16 April 1947 | SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of the German Nazi camp #Auschwitz was executed by hanging after he was sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw.

[THREAD] 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%…

6 April 1944 | The Gestapo under the direction of SS-Hauptsturmführer Klaus Barbie raided the Jewish orphanage in French town of #Izieu. 44 children and their 7 educators were taken to #Drancy & later deported to #Auschwitz. Only one person survived. Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, who brought Klaus Barbie to justice in 1983, later wrote: "Forty-four children deported - no mere statistic, but rather forty-four tragedies which continue to cause us pain ..."

Jozef & Wiktoria Ulma risked their lives to help Jews during the #Holocaust. On 24 March 1944 the German police discovered the Jews in hiding.

The Jewish family was shot, as was the entire Ulma family - parents & 6 children. Wiktoria was 7 months pregnant.

March 24 - the anniversary of the murder of the Ulma family - is today in Poland the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who saved Jews during German occupiation. See this thread to learn about #Righteous linked with #Auschwitz. #Auschwitz prisoner Jerzy Radwanek helped many Jews in the camp. jfr.org/rescuer-storie…

[THREAD] Auschwitz numbers

At least 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz: 1,1 mln Jews, 150k Poles, 23k Roma, 15k Soviet POWs & 25k others (incl. almost 400 Jehova's witnesses and at least 77 homosexuals). Around 1,1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz, 90% Jews.

Out of 1,3 million deported, ca. 900,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers after arrival & 400,000 people became prisoners of the camp. The estimated number of people murdered in the Auschwitz camp: 1 mln Jews, 75k Poles, 21k Roma, 14k Soviet POWs & 12k others. Jews deported to Auschwitz according to their country of origin

11 November 1941 | On the Polish Independence Day the Germans carried out the first execution by shooting in the yard of Block 11 of the #Auschwitz camp. 76 people were shot in the back of their heads - almost all of them Poles. 1/5 Among the executed on 11 November 1941 there were 27 prisoners kept in bunkers of Block 11 for various offenses & 49 prisoners summoned from the camp by the Political Department (camp Gestapo). 2/5

10 June 1942 | A group of prisoners of the penal company at #Auschwitz who were digging the main draining ditch at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, decided to escape. About 50 Poles started to run, only 9 managed to flee the pursuit. Some were later captured. | THREAD Aleksander Buczyński, on the 4th day after the escape he was captured by German gendarmes near Mysłowice. During the investigation he was incarcerated in Block 11. He was executed on 14 July 1942.

25 May 1948 | Witold Pilecki was executed in Warsaw. A Polish soldier in 1920 & 1939 wars, volunteer prisoner of the German #Auschwitz camp, co-founder of camp resistance. He escaped in April 1943 & wrote a report about the crimes in the camp. lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_16_ruch_opo… After his escape #Pilecki participated in the Warsaw Uprising, he was a POW at Lamsdorf & Murnau camps. After the war in the Polish II Corps of gen. Władysław Anders in Italy. During the communist terror in Poland sentenced to death & murdered on 25 May 1948.

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. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 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.

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.

[THREAD - 1/9] 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%…

Jozef & Wiktoria Ulma risked their lives to help Jews during the #Holocaust. On 24 March 1944 the German police discovered the Jews in hiding.

The Jewish family was shot, as was the entire Ulma family - parents & 6 children. Wiktoria was 7 months pregnant. March 24 - the anniversary of the murder of the Ulma family - is today in Poland the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who saved Jews during German occupiation. See this thread to learn about #Righteous linked with #Auschwitz.

22 March 1943 | The Zentralbauleitung of the #Auschwitz camp (Central Construction office) completed the construction of gas chamber and crematorium IV at Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. The undressing rooms, gas chamber and crematorium were located on the ground level. 1/5 The gas chamber space was divided into three smaller rooms and had a total of 236.78 square meters. The exterior walls had holes with gas proof trapdoors for inserting Zyklon B. 2/5

6 March marks the European Day of the Righteous, established in 2012 by the European Parliament.

See this thread to learn stories of Righteous Among the Nations recognized by @yadvashem linked with the history of the German Nazi camp #Auschwitz. #Auschwitz prisoner Jerzy Radwanek helped many Jews in the camp. jfr.org/rescuer-storie…

5 March 1888 | A German Jew, Eugen Salomon, was born in Wörrstadt. His family moved to Mainz, where he became one of the founders and chairman of today’s football club @1FSVMainz05 at the age of only 17. He was initially a successful textile manufacturer and later worked as a salesman. Throughout his life, he supported Mainz 05 together with a circle of companions through his work and with financial means.

Two pictures of the same man - as a pre-war actor and as a prisoner of #Auschwitz from 19 November 1942 (no. 76174).

Witold Zacharewicz, a Polish film actor of the 1930s, was murdered in Auschwitz exactly 80 years ago today, on 16 February 1943.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Za… Witold Zacharewicz and his family were involved in the production of false documents for Jews hiding in Warsaw. The Gestapo managed to discover their activity. He was arrested on 1 October 1942 and deported to Auschwitz the next month.

12 February 1942 | 48 Poles and 12 Polish Jews deported by Germans from Pawiak prison in Warsaw were registered in Auschwitz. 52 of them perished in the camp. Below we present information about 4 prisoners from this group. Tadeusz Balcerowski, a locksmith born in Miłosna on 28 September 1916 was registered in Auschwitz as no. 21350. He perished in Auschwitz on 11 March 1943.

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..."

Before the 78th 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

17 January 1945 | SS physician Josef Mengele liquidated his laboratory at the BIIf section of #Auschwitz II-Birkenau. During the evacuation he took with him the entire documentation of his experiments made on prisoners: twins, dwarfs, and people with disabilities. In Auschwitz Mengele carried out anthropometric, serological & morphological studies of the twins. He deliberately infected some children with typhus. The final phase of his experiments included killing of the twins & conducting a comparative analysis or particular organs.

17 January 1945 | The final evacuation of #Auschwitz began. Between Jan 17-21, the Germans marched around 56 thousand prisoners out of the Auschwitz system and its sub-camps in evacuation columns. Prisoners were forced to march dozens of kilometers in severe winter conditions. At the last roll-call in the history of the German #Auschwitz camp which took place on 17 January 1945, the overall number of prisoners within the entire system of Auschwitz camps and subcamps was 67,012: 48,340 men & 18,672 women.

1 January 1945 | 200 Poles sentenced to death by a Gestapo summary court (100 men & 100 women) were shot in crematorium V at #Auschwitz II-Birkenau. They were transported from Block 11 in Auschwitz I in two groups - men and women separately... The sentenced people were transferred to crematorium V by a camp doctor SS-Obersturmführer Fritz Klein who was also supposed to declare them death.

The execution was carried out by the head of crematories SS-Oberscharführer Erich Muhsfeldt.

13 November 1942 | SS doctor Johann Paul Kremer diary: "Fresh material (liver, spleen & pancreas) from a Jewish prisoner of 18 (no. 68030), extremely atrophic, who had been photographed before. As usual, the liver and spleen were preserved in Carnoy, and the pancreas in Zenker". The prisoner with this camp number arrived at #Auschwitz on 14 October 1942 in a transport from the Westerbork camp in the German-occupied Netherlands.

His name was Hans de Yong (born 18 February 1924 in Frankfurt). He perished on 13 November 1942.