#Auschwitz was the only German Nazi concentration camp where - from some point - the camp numbers were tattooed, first on chests and later on forearms of prisoners. 1/4
In fall of 1941 the camp administration started tattooing Soviet POWs. Initially the number was on the left side of the chest. Polish prisoners transferred to Birkenau from Auschwitz I in March 1942 were tattooed the same way, as well as Jews arriving in the first transports. 2/4
From the spring of 1942 the camp authorities ordered that incoming prisoners be tattooed on the left forearm. Jewish men arriving in new transports were marked in this way, together with Jewish women already incarcerated in the camp. 3/4
At the beginning of 1943 the tattooing of non‑Jewish women prisoners began, and in the spring, men prisoners already registered in the camp as well as the new arrivals were tattooed the same way. 4/4
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14 August 1941 | Saint ft. Maximilian #Kolbe OFM was killed with a phenol injection inside a starvation cell of Block 11 of the German #Auschwitz I camp. On 29 July 1941 he offered his life to save a person selected for starvation death after an escape of a prisoner.
The death certificate issued by the SS administration confirming the death of Father Maximilian Kolbe in #Auschwitz on 14 August 1941. The official cause of death given is "Myocardinsuffizienz": myocardial insufficiency.
Today we recommend our online lesson dedicated to the fate of Catholic priests & clerics, nuns and clergy of other Christian churches who were prisoners of Auschwitz: lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_18_duchowie…
The research of historians of @AuschwitzMuseum indicates that the official order of Heinrich Himmler to establish #Auschwitz concentration camp was given at least by the first days of April 1940 - not on April 27, 1940, as it was previously stated. #twitterstorians
The documents show that already on April 15, 1940, a binding pledge was made to the camp in Auschwitz in the form of the first tranche of 2,000,000 RM, assigned to cover the costs of adapting the former barracks buildings.
This means that a cursory review of the number of the available buildings and their condition must have been compiled earlier, in order to make a preliminary estimate of the cost of the required construction work. It would not be possible without the official order.
26/27 April 1943 | Three Poles escaped #Auschwitz: Edward Ciesielski (12969), Witold Pilecki (4859) & Jan Redzej (5430). #Pilecki was one of the co-founders of military resistance inside the camp. After the escape, he wrote an elaborate report about German crimes in Auschwitz.
Telegrams sent by the camp Gestapo (Politische Abteilung - Political Department) in #Auschwitz informing about the escape. One mentions "Thomas Serafinski" (false identity of Witold Pilecki) and "Johann Retko" (Jan Redzej). The other, Edward Ciesielski.
This is how Witold Pilecki described his escape in his report.
16 April 1947 | SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of the German #Auschwitz camp was hanged after he was sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw.
Rudolf Höss was born in Baden-Baden on 25 November 1901. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the SS in 1934. He started his career in Dachau in December 1934, then he worked in KL Sachsenhausen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%… 2/9
In May 1940 Rudolf Höss was appointed by Heinrich Himmler as the commandant of a new concentration camp created in occupied Polish territory annexed to the Third Reich - #Auschwitz. 3/9
11 April 1987 | Primo Levi passed away. He was an Italian Jewish writer & chemist. From 26 February 1944 a prisoner of the German Nazi #Auschwitz camp no. 174517.
In September 1947 he published his book "If this is a man". #poetry#history#OnThisDay#PrimoLevi
You who live safe
In your warm houses;
You who find on returning in the evening
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider if this is a man
Who works in the mud
Who knows no peace
Who fights for a bit of bread
Who dies because of a yes and because of a no
Consider if this is a woman,
Without hair & without name
Without enough strength to remember
Vacant eyes & cold womb
Like a frog in the winter:
Reflect on the fact that this has happened:
These words I commend to you:
Inscribe them on your heart
When staying at home & going out,
11 April 1945 | American forces liberated the #Buchenwald concentration camp. Among liberated prisoners were those evacuated from #Auschwitz.
Between 1937-45 Germans imprisoned in this camp almost 280,000 people. Over 56,000 of them were killed. buchenwald.de/en/72/
Read more about the chronology of liberation of KL Buchenwald: buchenwald.de/en/466/
"I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it, I have no words."
CBS reporter Edward R. Morrow was the first reporter at Buchenwald after the liberation by @USArmy. Listen to his harrowing words on what he witnessed: collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog…