</image> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Level</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> </infobox>Content Warning: This article contains extensive discussion of disturbing subjects around genocide, racism, torture, murder, death, violence and rape. Auschwitz is the name of a complex of 40 concentration camps within Poland built by Nazi Germany during World War II and the Holocaust for the purpose of mass extermination of over a million people.
History
Construction
After the War
Mass Killings
Death Toll
Although the historical consensus around holocaust researchers accepts that over a million people were killed in the camp. Difficulty in accurately determining the final death toll stems from the Nazis destroying much of the camps records and burning the bodies of dead camp victims to stoke doubt among the remaining nations about the extent of the holocaust and to avoid punishment upon capture. Different claims for the death toll include:
Resistance
As soon as prisoners were placed in the camp, secret resistance cells composed of rebel fighters and ex-soldiers were formed, who's goals included:
- Help prisoners survive the camp for as long as possible
- Collect information and distribute it to the outside world about Nazi atrocities within the camp
- Help organize escapes for prisoners
- Prepare for an eventual uprising which would destroy the camp[2]
Uprising
An uprising occurred in October of 1944, inspired by the Warsaw Revolts, nearby bombings of factories by the US air force and the capture of nearby towns by the Red Army. Many in the camp thought their nightmare would soon finally be over, young Jewish women like Ester Wajcblum, Ella Gärtner and Regina Safirsztain had been smuggling small amounts of gunpowder from the munitions factory they were forced to work in.
Gunpowder was wrapped in bits of cloth or paper, hid it on their bodies, and then passed along in a smuggling chain. Once she received the gunpowder, Róza Robota then passed it to her co-conspirators in the Sonderkommando, the special squad of prisoners forced to work in the camp’s crematoria. Using this gunpowder, the leaders of the Sonderkommando planned to destroy the gas chambers and crematoria, and launch the uprising.
On the 7th of October, having learned the Nazis planned to kill them all, the Sonderkommando rose in revolt, set fire to the crematorium and attacked the Nazi guards with tools, makeshift weapons, rocks and stolen guns and grenades. The flames around the crematorium signaled an uprising, and several hundred people escaped from Auschwitz. Many were later recaptured and killed by Nazis who forced them to strip and lie down before being shot. Around 454 people were killed in the uprising, mostly camp victims. The ringleaders of the uprising, Róza Robota, Ester Wajcblum, Ella Gärtner and Regina Safirsztain all refused to name any other co-conspirators and were hung in front of the camp members.[3]
Victims
Killed
Survivors
References
- ↑ Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp#Death_toll
- ↑ Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_movement_in_Auschwitz
- ↑ https://www.ushmm.org/research/the-center-for-advanced-holocaust-studies/miles-lerman-center-for-the-study-of-jewish-resistance/medals-of-resistance-award/auschwitz-revolt