a known case when the German tycoon, Oskar Schindler, saved about 1000 Jews by ransoming them to work in his factory and taking them from Auschwitz to Krakow.
The third group, mostly twins and dwarfs, were sent to various medical experiments, in particular to Dr. Josef Mengele, known as the “angel of death.”
The fourth group, mostly women, were selected into the "Canada" group for personal use by the Germans as servants and personal slaves, as well as for sorting the personal property of prisoners arriving at the camp. The name "Canada" was chosen as a mockery of Polish prisoners - in Poland the word "Canada" was often used as an exclamation upon seeing valuable gift. Previously, Polish emigrants often sent gifts to their homeland from Canada. Auschwitz was partly maintained by prisoners, who were periodically killed and replaced with new ones. About 6,000 SS members watched everything.
By 1943, a resistance group had formed in the camp, which helped some prisoners escape, and in October 1944, the group destroyed one of the crematoria. In connection with the approach of Soviet troops, the Auschwitz administration began evacuating prisoners to camps located in Germany. On January 25, the SS set fire to 35 warehouse barracks, which were full of things taken from Jews; they did not have time to take them out.
When Soviet soldiers occupied Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, they found about 7.5 thousand surviving prisoners there, and in the partially surviving warehouse barracks - 1,185,345 men's and women's suits, 43,255 pairs of men's and women's shoes, 13,694 carpets , a huge number of toothbrushes and shaving brushes, as well as other small household items. More than 58 thousand prisoners were taken away or killed by the Germans.
In memory of the victims of the camp, Poland created a museum on the site of Auschwitz in 1947.
Auschwitz 3
Auschwitz 3 was a group of approximately 40 small camps set up in factories and mines around general complex. The largest of these camps was Manowitz, which took its name from a Polish village located on its territory. It became operational in May 1942 and was assigned to IG Farben. Such camps were regularly visited by doctors and the weak and sick were selected for the Birkenau gas chambers.
On October 16, 1942, the central leadership in Berlin issued an order to build a kennel for 250 service dogs in Auschwitz; it was planned for wide leg and allocated 81,000 marks. During the construction of the facility, the point of view of the camp veterinarian was taken into account and all measures were taken to create good sanitary conditions. Didn't forget to reserve for dogs large territory with lawns, and built a veterinary hospital and a special kitchen. This fact deserves special attention if we imagine that simultaneously with this concern for animals, the camp authorities treated with complete indifference to the sanitary and hygienic conditions in which thousands of camp prisoners lived. From the memoirs of Commandant Rudolf Höss:
Over the entire history of Auschwitz, there were about 700 escape attempts, 300 of which were successful, but if someone escaped, all his relatives were arrested and sent to the camp, and all prisoners from his block were killed. It was quite effective method prevent escape attempts. In 1996, the German government declared January 27, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz, an official day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust.
Chronology
Categories of prisoners
- Gypsies
- members of the resistance movement (mostly Polish)
- Jehovah's Witnesses (purple triangles)
- German criminals and antisocial elements
- Homosexuals
Concentration camp prisoners were designated by triangles (“winkels”) different colors depending on the reason for which they ended up in the camp. For example, political prisoners designated by red triangles, criminals by green, antisocial by black, members of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization by purple, homosexuals by pink.
Camp jargon
- “Canada” - a warehouse with things from the murdered Jews; there were two “Canadas”: the first was located on the territory of the mother camp (Auschwitz 1), the second - in the western part in Birkenau;
- "capo" - a prisoner performing administrative work and supervising the work crew;
- “Muslim(s)” - a prisoner who was in a stage of extreme exhaustion; they resembled skeletons, their bones were barely covered by skin, their eyes were clouded, and general physical exhaustion was accompanied by mental exhaustion;
- “organization” - find a way to get food, clothing, medicine and other household items not by robbing your comrades, but, for example, by secretly taking them from warehouses controlled by the SS;
- “go to the wire” - commit suicide by touching the barbed wire under high voltage current (often the prisoner did not have time to reach the wire: he was killed by the SS sentries keeping watch on the watchtowers);
Number of victims
The exact number of deaths in Auschwitz is impossible to establish, since many documents were destroyed, in addition, the Germans did not keep records of victims sent to the gas chambers immediately upon arrival. Modern historians There is consensus that between 1.1 and 1.6 million people were exterminated at Auschwitz, most of whom were Jews. This estimate was obtained indirectly, through a study of deportation lists and a study of data on the arrival of trains at Auschwitz.
French historian Georges Weller in 1983 was one of the first to use deportation data, and based on it he estimated the number of people killed at Auschwitz at 1,613,000 people, 1,440,000 of whom were Jews and 146,000 Poles. A later work by the Polish historian Franciszek Pieper, considered the most authoritative to date, provides the following assessment:
- 1,100,000 Jews
- 140,000-150,000 Poles
- 100,000 Russians
- 23,000 gypsies
In addition, an unknown number of homosexuals were killed in the camp.
Of the approximately 16 thousand Soviet prisoners of war held in the camp, 96 people survived.
Rudolf Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz from 1940 to 1943, in his testimony at the Nuremberg Tribunal estimated the death toll at 2.5 million, although he claimed that he did not know the exact number because he did not keep records. This is what he says in his memoirs.
I never knew the total number of those destroyed and had no way of establishing this figure. My memory retains only a few figures relating to the largest extermination measures; Eichmann or his assistant told me these numbers several times:
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However, it must be taken into account that Hess did not indicate such states as Austria, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, USSR, Italy.
Eichmann, in his report to Himmler, gave the figure of 4 million Jews exterminated in all camps, in addition to 1 million killed in mobile cells. It is possible that the figure of 4 million dead (2.5 million Jews and 1.5 million Poles), long carved on a memorial in Poland, was taken from this report. Latest rating was perceived quite skeptically Western historians, and was replaced by 1.1-1.5 million in post-Soviet times.
Experiments on people
Medical experiments and experiments were widely practiced in the camp. Actions were studied chemical substances on human body. The latest pharmaceuticals were tested. Prisoners were artificially infected with malaria, hepatitis and other dangerous diseases as an experiment. Nazi doctors trained in performing surgical operations on healthy people. Castration of men and sterilization of women, especially young women, accompanied by removal of the ovaries, were common.
According to the memoirs of David Sures from Greece:
Economy of Auschwitz
The Auschwitz administration took professional pride in turning the camp into a profitable enterprise - in addition to the use of luggage and personal belongings, the remains of victims were also subject to disposal: dental crowns made of precious metals, women's hair, used for stuffing mattresses and producing beading, bones, ground into bone meal, from which superphosphate was made at German chemical plants, and much more. Especially large profits came from exploitation turned into a means of slow murder. slave labor prisoners from the so-called subsidiary camps of Auschwitz (under Auschwitz III, 45 of them were created, mainly in Silesia). In addition to the camp itself, income was received by the state treasury of the Third Reich, where from this source in 1943 more than two million marks were received monthly, and especially by the largest German companies (I. G. Farbenindustri, Krupp, Siemens-Schuckert and many others) , for whom the exploitation of Auschwitz prisoners was several times cheaper than the labor of civilian workers. The Aryan population of the Third Reich also received tangible benefits from the camp, among whom clothes, shoes and other personal belongings (including children's toys) of the victims of Auschwitz, as well as “German science” were distributed (special hospitals, laboratories and other institutions were built in Auschwitz, where German professors and doctors who carried out monstrous “medical experiments” had unlimited human material at their disposal (see Concentration camps).
Resistance
There is evidence that even under the conditions of Auschwitz there was Jewish resistance to the machine of terror. According to some reports, there were isolated attempts at uprising on the trains that were transporting Jews to the camp; Jews were part of underground groups created by prisoners of different nationalities in Auschwitz, and, in particular, preparing escapes (out of 667 escape attempts, only 200 were successful, including for several Jews; from the testimony of two of them, A. Wetzler and W. Rosenberg who escaped from Auschwitz on April 7, 1944 and reached Slovakia two weeks later, the government and the public Western countries received for the first time reliable information about what is happening in the camp); There were quite numerous cases of indirect resistance - loud, contrary to categorical prohibitions, singing prayers on the way to the gas chambers, secret prayer meetings and fasting on Yom Kippur in labor camps, etc. The largest act of resistance occurred on September 4 or 5 (by other data - October 7) 1944, when a group of Sonderkommando, consisting of Greek Jews, set fire to one of the crematoria and threw two nearby SS men into the flames. The rebels even managed to cut the barbed wire and get out of the camp, but the camp's many thousands of SS personnel, brought into action by the Auschwitz administration, which feared a general uprising (historians do not deny the possibility of such a plan), quickly dealt with them.
Evacuation
In November 1944, G. Himmler, wanting to hide traces of the atrocities committed at Auschwitz, ordered the dismantling of the gas chamber equipment and the evacuation of the surviving camp prisoners deep into Germany. The Nazi leadership intended to completely destroy all camp buildings, razing Auschwitz to the ground, but did not have time to implement these plans - Soviet troops burst into the camp on January 27, 1945, and found 7,650 emaciated and sick prisoners there, preserved crematoria, part of the barracks and numerous camp documents. At the so-called Auschwitz trials (in Poland, starting in 1947, then in England, France, Greece and other countries, and since 1960 in Germany and Austria), retribution overtook only a small part of the SS camp personnel - out of several hundred who appeared before the trial, several dozen were sentenced to death penalty(including Commandant O.R. Hess and B. Tesch, who supervised the construction of crematoria); the majority were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, and some were acquitted (in particular, G. Peters, CEO company "Degesh", which supplied Zyklon-B gas to Auschwitz). Many SS ranks who served in Auschwitz managed to escape and find refuge in some countries in Africa and South America(among them is I. Mengele, chief physician of Auschwitz).
Auschwitz in faces
SS officers
- Aumeier Hans - head of the camp from January 1942 to 08/18/1943.
- Baretski Stefan - block chief in the men's camp in Birkenau from autumn 1942 to January 1945.
- Behr Richard - commandant of Auschwitz from 05/11/1944, from 07/27 - head of the CC garrison
- Bischof Karl - head of camp construction from October 1, 1941 until the fall of 1944.
- Virts Eduard - doctor of the SS garrison in the camp from September 6, 1942, conducted cancer research in block 10 and performed operations on prisoners who were at least suspected of having cancer
- Gartenstein Fritz - commander of the SS garrison of the camp since May 1942.
- Gebhardt - SS commander in the camp until May 1942.
- Gesler Franz - head of the camp kitchen in 1940-1941.
- Höss Rudolf - camp commandant until November 1943.
- Hoffmann Franz-Johann - second chief of Auschwitz 1 from December 1942, then chief of the Gypsy camp in Birkenau, from December 1943 - first chief of Auschwitz 1 camp
- Grabner Maximilian - head of the political department in the camp until December 1, 1943.
- Kaduk Oswald - block chief, later report chief from 1942 to January 1945; took part in the selection of prisoners both in the camp hospital in Auschwitz 1 and in Birkenau
- Kitt Bruno - head doctor of the hospital in the Birkenau women's camp, where he selected sick prisoners to send them to the gas chambers
- Karl Clauberg - gynecologist, on Himmler's orders, conducted criminal experiments on female prisoners in the camp, studying sterilization methods
- Claire Joseph - head of the disinfection department from spring 1943 to July 1944; carried out mass extermination of prisoners using gas
- Kramer Joseph - commandant of the Birkenau camp from 8.05 to November 1944.
- Langefeld Joanna - head of the women's camp in April-October 1942
- Liebegenschel Arthur - commandant of Auschwitz 1 from November 1943 to May 1944, at the same time he headed the garrison of this camp
- Moll Otto - in different times served as head of crematoria, and was also responsible for burning corpses in the open air
- Palich Gerhard - reportfuhrer since May 1940, from November 11, 1941, he personally shot prisoners in the courtyard of block No. 11; after the opening of the gypsy camp in Birkenau, he became its commander; spread terror among prisoners, was distinguished by extraordinary sadism
- Thilo Heinz - camp doctor in Birkenau from October 9, 1942, participated in selection at the railway platform and camp hospital, directing the disabled and sick to the gas chambers
- Uhlenbrock Kurt - doctor of the SS garrison of the camp, carried out selection among prisoners, directing them to the gas chambers
- Vetter Helmut, an employee of the IG-Farbenindustry and Bayer, studied the effects of new drugs on camp prisoners
- Heinrich Schwartz - head of the labor department of the camp from November 1941, from November 1943 - commandant of the Auschwitz 3 camp
- Schwarzhuber Johann - head of the men's camp in Birkenau from November 22, 1943.
Prisoners
see also
- Rudolf Höss - concentration camp commandant
- Holy Martyr Maximilian Kolbe
- Karl Fritzsch - deputy commandant of the concentration camp
- Witold Pilecki
- Frantisek Gajovnicek
- Joseph Kovalsky
Footnotes
Sources and links
- Article " Auschwitz» in the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
- The business does not promise big dividends Michael Dorfman
- Memoirs of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Franz Höss
- . newsru.com (2005-03-22). Archived from June 11, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
- Josef Mengele - factfile (English) . telegraph.co.uk.
- Search for mengele on nytimes.com
- Documentary film "Josef Mengele. Doctor from Auschwitz" (2008). Dir. Leonid Mlechin.
Auschwitz is a city that has become a symbol of the mercilessness of the fascist regime; the city where one of the most senseless dramas in human history unfolded; a city where hundreds of thousands of people were brutally murdered. In the concentration camps located here, the Nazis built the most terrible conveyor belts of death, exterminating up to 20 thousand people every day... Today I begin to talk about one of the most terrible places on earth - the concentration camps at Auschwitz. I warn you, the photographs and descriptions left below may leave a heavy mark on the soul. Although I personally believe that every person should touch and pass through these scary pages our history...
There will be very few of my comments on the photographs in this post - this is too sensitive a topic, on which, it seems to me, I do not have the moral right to express my point of view. I honestly admit that visiting the museum left a heavy scar on my heart that still refuses to heal...
Most of the comments on the photos are based on the guidebook (
The Auschwitz concentration camp was Hitler's largest concentration camp for Poles and prisoners of other nationalities, whom Hitler's fascism doomed to isolation and gradual destruction by hunger, hard work, experimentation, and immediate death through mass and individual executions. Since 1942, the camp has become the largest center for the extermination of European Jews. Most of the Jews deported to Auschwitz died in gas chambers immediately after arrival, without registration or identification with camp numbers. That is why it is very difficult to establish the exact number of those killed - historians agree on a figure of about one and a half million people.
But let's return to the history of the camp. In 1939, Auschwitz and its surroundings became part of the Third Reich. The city was renamed Auschwitz. In the same year, the fascist command came up with the idea of creating a concentration camp. The deserted pre-war barracks near Auschwitz were chosen as the site for the creation of the first camp. The concentration camp is named Auschwitz I.
The education order dates back to April 1940. Rudolf Hoess is appointed camp commandant. On June 14, 1940, the Gestapo sent the first prisoners to Auschwitz I - 728 Poles from the prison in Tarnow.
The gate leading to the camp is with the cynical inscription: “Arbeit macht frei” (Work makes you free), through which the prisoners went to work every day and returned ten hours later. In a small square next to the kitchen, the camp orchestra played marches that were supposed to speed up the movement of prisoners and make it easier for the Nazis to count them.
At the time of its founding, the camp consisted of 20 buildings: 14 one-story and 6 two-story. In 1941-1942, with the help of prisoners, one floor was added to all one-story buildings and eight more buildings were built. Total number There were 28 multi-storey buildings in the camp (except for the kitchen and utility buildings). The average number of prisoners fluctuated between 13-16 thousand prisoners, and in 1942 reached over 20 thousand. Prisoners were placed in blocks, also using attics and basements for this purpose.
Along with the increase in the number of prisoners, the territorial volume of the camp increased, which gradually turned into a huge plant for exterminating people. Auschwitz I became the base for a whole network of new camps.
In October 1941, after there was no longer enough space for the newly arrived prisoners at Auschwitz I, work began on the construction of another concentration camp, called Auschwitz II (also known as Bireknau and Brzezinka). This camp was destined to become the largest in the system Nazi camps of death. I .
In 1943, in Monowice near Auschwitz, another camp was built on the territory of the IG Ferbenindustrie plant - Auschwitz III. In addition, in 1942-1944, about 40 branches of the Auschwitz camp were built, which were subordinate to Auschwitz III and were located mainly near metallurgical plants, mines and factories that used prisoners as cheap labor.
Arriving prisoners were taken away from their clothes and all personal items, they were cut, disinfected and washed, and then they were given numbers and registered. Initially, each of the prisoners was photographed in three positions. Since 1943, prisoners began to be tattooed - Auschwitz became the only Nazi camp in which prisoners received tattoos with their number.
Depending on the reasons for their arrest, prisoners received triangles of different colors, which, along with their numbers, were sewn onto their camp clothes. Political prisoners were given a red triangle; Jews wore a six-pointed star consisting of a yellow triangle and a triangle of the color that corresponded to the reason for their arrest. Black triangles were given to gypsies and those prisoners whom the Nazis considered antisocial elements. Jehovah's Witnesses received purple triangles, homosexuals received pink triangles, and criminals received green triangles.
Meager camp striped clothes did not protect prisoners from the cold. Linen was changed at intervals of several weeks, and sometimes even at monthly intervals, and the prisoners did not have the opportunity to wash it, which led to epidemics various diseases, especially typhus and typhoid fever, as well as scabies.
The hands of the camp clock mercilessly and monotonously measured the life of the prisoner. From the morning to the evening gong, from one bowl of soup to the next, from the first count until the moment when the prisoner's corpse was counted for the last time.
One of the disasters camp life there were inspections where the number of prisoners was checked. They lasted for several, and sometimes over ten hours. Camp authorities very often announced penalty checks, during which prisoners had to squat or kneel. There were also cases when they were ordered to hold their hands up for several hours.
Along with executions and gas chambers, effective means exterminating prisoners was grueling work. Prisoners were employed in various sectors of the economy. At first they worked during the construction of the camp: they built new buildings and barracks, roads and drainage ditches. A little later, cheap labor Industrial enterprises of the Third Reich increasingly began to use prisoners. The prisoner was ordered to do the work at a run, without a second of rest. The pace of work, the meager portions of food, as well as constant beatings and abuse increased the mortality rate. During the return of prisoners to the camp, the dead or wounded were dragged or carried on wheelbarrows or carts.
The prisoner's daily caloric intake was 1300-1700 calories. For breakfast, the prisoner received about a liter of “coffee” or a decoction of herbs, for lunch - about 1 liter of lean soup, often made from rotten vegetables. Dinner consisted of 300-350 grams of black clay bread and a small amount of other additives (for example, 30 g of sausage or 30 g of margarine or cheese) and a herbal drink or “coffee.”
At Auschwitz I, most prisoners lived in two-story brick buildings. Living conditions throughout the camp's existence were catastrophic. The prisoners brought in by the first trains slept on straw scattered on the concrete floor. Later, hay bedding was introduced. About 200 prisoners slept in a room that barely accommodated 40-50 people. The three-tier bunks installed later did not improve living conditions at all. Most often there were 2 prisoners on one tier of bunks.
The malarial climate of Auschwitz, poor living conditions, hunger, scanty clothing that was not replaced for a long time, unwashed and unprotected from the cold, rats and insects led to mass epidemics, which sharply reduced the ranks of prisoners. A large number of patients who came to the hospital were not admitted due to overcrowding. In this regard, SS doctors periodically carried out selections both among patients and among prisoners in other buildings. Those who were weakened and had no hope of a quick recovery were sent to death in gas chambers or killed in a hospital by injecting a dose of phenol directly into their hearts.
That is why the prisoners called the hospital “the threshold of the crematorium.” At Auschwitz, prisoners were subjected to numerous criminal experiments carried out by SS doctors. For example, Professor Karl Clauberg, in order to develop quick method biological destruction of the Slavs, he conducted criminal sterilization experiments on Jewish women in building No. 10 of the main camp. Dr. Josef Mengele, as part of genetic and anthropological experiments, conducted experiments on twin children and children with physical disabilities.
In addition, in Auschwitz there were carried out various kinds experiments with the use of new drugs and preparations: toxic substances were rubbed into the epithelium of prisoners, skin transplants were carried out... During these experiments, hundreds of prisoners died.
Despite the difficult living conditions, constant terror and danger, the camp prisoners carried out secret underground activities against the Nazis. She took different shapes. Establishing contacts with Polish population living in the area around the camp, made possible the illegal transfer of food and medicine. Information was transmitted from the camp about crimes committed by the SS, lists of names of prisoners, SS men and material evidence of crimes. All parcels were hidden in various objects, often specially intended for this purpose, and correspondence between the camp and the centers of the resistance movement was encrypted.
In the camp, work was carried out to provide assistance to prisoners and explanatory work in the field of international solidarity against Hitlerism. Cultural activities were also carried out, which consisted of organizing discussions and meetings at which prisoners recited the best works Russian literature, as well as in the secret conduct of religious services.
Check area - here the SS men checked the number of prisoners.
Public executions were also carried out here on a portable or common gallows.
In July 1943, the SS hanged 12 Polish prisoners on it for maintaining relations with civilian population and helped 3 comrades escape.
The yard between buildings No. 10 and No. 11 is fenced with a high wall. Wooden shutters placed on the windows in block No. 10 were supposed to make it impossible to observe the executions carried out here. In front of the “Wall of Death,” the SS shot several thousand prisoners, mostly Poles.
In the dungeons of building No. 11 there was a camp prison. In the halls on the right and left sides of the corridor, prisoners were placed awaiting the verdict of the military court, which came to Auschwitz from Katowice and, during a meeting that lasted 2-3 hours, imposed from several dozen to over a hundred death sentences.
Before execution, everyone had to undress in the washrooms, and if the number of those sentenced to death was too small, the sentence was carried out right there. If the number of those sentenced was sufficient, they were taken out through a small door to be shot at the “Wall of Death.”
The system of punishments that the SS used in Hitler's era concentration camps, was one of the fragments of a well-planned, deliberate extermination of prisoners. A prisoner could be punished for anything: for picking an apple, relieving himself while working, or for pulling out his own tooth to exchange it for bread, even for working too slowly, in the opinion of the SS man.
Prisoners were punished with whips. They were hung by their twisted arms on special poles, placed in the dungeons of a camp prison, forced to perform penalty exercises, stances, or sent to penalty teams.
In September 1941, an attempt was made here to mass exterminate people using the poisonous gas Zyklon B. About 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 sick prisoners from the camp hospital died then.
The cells located in the basements housed prisoners and civilians who were suspected of having connections with prisoners or assisting in escapes, prisoners sentenced to starvation for the escape of a cellmate, and those whom the SS considered guilty of violating camp rules or against whom an investigation was underway. .
All the property that the people deported to the camp brought with them was taken away by the SS. It was sorted and stored in huge barracks in Auszewiec II. These warehouses were called “Canada”. I will tell you more about them in the next report.
The property located in the warehouses of the concentration camps was then transported to the Third Reich for the needs of the Wehrmacht.Gold teeth that were removed from the corpses of murdered people were melted down into ingots and sent to the SS Central Sanitary Administration. The ashes of the burned prisoners were used as manure or they were used to fill nearby ponds and river beds.
Items that previously belonged to people who died in gas chambers were used by SS men who were part of the camp staff. For example, they appealed to the commandant with a request to issue strollers, things for babies and other items. Despite the fact that looted property was constantly being transported by trainloads, the warehouses were overcrowded, and the space between them was often filled with piles of unsorted luggage.
As the Soviet Army approached Auschwitz, the most valuable things were urgently removed from warehouses. A few days before the liberation, the SS men set fire to warehouses, erasing traces of the crime. 30 barracks burned down, and in those that remained, after liberation, many thousands of pairs of shoes, clothes, toothbrushes, shaving brushes, glasses, dentures were found...
While liberating the camp at Auschwitz, the Soviet Army discovered about 7 tons of hair packed in bags in warehouses. These were the remains that the camp authorities did not manage to sell and send to the factories of the Third Reich. The analysis showed that they contain traces of hydrogen cyanide, a special toxic component of drugs called “Cyclone B”. From human hair, German companies, among other products, produced hair tailor's beads. Rolls of beading found in one of the cities, located in a display case, were submitted for analysis, the results of which showed that it was made from human hair, most likely women's hair.
It is very difficult to imagine the tragic scenes that played out every day in the camp. Former prisoners- artists - tried to convey the atmosphere of those days in their work.
Hard work and hunger led to complete exhaustion of the body. From hunger, prisoners fell ill with dystrophy, which very often ended in death. These photographs were taken after liberation; they show adult prisoners weighing from 23 to 35 kg.
In Auschwitz, in addition to adults, there were also children who were sent to the camp along with their parents. First of all, these were the children of Jews, Gypsies, as well as Poles and Russians. Most Jewish children died in gas chambers immediately after arriving at the camp. A few of them, after careful selection, were sent to a camp where they were subject to the same strict rules as adults. Some of the children, such as twins, were subjected to criminal experiments.
One of the most terrible exhibits is a model of one of the crematoria in the Auschwitz II camp. On average, about 3 thousand people were killed and burned in such a building per day...
And this is the crematorium in Auschwitz I. It was located behind the camp fence.
The largest room in the crematorium was the morgue, which was converted into a temporary gas chamber. Here in 1941 and 1942, Soviet prisoners and Jews from the ghetto organized by the Germans in Upper Silesia were killed.
The second part contains two of the three ovens, reconstructed from preserved original metal elements, in which about 350 bodies were burned during the day. Each retort housed 2-3 corpses at a time.
Yes, remember that it no longer exists, just like the USSR. Falling apart is general property empires, sooner or later.
Lara, you constantly write everywhere and always that the USSR collapsed, as all empires fall apart. I agree, nothing is eternal in the world. I’m not sure that you even need my comment here; it’s impossible to convince anyone on the Internet, but I’ll write it anyway.
The collapse of the USSR did not occur due to the collapse of oil prices. No, this, of course, also played a role, but this is more likely the tenth thing, if not the twentieth. In 1990 there was a referendum in which 70% of the country's population voted for the Union. Yeltsin has repeatedly stated that Russia will never leave the Union, even if it remains alone in it.
So what happened? It is no longer a secret that our American friends have invested a lot of money in the project of dismembering the USSR.
Where did they go? In such cases, the press is hired, which begins to distort the story, drumming into people the desired opinion.
Secondly, their own people in the economy begin to engage in sabotage. Here products are hidden, and goods are no longer shipped to where they need to be shipped. Gorbachev himself once stated that in the fall of 1991. About 20 trains with meat could not get to Moscow.
What about Gorbachev? My uncle worked as a truck driver then. So, he is traveling to Moscow from Belgorod, bringing meat. For 100 km. In front of Moscow, at a traffic police post, strange people stop him and ask him what he is carrying. Having found out, they order to go back. And the police stand nearby and just watch.
So was there a conspiracy? No one will write anywhere at the present time - I am a spy such and such, I participated in the dismemberment of the USSR. American money didn’t just go into the sand?!
Dostoevsky also described in “The Possessed” how five revolutionaries can complete mess visit in the city. Dostoevsky was in a revolutionary circle and he took all this from life. If there were then secret societies, why couldn’t they reappear in the 80s in the USSR?
However, you deny the conspiracy theory, and it is simply unrealistic to prove anything to you here.
Now about the story. I have already written to you about how historical documents are falsified. In any case, you remained unconvinced - Stalin and everything connected with him is bad and terrible. I see no point in returning to this topic.
I propose to consider how people are being brainwashed by the topic of Afghanistan - today is the day of the withdrawal of troops.
Why did the empire called the USSR send troops there? To stop in the bud the processes that are now taking place throughout the East, from Kyrgyzstan to Tanzania, and from China to Mauritania. The USSR wanted to put Afghanistan on a peaceful path. There weren’t very many of these Mujahets there, but here again the Empire of Good helped. We fought with them, or rather not with them, but with their hirelings - everything is clear here.
The war lasted almost 10 years, although it still cannot be called a real war. In any case, the USSR withdrew its troops.
Have we lost the war? I would not say so, because then Najibula sat firmly there for almost 4 years.
The Kremlin promises to the last minute, drags its feet and then simply abandons its faithful ally. Although, in an amicable way, Najibula would have found the fuel himself. So was there betrayal from Moscow? Definitely! But nowadays the media somehow don’t like to discuss this topic, because here a thinking person will begin to unwind the thread further. Why did the Russian government suddenly decide to saw off one leg of a stool?.... It was after this that we got Chechnya with the Wahhabis and Dagestan?.... There cannot be emptiness in the world. Either you step in and dictate your own rules, or you will live by someone else’s rules. Lara, you live in Israel, I think you understand this better than anyone.
No one will ever say - I’m a fool, I was fooled from TV. At the same time, many people do not know a lot of things, but present their own opinion. What should we call them? Only zombies - they honestly and sincerely think that they lived not under Brezhnev, but under Stalin. Zombies think only in a given direction, repeating like a mantra: Stalin, Beria, Gulag.....