Instead of fight over why this is, I’m going to share some resources that might be edifying.
First and foremost, Auschwitz was not just one camp, but eventually three, the largest such complex within the Nazi empire.
First and foremost, Auschwitz was not just one camp, but eventually three, the largest such complex within the Nazi empire.
The three camps were Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Auschwitz-Monowitz.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz 2, was the largest. And it was the place where Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, told Rudolf Hoess that the “large scale, long-term” murder of Jews should take place.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz 2, was the largest. And it was the place where Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, told Rudolf Hoess that the “large scale, long-term” murder of Jews should take place.
It was supposed to be both a labor camp for POWs and an extermination center, but it was far more the latter than the former.
Hoess had come to Auschwitz after working at Dachau and elsewhere with the EXPRESS goal of creating a more “efficient” means of mass murder.
Hoess had come to Auschwitz after working at Dachau and elsewhere with the EXPRESS goal of creating a more “efficient” means of mass murder.
The following tweet is a quote given by Hoess to military psychologist Gustave Gilbert after the war:
"Technically [it] wasn't so hard—it would not have been hard to exterminate even greater numbers.... The killing itself took the least time. You could dispose of 2,000 head in half an hour, but it was the burning that took all the time."
"The killing was easy; you didn't even need guards to drive them into the chambers; they just went in expecting to take showers and, instead of water, we turned on poison gas. The whole thing went very quickly.”
The gas used, as you may know, was Zyklon B, crystalline hydrogen cyanide.
Auschwitz 3, Monowitz, was a “labor” camp, constructed and financed by private industry because IG Farben’s plant — which used slave labor from Auschwitz — was “too far away” (about 4.3 miles from Auschwitz 1). The average life expectancy at Monowitz was three months.
And there were dozens of sub-camps within the Auschwitz “system,” where prisoners were used as slave labor in forests and coal mines and chemical plants.
I’m linking here to the Sonderkommando photographs. A member of the Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners forced to help the Nazis kill other prisoners, took these and managed to smuggle them to a member of the Polish resistance.
yadvashem.org/yv/en/educatio…
yadvashem.org/yv/en/educatio…
These photographs were taken at Birkenau, before and after women were murdered in the gas chambers.
Here are some links to primary resources on the subject:
auschwitz.org/en/gallery/his…
ushmm.org/collections/bi…
auschwitz.org/en/gallery/his…
ushmm.org/collections/bi…
More here: yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaus…
