Auschwitz Reasearch Project
By Mattias Bunn
Auschwitz I
Auschwitz I is the main location of the SS administration and was the original location of the Auschwitz camp and it started out as 22 prewar brick buildings. The original camp was founded in 1940 and it originally functioned as only a concentration camp mostly for political prisoners. From 1942 to 1944 the camp functions as the largest extermination camp of the war. At its largest point the complex fit around 25% of the people in Auschwitz and around 135 thousand people. People in this camp had a minimum working day of 13 hours, and most of the execution in the beginning took place here a shootings before the gas chambers. A way of getting rid of people was to starve them and work them to death so they would get something out of their lives before they died. The commandant of Auschwitz 1 was Rudolf Hoss and he was in charge of basically everyone.
Auschwitz II- Birkenau
Birkenau was the largest of the 40 or more camps that made up all of Auschwitz. Around a million people or 90% of the victims of Auschwitz were killed in this camp. The buildings here had leaks all over and some of the buildings were improvised stables that held several hundred people. The Birkenau camp was meant as a concentrations camp but was eventually modified for an extermination camp after the failure of their drive to Moscow and the USA entering the war. The commandant of all of Auschwitz was Rudolf Hoss and some other officials included the Rapportfuhrer which were camp marshals which reported to the commandant. The chief Lagerfuhrer at birkenau was Johann Schwarzhuber. The people executed here were mostly Jews and some POW's.
Auschwitz III- Monowitz
Monowitz held around 11 thousand people in its camp. Around 10 thousand people dies in this camp but most stayed alive because it was mostly a work/concentration camp. Many people died in the hospital there and a few were shot or hanged in construction. Despite the deaths that were to inspire higher work rates the rates still remained lower than average and angered the officials. This camp had its own commandant by the name of Heinrich Schwarz. Monowitz was actually a manufacturer of Buna (rubber) for which the owner was charged 3 reichsmarks per unskilled person and 4 for skilled people. People deemed unfit would be gassed at birkenau most of the time. People did not live in this camp until later in the war where barracks were created but were marched about 7 kilometers from Birkenau every day. The standard survival rate was 3-4 months or 1-2 months in the mines. Most of the work was done in the factories.