6 February 1943 | At 3:30 am a general roll-call ordered by the SS camp authorities started in the female camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. All the female prisoners were driven outside of the camp. Poorly dressed, with no food they stood on snow-covered land until 5 pm. 1/5
Return was ordered in running. Female guards & SS men stood at the gate and rushed the coming back prisoners with hits of their clubs. Those women who were not able to keep up, as well as those weak, sick & older were pulled from the ranks with a hook. 2/5
They were brought to Block 25, where they awaited transportation to the gas chambers. Block 25 at BIa sector of Birkenau camp (also known as the block of death) was called "waiting room for the gas". 3/5
After chasing all prisoners to the camp a special group of the strongest women was formed and forced to collect all remaining corpses of women who had died under the blows of the SS and female guards during the roll call. The corpses were placed in the courtyard of block 25. 4/5
5 February 1919 | A Pole, Jerzy Radwanek, was born in Krakow. A pilot.
In #Auschwitz from 19 December 1940.
No. 7782
In 1944 transferred to Gross-Rosen. He survived.
For helping Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz he was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations.
After work in different groups and a stay in the hospital, Jerzy Radwanek become an electrician in the leather tannery. The inmates working there included members of the resistance—Witold Pilecki, Henryk Bartosiewicz, and Stanisław Kazuba—who enlisted him into the resistance.
When female Jewish prisoners were employed in the warehouses containing the personal belongings of killed Jews on the premises of the tanning factory, he began to help them, providing them in secret with food and medications.
The crematorium located on the ground level designed by Topf und Söhne company from #Erfurt was equipped with five 3-muffles ovens connected to one chimney. According to the producers the ovens could burn 1,440 corpses every 24 hours.
Our podcast explains why in March 1942 the Auschwitz concentration camp became - at the same time - an extermination center for Jews. anchor.fm/auschwitz-memo…
The history of #Auschwitz is complex. It combined two functions: a concentration camp and an extermination center. It was used by the Nazi Germans to persecute different groups of people. This online lesson explains the most important aspects: lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_1/
The podcast tells about the details of the process which led to the creation of the German Nazi Auschwitz camp & about its first prisoners. anchor.fm/auschwitz-memo…
The podcast explains why in March 1942 the Auschwitz concentration camp became - at the same time - an extermination center for Jews. anchor.fm/auschwitz-memo…
25 January 1942 | Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler send an order to concentration camp inspector Richard Glücks that probably had the greatest impact on the entire future of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Learn more in the thread below.
"As it is not to be expected that Russian prisoners of war will be obtained in the near future, I order that from among the Jewish men and women emigrating [sic!] from Germany a large number of them be sent to the camps..."
"...Be prepared, therefore, to transfer 100,000 male Jews & up to 50,000 female Jews to concentration camps in the next 4 weeks. In the coming weeks the concentration camps will be entrusted with great economic orders and tasks. SS-Gruppenführer Pohl will give you the details".
Before the 77th anniversary of the liberation of #Auschwitz we bring together the most important facts about the last stage of the operation of this German Nazi camp. See the rest of this [THREAD] below. 1/11
At the beginning of 1945, there were around 67,000 prisoners in the Auschwitz camp system. On 12 January 1945, the Soviets started their offensive. In mid-January head of the SS in the region, Ernst Schmauser gave the order to evacuate Auschwitz. 2/11
The final evacuation began on 17 January 1945. Around 58,000 prisoners were evacuated from the Auschwitz camp system. Columns of prisoners were leaving the camps and subcamps between 17 and 21 January. 3/11
24 January 1932 | A Pole, Bogdan Bartnikowski, was born in Warsaw.
He arrived at #Auschwitz in a transport from the Warsaw Uprising on 12 August 1944
No. 192731
He was evacuated from Auschwitz & survived the war.
Today he celebrates his 90th birthday.
The Bartnikowski Family. The Father perished in the Warsaw Uprising, the mother & the son - Bogdan - were deported by German Nazis through Pruszków to #Auschwitz.
Bogdan Bartnikowski was 12 years old when he became a prisoner of Auschwitz no. 192731. "Two days before that, I had a normal life. I had a mother and a father. All of the sudden, I was all alone.". Watch the entire interview with Bogdan Bartnikowski: tvn24.pl/the-camp-inter…