Dear Pals,
Before
you jump into any conclusions, I would like to say that this edition of
polish times is just a supplementary on Aushwitz- Biggest Concentration
Camp of World War II, as I promised in my earlier editions. So check your
emotions & keep reading..;-)
But I have to warn here about the
contents that follows. It could be really disturbing along the pictures.
The day I visited was one of my intriguing days in life. No wonder I heard
many gave up smoking & drinking after visiting the place. For a moment
felt lucky we were not born during that period in Europe. So considering
this, you can go ahead.
**Holocaust Revisted**
Just think about that. Around 1.5
million, most of them Jews were killed in five years within few sq.miles
of ghettos without much fuss by Nazis.
Foto:Entrance of Aushwitz Camp with those
famous words :"Work gives Freedom" in german.
 
Foto: Entrance of Birkanau:
During the II world war, Nazis under Hitler,
went hunting for Jews all over the Europe. All over the world, Auschwitz
has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. It was established
by the Nazis in 1940, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was
annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. Its name was changed to Auschwitz.
The camp was established in mid-1940,
more than a year before the Germans embarked upon the "Endlösung der
Judenfrage" (Final Solution of the Jewish Question) - the plan, systematically
carried out, to murder all the Jews living in the countries occupied by
the Third Reich.The reason was that mass arrests of Poles were not enough
of existing "local" prisons.
Auschwitz,started as a concentration
camp, over time became the largest Nazi camp. Initially, Poles who were
regarded as particularly dangerous: the elite of the Polish people, their
political, civic, and spiritual leaders, cultural and scientific figures,
and also members of the resistance movement, officers, and so on. Over
time, the Nazis also began to send groups of prisoners from other occupied
countries to Auschwitz.
Foto: Jews are selected for Gas chamber
without entered into the roll.
 
From among all the people deported
to Auschwitz, approximately 400,000 people were registered and placed in
the camp and its sub-camps (200,000 Jews, more than 140,000 Poles, approximately
20,000 Gypsies from various countries, more than 10,000 Soviet prisoners
of war, and more than 10,000 prisoners of other nationalities).
Over 50% of the registered prisoners died
as a result of starvation, labor that exceeded their physical capacity,
the terror that raged in the camp, executions, the inhuman living conditions,
disease and epidemics, punishment, torture, and criminal medical experiments.
Beginning in 1942, Auschwitz began
to function as the center of mass destruction of the European Jews. The
Nazis marked all the Jews living in Europe for total extermination, regardless
of their age, sex, occupation, citizenship, or political views. They died
only because they were Jews. After the selections conducted on the railroad
platform, or ramp, newly arrived persons classified by the SS physicians
as unfit for labor were sent to the gas chambers, along with the
ill, the elderly, pregnant women, children.
In most cases, 70-75% of each transport
was sent to immediate death. These people were not entered in the camp
records; that is, they received no serial numbers and were not registered.
This is why it is possible only to estimate the total number of victims.
Foto: Women & kids after the selection
are on their way to Gas Chambers:
Historians estimate that among the
people sent to Auschwitz there were at least 1,100,000 Jews from all the
countries of occupied Europe, over 140,000 Poles (mostly political prisoners),
approximately 20,000 Gypsies from several European countries, over 10,000
Soviet prisoners of war, and over ten thousand prisoners of other nationalities.
The majority of the Jewish deportees died in the gas chambers immediately
after arrival.
The location of the camp, practically
in the center of German-occupied Europe, and its convenient transportation
connections, led the Nazis to expand Auschwitz on an enormous scale and
deport people here from almost all of Europe. Birkanau was built near Aushwitz
itself.
Foto: Birkanau - Rails that directly take
prisoners to Gas Chambers.
 
Foto :Gas Chambers
 
**Inside the HEll**
Two types of barracks, brick and wooden,
housed prisoners in Birkenau concentration camp.
The brick buildings were erected
in great haste, without suitable insulation, on marshy ground. More than
700 people were assigned to each barrack, although in practice the figure
was sometimes higher.
These barracks lacked any true heating;
nor did they contain sanitary facilities.
The wooden stable-barracks, designed
to hold 52 horses, were partitioned into stalls. The stalls contained three-tier
wooden bunks. Several hundred prisoners lived in each such barrack.
Dampness, leaky roofs, and the fouling
of straw and straw mattresses by prisoners suffering from diarrhea made
difficult living conditions worse,not to forget about the various sorts
of vermin and rats. A constant shortage of water for washing, and the lack
of suitable sanitary facilities, aggravated the situation.
Prisoners spent over ten hours per day
working, and the rest of the time was taken up by long roll-call assemblies,
lining up for food rations or a place in the latrines or the washroom,
removing dirt and pests from clothing, and disinfection.
**Executions - More of a Freedom from
Pain **
Executions were one means of physically
liquidating prisoners and people brought from outside the camp. At first,
people were shot to death in the pits near the camp from which gravel had
been dug. From the autumn of 1941 until the autumn of 1943, most of the
executions by shooting took place in the courtyard of Block No. 11in the
main camp. Most of the victims here were Poles.Soviet prisoners of war
were also executed at Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Beginning in September
1941, executions were also carried out using poison gas.
Foto: The Execution Block-Block No 11
Executions by hanging were carried
out sporadically in the camp. As opposed to shooting or killing in the
gas chamber, hanging was public. It was carried out in front of other prisoners,
usually during roll call. The goal was to intimidate the witnesses, and
the victims were most frequently prisoners caught trying to escape, or
suspected of aiding escapers.
Prisoners were given a White-blue
striped uniform with a Unique Number. Not more names, no more identity.
The aim was to make the prisoners that they are no longer humans, just
bodies with a number without any identity.
Foto: Witnesses of all atrocities.
 
Even now, they have preserved lots
of things used then,as the witnesses. Actually, I could thousands of combs,
brushes, trunk boxes & lakhs of shoes used by prisoners. Also 1950
kilograms of hair mostly from were also found. It was used in German Textile
industry. (I warned u earlier itself..) And Cyanide was found in the roots
of the hairs.
Even dreaming about getting out
of this place was impossible. During the five years, very few have escaped,
ofcourse, consequences being the worst kind.Double fenced walls & high
alert security made it difficult.
Foto: Security in the camp
 
**End of the longest waiting:**
At the end of 1944, in the
face of the approaching Red Army offensive, the Auschwitz administration
set about removing the traces of the crimes that they had committed. They
destroyed documents, dismantled some buildings, and burned others down
or demolished them with explosives. The orders for the final evacuation
and liquidation of the camp were issued in mid-January 1945.
Prisoners capable of marching were evacuated
into the depths of the Third Reich in late January 1945, at the moment
when Soviet soldiers were liberating Cracow, some 60 kilometers from the
camp. Approximately 56,000 men and women prisoners were led out of Auschwitz
from January 17-21 in marching columns escorted by heavily armed SS guards.
Many prisoners lost their lives during this tragic evacuation, known as
the "Death March".
On January 27, 1945, Russians soldiers
liberated the few thousand prisoners whom the Germans had left behind in
the camp.
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