Death Camps
The process of elimination
Auschwitz-Birkenau
This is Auschwitz-Birkenau. The largest and most infamous death camp in all of Germany. It is said that around two million Jews were locked away and killed here during World War II. Death camps were a systematic way of exterminating Jews, homosexuals, and many other types of people that the Germans saw as anti-Nazi or minorities. The men, women, and children were sent there by train, facing imminent death and cremation. Some were killed immediately when arriving by being placed in gas chambers, while others were worked to death. By the end of the war, Germany had killed around 6 million Jews in the death camps between 1939 and 1945. Survivors today bare huge emotional scars and some physical marks as well.
Possessions
Before taken to the death camps, the possessions of the Jewish people were taken or thrown to the ground. They were then put on trains and taken to the death camp. At times, they would throw their belongings to the side of the tracks while on route to the camp.
Stripped
Once they've arrived, the Jews were stripped of their clothing and placed in freezing cold showers. They are forced to shower in great numbers and run out shortly after without clothing. Uniforms, or striped pajamas, are then thrown to the new inmates. They were usually either too big or too small for the people wearing them.
Roll Call
After an early wake up, prisoners were made to stand in lines for hours at a time while perfectly still. They would follow this procedure in any weather condition. Usually, a Kapo would say that there was inaccuracy in counting and start over. This would make roll call ever longer.
Living Conditions
In death camps, there were two types of barracks, brick and wood. Brick housing was constructed quickly and housed over 700 prisoners in one building. Wooden housing was made to hold 52 horses in stalls, but housed hundreds of prisoners under one roof. These buildings did not have any kind of sanitary facilities.
Gas Chambers
Jews that arrived at death camps were told that they were going to take showers shortly after arriving. One group would go to actual freezing cold showers. The other group was stripped down and locked in a room, often 400 people at a time. Nazis would then pour a gas, containing pesticides, through holes in the ceiling. This gas would fill the room, making people suffer for about twenty minutes before suffocating and dying. This was the Nazis' way of exterminating large amounts of inmates in a short amount of time, through gas chambers.
Crematoriums
After suffocating in the gas chambers, the corpses of the dead were taken and cremated. Their ashes would be disposed of through chimneys over the crematorium. Prisoners would be forced to burn corpses and would say that the daily capacity for bodies would be over 2,000 per crematorium. At times, if there are too many bodies for the crematorium, they would pile the dead up in a field and set them ablaze.
Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) (UNESCO/NHK)
Video
This video depicts a short summary of this flyer. It drives home the point that survivors still have horrible memories burned into their heads from the time they spent there. The polish man clearly remember all the suffering and death that took place at this hell on earth. The death camps were a place of systematic elimination and suffering. To this day, the echo of the not so distant past still reminds us of the horrible deeds done by the hateful hands of Nazis at death camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau.