Himmler visited Auschwitz I in March of 1941, and upon closer inspection of the camp, he ordered Auschwitz expansion. According to Peter Hayer, the Polish underground notified the Polish government-in-exile on the 10th of January 1941, that the Auschwitz concentration camp could accommodate roughly 7,000 prisoners and plans were made for the expansion to hold...Read More
With the first gas chamber in Auschwitz II operational by March 1942, the first transport of Polish Jews was sent from Silesia and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie by the Gestapo. These first Jewish prisoners were taken straight from the Oświęcim freight station to the gas chamber in Auschwitz II on or around 20 March 1942 and buried...Read More
In Auschwitz, prisoners could be beaten and killed even for the slightest infraction of the rules. Just a small number of infractions at Auschwitz – Birkenau concentration camp included: returning a second time for food at mealtimes, removing your gold teeth to buy bread, breaking into the pigsty to steal the pigs’ food, putting your...Read More
On 10 of December 1942, Heinrich Himmler’s order to send all Romani (gypsies) to concentration camp resulted in the creation of a separate camp in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, classed as Section B-IIe and known as the Zigeunerfamilienlager („Gypsy family camp”) in 1943. The inmates of this family camp didn’t have to go through selection and families...Read More
After World War II ended and the truth of the war crimes and crimes against humanity that happened in Auschwitz was revealed to the world the apprehension and trial of those responsible were on the way. Only 15 percent (789) of Auschwitz staff stood trial. Most of the trials were pursued and held in Poland...Read More
The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz (Mädchenorchester von Auschwitz or „Girls’ Orchestra of Auschwitz”) was formed by order of the SS in 1943, during the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp. The orchestra was active for 19 months from April 1943 until October 1944 and was formed mostly of young Jewish and Slavic female prisoners of different nationalities....Read More
Auschwitz Concentration Camp opened in June 1940 in former Polish army barracks. When Auschwitz opened it had adapted 14 single-story buildings and 6 two-story buildings of the former barracks infrastructure. By the first half of 1942 the number rose to 28 two-story blocks, the majority of which were used as housing for the prisoners. The...Read More
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was created in April 1946 by Tadeusz Wąsowicz, and other former Auschwitz prisoners under Poland’s Ministry of Culture and Art direction on the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration camp in Oświęcim. Although it was only formally founded a year later on the 2nd of July 1947 by the act of Polish...Read More
The final act of mass murder of the Jewish population during 1941-1945 in Europe by Nazi Germany was the Holocaust in Hungary. On 18 March 1944, Hitler summoned Miklós Horthy, Regent of Hungary at the time, demanding greater acquiescence from Hungary. Horthy tried to resist in vain since Hitler ordered the invasion of Hungary and...Read More
Locating sources about Roma people in the Holocaust proved to be rather difficult, unlike those available about Jewish victims. The difficulty might be reflected in the difference between the literate culture of the sedentary way of life of Jewish people, and the manly illiterate one of Roma people due to their wandering lifestyle. Even though...Read More
