The liberation of National Socialist (Nazi) detention camps in 1945 revealed unspeakable horrors committed against humanity. Of all the detention (or concentration) camps run by the Nazis, perhaps the most notorious was a Polish complex called Auschwitz. As one survivor later recalled, “Nothing . . . close to human existence existed in that place” (Mozes-Kor, 1992).
The Auschwitz Complex: 'Work Makes One Free'
Auschwitz was not one single internment center but a complex composed of three separate camps. Each camp served a separate German military purpose:
- Auschwitz I was the administrative center. It opened on June 15, 1940, and initially housed German criminals who supplied labor to a nearby German chemical factory. The average prison population at any time was about 15,000 inmates. The camp gate displayed the infamous motto, “Work Makes One Free.”
- Auschwitz II (Birkenau) began construction in October 1941 and opened in March 1942. It was designed to carry out the extermination of prisoners, so gas chambers and four crematoriums were constructed to handle the mass killings. Approximately 1.2 million prisoners (mostly Jewish) died at this 'annihilation' camp during its three years of operation.
- Auschwitz III (Monowitz) began operations in May 1942. It was intended as a work camp to support surrounding German industry, such as chemical manufacturing plants and iron foundries. About 11,000 inmates were housed at any one time. The weakest prisoners were worked until exhaustion and then shipped to Birkenau for extermination.
Together, all three camps contained about 300 buildings, spread over a vast space about 44 km in length and 20 km in width.
Arrival at Auschwitz: 'My number was B-3348'
Prisoners arrived at Auschwitz in cattle cars. As Mozes-Kor (1992) remembered, “We were packed like sardines” in cars where the “stench of the cramped bodies” was everywhere. From the cattle car, she “could see a small patch of gray sky through the barbed wires.”
Upon arrival and sorting, prisoners were showered and deloused. Their heads were shaved and given striped uniforms that often did not fit. Prisoners were then lined up in single file and tattooed with an identifying number on the forearm. Names no longer mattered at Auschwitz.
Life and Work at Auschwitz: 'Flesh of human bodies burning'
Living conditions were harsh, and prisoners were forced into overcrowded barracks. Years afterward, survivors such as Ben Stern recalled the barracks in vivid detail: “We laid on straw . . . in beds stacked three high and about three feet wide and three feet long.” Outside, the smell of burning flesh from the crematoriums was everywhere: “We couldn't mistake that smell for anything else.”
The prisoners were awakened each morning as early as 5:00 AM. They were herded outside in the cold and then given nothing to do. At lunch, they received cold “soup or just plain warm water in a metal tin like a mess kit.” The soup was plain broth. In the evening, a slice of bread about a “quarter of an inch thick” was served. On Sundays, meat sometimes was handed out with the bread, but often no more than a slice of salami.
The work routine was exhausting and often pointless. Stern remembered being asked to move steel beams during the winter months. Prisoners were not allowed to wear gloves. As crews of 15 or 20 prisoners lifted the beams and tried to set them down, they couldn't tear their “hands from the steel because they were frozen to the beam.” The next day, the prisoners were ordered to move the bloody beams back to where they had been before.
Although work at Auschwitz was horrendous, nothing compared to the medical experimentation practiced by physicians such as Josef Mengele.
References
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. 2009. Auschwitz I. Auschwitz II. Auschwitz III. http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/h/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Goldberg S. 2005 (January 27). A bleak, hopeless landscape. CNN.com. A Time Warner Company. Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
Mozes-Kor E. 1992. The Mengele twins and human experimentation: a personal account. In: GJ Annas and MJ Grodin, eds. The Nazi doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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