THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS OF THE HOLOCAUST

By: Zach N.Bell: 3B

Auschwitz-Birkeneau Auschwitz was the largest and most organized of all concentration/death

camps. It was located in Oswiecim, a Polish town, more or less in the middle of Europe. It consisted of three main sections: Auschwitz I (concentration camp), Auschwitz II/ Birkeneau (killing center), and Auschwitz III (slave labor complex). The concentration camp portion was opened in June, 1940, and the other portions were opened later. From 1942 onward, Jews from all over Europe were sent to Auschwitz II by the thousands to be killed by the gas chambers. The Nazis used Zyklon B in the chambers and could kill 2,000 to 2,500 people at a time. To dispose the bodies faster, the Nazis built crematoria to burn the bodies in Auschwitz II. Auschwitz was also used to conduct medical experiments, which were performed by Dr. Josef Mengele. On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces finally reached Auschwitz, liberating all the surviving prisoners there, but found blown up crematoria, blown up gas chambers, and almost all the prisoners dead. In all 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, 90% of them being Jewish.

Lawton, Clive A.. Auschwitz, London: Franklin Watts, 2002. Print.

Auschwitz Train Entrance

http://skepticism.org/timeline/october-history/9482-auschwitz-last-mass-selections-gas-chambers-take-place.html

Bergen Belsen Bergen Belsen was established in April, 1943 as a detention/transit camp

and was located in lower Saxony, northern Germany, near the city Celle. It was under jurisdiction of the SS Economic Administrative Main Office and its first commandant was Adolf Haas. In the course of the first eighteen months of the camps existence, five satellite camps were set up, all of them unconnected. There was the prisoner camp, special camp, neutral camp, star camp, and Hungarian camp. In August, 1944, a new section was built, the women's camp. Beginning in March 1944, Bergen Belsen started to gradually become a regular concentration camp. Prisoners from other concentration camps who were ill or out fit to work were transferred to Bergen Belsen. On December 2, 1944, Adolf Haas is replaced by Josef Kramer, whose first steps were to convert Bergen Belsen officially into a concentration camp. After the replacement, death marches began, coming in from the east, pouring in tens of thousands of surviving prisoners into Bergen Belsen, destroying the living conditions there. During this time there was total chaos and the typhus epidemic was at its height. It was liberated on April 15, 1945 by the British Army, who found 60,000 prisoners in the camp who were in critical condition. Prior to liberation, 37,000 prisoners died and after liberation, another 14,000 succumbed. Anne Frank was one of those 37,000 who died prior to liberation by typhus.

“Bergen Belsen.” Learning about the Holocaust, A Students Guide. 2001. Print.

Bauer, Yehuda. A History of the Holocaust. Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts, 2001. Print

Dwork, Debórah and Pelt, Robert Jan van. Holocaust, A Holocaust. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. Print.

Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp

http://www.annefrankguide.net/enGB/bronnenbank.asp?aid=10993

Buchenwald Buchenwald was established on July 6, 1937, on the northern slope of

Ettersburg in Thuringia, Germany and was one of the largest concentration camps on German soil. It was given its name by Heinrich Himmler, when it opened. It was divided into three parts: the large camp, the small camp, and the tent camp. Every year the camp was operational, the population of prisoners would grow, from the end of 1937 with 2,561 prisoners to 86,232 in February, 1945. In its 8 years of existence, from July 1937 to March 1945, a total of 238,980 prisoners from thirty countries passed through Buchenwald and its satellite camps and of those prisoners, 43,045 were killed or perished in some other way. On April 6, 1945, the Germans began evacuating the camp and its satellite, releasing 28,250 prisoners from the main camp and about 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners were either killed or died by some other means. On April 11, 1945, the camp and its 21,000 prisoners were liberated.

“Buchenwald.” Learning about the Holocaust, A Students Guide. 2001. Print.

Buchenwald Entrance

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/buchenwald.html

Chelmno Chelmno was the first Nazi camp to use gas for mass executions and was

the first site for mass killings within the “Final Solution” outside the Nazis areas in the USSR. It is located in the village of Chelmno, 47 miles west of Lódz, in the Kolo district. It was destined to serve as a center for the extermination of the Jews in the Lódz ghetto and the Warthegau region. It consisted of two sites, which were 2.5 miles apart, one camp in Schloss, serving as a reception, extermination center, and the residence for the staff. The second camp, the Waldlager, was adjacent to the Rzuchow Forest, where mass graves and cremation ovens were later found. The first transports to Chelmno began on December 7, 1941 and the camp began to operate the next day. In mid-January, 1942, the deportations from the Lódz ghetto began and in the course of 1942, Jews from all the other 36 places of Jewish settlements in the Warthegau region, were transported to Chelmno for extermination. In March, 1943, the transports to Chelmno ended, the camp was dismantled, the Schloss portion was demolished and the remaining staff were shipped of to Yugoslavia. But in April, 1944 the Nazi decided to open Chelmno for extermination. In mid-July, the Nazis shipped the surviving residents to Auschwitz, destroyed all the evidence there and abandoned the camp on January 17, 1945 in fear of the Red Army. In all, 320,000 people were killed at Chelmno.

Krakowski, Shmuel. “Chelmno.” Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Volume 1 and 2. 1990. Print.

The Schloss Section of Chelmno

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph.php?MediaId=1492

Mauthausen Mauthausen began in 1938, when Himmler thought that a new

concentration camp should be established at the town of Mauthausen, Austria, to avoid sending Austrians held in protective custody all the way in Germany. Mauthausen was a punishment camp, designed to work people to death or kill them sadistically, and it had no mass gassings because it had small gas chambers. The first prisoners were brought on August 8, 1938 and were put to work in the construction of the camp. In 1938, a total of 1,100 prisoners arrived and by December, 1939, the population was at 2,666 prisoners. In the course of 1940, about 11,000 new prisoners were recorded. Before the Red Army liberated Auschwitz in January, 1945, 66,000 prisoners marched to Wodzislaw, were put on trains and were shipped to many camps, a small portion reaching Mauthausen. Mauthausen was liberated on May 5, 1945 by the Americans, just before the war in Europe ended. In all, 199,104 prisoners arrived at Mauthausen, but sadly 119,000 of them died there.

Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know-The History of the Holocaust as told in the USHMM. Washington, D.C: USHMM, 2006. Print

Eckstein, Benyamin. ”Mauthausen.” Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. 1990. Print.

Mauthausen Being Liberated

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/austria/mauthausen-concentration-camp

Treblinka Treblinka was the acme of killing centers and was the most effective

assembly line for death, among the Operational Reinhard camps because of its technological improvements. It was located 120 kilometers northeast of Warsaw and started to function in 1942. Treblinka used gas chambers to exterminate people, using carbon monoxide instead of Zyklon B or other deadly gases. It had thirteen chambers by the end to maximize its potential. The victims were buried in mass graves and later camp personnel ordered slave workers to open pits and burn the bodies. Treblinka was in operation from July, 1942 to October, 1943 and it devoured at least 750,000 people, people from Warsaw, Radom, Bialystak, and Lubin districts, including Germany, Macedonia, Thrace, and the transit camp of Thereseinstadt. By the time the Germans closed Treblinka, they had already killed most of Europe’s Jews.

Dwork, Deborah and Pelt, Robert Jan van. Holocaust, A History. New York: W.W Norton and Company, 2002.

Treblinka Symbolic Tombstones

http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/pic/bigp13.jpg