Auschwitz concentration camp: Difference between revisions

| caption = ''Top:'' Gate to [[Auschwitz I]] with its {{lang|de|[[Arbeit macht frei]]}} sign ("work sets you free"){{pb}}''Bottom:'' [[Auschwitz II-Birkenau]] gatehouse;. theThe train track, in operation May–Octoberfrom May to October 1944, led directly totoward the gas chambers.<ref>{{cite web |title=The unloading ramps and selections |url=http://auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-and-shoah/the-unloading-ramps-and-selections |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190121220003/http://auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-and-shoah/the-unloading-ramps-and-selections |archive-date=21 January 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

'''Auschwitz concentration camp''' ({{Lang-de|Konzentrationslager Auschwitz}}, ({{IPA-de|kɔntsɛntʁaˈtsi̯oːnsˌlaːɡɐ ˈʔaʊʃvɪts|pron|De-Konzentrationslager_Auschwitz.ogg}}); also '''{{lang|de|KL Auschwitz}}''' or '''{{lang|de|KZ Auschwitz}}''') was a complex of over 40 [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration]] and [[extermination camp]]s operated by [[Nazi Germany]] in [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|occupied Poland]] (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Auschwitz |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/auschwitz |url-status=live |access-date=2021-07-02 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en |quote=Auschwitz is the German name for the Polish city Oświęcim. Oświęcim is located in Poland, approximately 40 miles (about 64 km) west of Kraków. Germany annexed this area of Poland in 1939. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613200958/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/auschwitz |archive-date=13 June 2018}}</ref> during [[World War II]] and the [[Holocaust]]. It consisted of [[#Auschwitz I|Auschwitz I]], the main camp (''Stammlager'') in [[Oświęcim]]; [[#Auschwitz II-Birkenau|Auschwitz II-Birkenau]], a concentration and extermination camp with [[gas chamber]]s; [[#Auschwitz III|Auschwitz III-Monowitz]], a [[Arbeitslager|laborlabour camp]] for the chemical conglomerate [[IG Farben]]; and [[List of subcamps of Auschwitz|dozens of subcamps]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Auschwitz III-Monowitz |url=http://70.auschwitz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&Itemid=173&lang=en |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190122190412/http://70.auschwitz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&Itemid=173&lang=en |archive-date=22 January 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> The camps became a major site of the Nazis' [[final solution|Final Solution]] to the [[Jewish question]].

After Germany [[Causes of World War II#Invasion of Poland|sparkedinitiated World War II]] by [[Invasion of Poland|invading Poland]] in September 1939, the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a [[prisoner-of-war camp]].{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=166}} The initial transport of [[Holocaust victims#Political victims|political detainees]] to Auschwitz consisted almost solely of Poles (for whom the camp was initially established). TheFor bulkthe offirst inmatestwo wereyears, Polishthe formajority theof firstinmates twowere yearsPolish.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Auschwitz-Birkenau |first=Former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp - Memorial and Museum |title=Poles in Auschwitz |url=http://auschwitz.org/en/education/study-visits/lectures/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-07-08 |website=auschwitz.org |quote=The first transport of political prisoners to Auschwitz consisted almost exclusively of Poles. It was for them that the camp was founded, and the majority of prisoners were Polish for the first two years. They died of starvation, brutal mistreatment, beating, and sickness, and were executed and killed in the gas chambers. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812124017/http://auschwitz.org/en/education/study-visits/lectures/ |archive-date=12 August 2020}}</ref> In May 1940, German criminals brought to the camp as [[#functionaries|functionaries]] established the camp's reputation for sadism. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, and executed for the most trivial of reasons. The first [[Extermination camp#Gassings|gassings]]—of Soviet and Polish prisoners—took place in [[#block 11|block 11]] of Auschwitz I around August 1941.

At least 802 prisoners tried to escape, 144 successfully, and on 7 October 1944, two ''[[Sonderkommando]]'' units, consisting of prisoners who operated the gas chambers, launched an unsuccessful uprising. OnlyAfter the Holocaust ended, only 789 [[Schutzstaffel]] personnel (no more than 15 percent) ever stood trial after the Holocaust ended;.{{sfn|Lasik|2000b|p=116, n.&nbsp;19}} severalSeveral were executed, including camp commandant [[Rudolf Höss]]. The [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]' failure to act on early reports of atrocitiesmass murder by bombing the camp or its railways remains controversial.

As the Soviet [[Red Army]] approached Auschwitz in January 1945, toward the end of the war, the SS sent most of the camp's population west on a [[Death marches (Holocaust)|death march]] to camps inside Germany and Austria. Soviet troops [[#Liberation|entered the camp]] on 27 January 1945, a day commemorated since 2005 as [[International Holocaust Remembrance Day]]. In the decades after the war, [[Holocaust survivors|survivors]] such as [[Primo Levi]], [[Viktor Frankl]], and [[Elie Wiesel]] wrote memoirs of their experiences, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. In 1947, Poland founded the [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]] on the site of Auschwitz I and II, and in 1979 it was named a [[World Heritage Site]] by [[UNESCO]]. Auschwitz is the site of the largest mass murder in a single location in history.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arnett |first=George |date=2015-01-27 |title=Auschwitz: a short history of the largest mass murder site in human history |url=https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/auschwitz-short-history-liberation-concentration-camp-holocaust |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=amp.theguardian.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. |url=https://mjhnyc.org/exhibitions/auschwitz/ |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust |language=en-US}}</ref>

A former World War I camp for transient workers and later a Polish army barracks, Auschwitz I was the main camp (''Stammlager'') and administrative headquarters of the camp complex. Fifty&nbsp;{{convert|50|km|spell=In}} southwest of [[Kraków]], the site was first suggested in February 1940 as a quarantine camp for Polish prisoners by [[Arpad Wigand]], the inspector of the [[Sicherheitspolizei]] (security police) and deputy of [[Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski]], the [[SS and Police Leader|Higher SS and Police Leader]] for Silesia. [[Richard Glücks]], head of the [[Concentration Camps Inspectorate]], sent [[Walter Eisfeld]], former commandant of the [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp]] in [[Oranienburg]], Germany, to inspect it.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000a|pp=52–53}}; {{harvnb|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=166}}.</ref> Around 1,000&nbsp;{{convert|1000|m}} long and {{convert|400&nbsp;|m}} wide,{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=16}} Auschwitz consisted at the time of 22 brick buildings, eight of them two-story. A second story was added to the others in 1943 and eight new blocks were built.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000a|pp=52–53}}; also see {{harvnb|Iwaszko|2000b|p=51}}; {{harvnb|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=166}}</ref>

An inmate's first encounter with Auschwitz, if they were registered and not sent straight to the gas chamber, was at the prisoner reception centercentre near the gate with the ''{{lang|de|Arbeit macht frei''}} sign, where they were tattooed, shaved, disinfected, and given a striped prison uniform. Built between 1942 and 1944, the center contained a bathhouse, laundry, and 19 gas chambers for delousing clothesclothing. The prisoner reception center of Auschwitz I became the visitor reception center of the [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]].{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=362}}

Around 20 March 1942, according to Danuta Czech, a transport of Polish Jews from [[Silesia]] and [[Dąbrowa Basin|Zagłębie Dąbrowskie]] was taken straight from the station to the Auschwitz II gas chamber, which had just come into operation.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=143}} On 26 and 28 March, two transports of Slovakian Jews were registered as prisoners in the [[#Women's camp|women's camp]], where they were kept for slave labour; these were the first transports organized by [[Adolf Eichmann]]'s [[Reich Security Head Office Referat IV B4|department IV B4]] (the Jewish office) in the [[Reich Security Head Office]] (RSHA).{{efn|[[Danuta Czech]] (''[[Auschwitz 1940–1945]]'', Volume V, 2000): "March 26, 1942: Nine hundred ninety-nine Jewish women from Poprad in Slovakia arrived, and were assigned numbers 1000–1998. This was the first registered transport sent to Auschwitz by RSHA IV B4 (the Jewish Office, directed by SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann)."{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=144}}}} On 30 March the first RHSA transport arrived from France.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=144}} "Selection", where new arrivals were chosen for work or the gas chamber, began in April 1942 and was conducted regularly from July. Piper writes that this reflected Germany's increasing need for laborlabour. Those selected as unfit for work were gassed without being registered as prisoners.{{sfn|Piper|2000a|p=62}}

===Auschwitz II–BirkenauII-Birkenau{{anchor|Auschwitz II–BirkenauII-Birkenau|Birkenau}}===<!-- This section is linked from [[Treblinka extermination camp]] -->

After examining several sites for a new plant to manufacture [[Nitrile rubber|Buna-N]], a type of [[synthetic rubber]] essential to the war effort, the German chemical conglomerate [[IG Farben]] chose a site near the towns of [[Dwory II|Dwory]] and Monowice (Monowitz in German), about {{cvt|7|km}} east of Auschwitz I.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=45}}<!--check this: The area contained barracks, workshops and an old inn that was used as a canteen by IG Farben staff--> Tax exemptions were available to corporations prepared to develop industries in the frontier regions under the Eastern Fiscal Assistance Law, passed in December 1940. In addition to its proximity to the concentration camp, a source of cheap laborlabour, the site had good railway connections and access to raw materials.{{sfn|Hilberg|1998|pp=81–82}} In February 1941, Himmler ordered that the Jewish population of [[Oświęcim]] be expelled to make way for skilled laborers; that all Poles able to work remain in the town and work on building the factory; and that Auschwitz prisoners be used in the construction work.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=49}}

Although the factory had been expected to begin production in 1943, shortages of laborlabour and raw materials meant start-up was postponed repeatedly.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|pp=52, 56}} The Allies bombed the plant in 1944 on 20 August, 13 September, 18 December, and 26 December. On 19 January 1945, the SS ordered that the site be evacuated, sending 9,000 inmates, most of them Jews, on a death march to another Auschwitz subcamp at [[Gliwice]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hayes|2001|p=367}}; {{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=115}}; that when the camp was evacuated, 9,054 of the 9,792 inmates were Jews, see {{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=113}}.</ref> From Gliwice, prisoners were taken by rail in open freight wagons to the [[Buchenwald]] and [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex|Mauthausen]] concentration camps. The 800 inmates who had been left behind in the Monowitz hospital were liberated along with the rest of the camp on 27 January 1945 by the [[1st Ukrainian Front]] of the [[Red Army]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=115}}

The day began at 4:30&nbsp;am for the men (an hour later in winter), and earlier for the women, when the block supervisor sounded a gong and started beating inmates with sticks to make them wash and use the latrines quickly.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|pp=65–66}} Sanitary arrangementsThere were atrocious, with few latrines and there was a lack of clean water. Each washhouse had to service thousands of prisoners. In sectors BIa and BIb in Auschwitz II, two buildings containing latrines and washrooms were installed in 1943. These contained troughs for washing and 90 faucets; the toilet facilities were "sewage channels" covered by concrete with 58 holes for seating. There were three barracks with washing facilities or toilets to serve 16 residential barracks in BIIa, and six washrooms/latrines for 32 barracks in BIIb, BIIc, BIId, and BIIe.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=56}}<!--Rewrite: The camps were infested with vermin such as disease-carrying lice, and inmates died in epidemics of typhus and other diseases.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=94}} [[Noma (disease)|Noma]], a bacterial infection, was a common cause of death among children in the gypsy camp.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=111}}--> [[Primo Levi]] described a 1944 [[#Auschwitz III-Monowitz|Auschwitz III]] washroom:

Prisoners received half a literlitre of coffee substitute or a herbal tea in the morning, but no food.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=60}} A second gong heralded roll call, when inmates lined up outside in rows of ten to be counted. No matter the weather, they had to wait for the SS to arrive for the count; how long they stood there depended on the officers' mood, and whether there had been escapes or other events attracting punishment.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=66}} Guards might force the prisoners to squat for an hour with their hands above their heads or hand out beatings or detention for infractions such as having a missing button or an improperly cleaned food bowl. The inmates were counted and re-counted.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=33}}

After roll call, to the sound of "''Arbeitskommandos formieren''" ("form work details"), prisoners walked to their place of work, five abreast, to begin a working day that was normally 11 hours long—longer in summer and shorter in winter.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=67}}<!--wearing striped camp fatigues, no underwear, and ill-fitting wooden shoes without socks.{{sfn|Gutman|1998|pp=20–21}}--> A prison orchestra, such as the [[Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz]], was forced to play cheerful music as the workers left the camp. ''Kapos'' were responsible for the prisoners' behaviorbehaviour while they worked, as was an SS escort. Much of the work took place outdoors at construction sites, gravel pits, and lumber yards. No rest periods were allowed. One prisoner was assigned to the latrines to measure the time the workers took to empty their bladders and bowels.<ref>{{harvnb|Steinbacher|2005|p=33}}; {{harvnb|Gutman|1998|pp=20–21}}.</ref>

Lunch was three-quarters of a literlitre of watery soup at midday, reportedly foul-tasting, with meat in the soup four times a week and vegetables (mostly potatoes and [[rutabaga]]) three times. The evening meal was 300 grams of bread, often moldy, part of which the inmates were expected to keep for breakfast the next day, with a tablespoon of cheese or marmalade, or 25 grams of margarine or sausage. Prisoners engaged in hard laborlabour were given extra rations.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|pp=60–61}}

Sunday was not a work dayworkday, but prisoners had to clean the barracks and take their weekly shower,{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=21}} and were allowed to write (in German) to their families, although the SS censored the mail. Inmates who did not speak German would trade bread for help.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=34}} [[Shomer Shabbat|Observant Jews]] tried to keep track of the [[Hebrew calendar]] and [[Jewish holidays]], including [[Shabbat]], and the [[weekly Torah portion]]. No watches, calendars, or clocks were permitted in the camp. Only two Jewish calendars made in Auschwitz survived to the end of the war. Prisoners kept track of the days in other ways, such as obtaining information from newcomers.{{sfn|Rosen|2014|p=18}}

Conditions in the women's camp were so poor that when a group of male prisoners arrived to set up an infirmary in October 1942, their first task, according to researchers from the Auschwitz museumMuseum, was to distinguish the corpses from the women who were still alive.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=88}} [[Gisella Perl]], a Romanian-Jewish gynecologist and inmate of the women's camp, wrote in 1948:

Langefeld was succeeded as ''Lagerführerin'' in October 1942 by SS ''Oberaufseherin'' [[Maria Mandl]], who developed a reputation for cruelty. Höss hired men to oversee the female supervisors, first SS ''Obersturmführer'' Paul Müller, then SS ''Hauptsturmführer'' [[Franz Hössler]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|p=176}} Mandl and Hössler were executed after the war. SterilizationSterilisation experiments were carried out in barracks 30 by a German gynecologist, [[Carl Clauberg]], and another German doctor, [[Horst Schumann]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=88}}

Prisoners could be beaten and killed by guards and ''kapos'' for the slightest infraction of the rules. Polish historian Irena Strzelecka writes that ''kapos'' were given nicknames that reflected their sadism: "Bloody", "Iron", "The Strangler", "The Boxer".{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000d|pp=371–372}} Based on the 275 extant reports of punishment in the Auschwitz archives, Strzelecka lists common infractions: returning a second time for food at mealtimes, removing your ownone's gold teeth to buy bread, breaking into the pigsty to steal the pigs' food, putting yourone's hands ininto yourone's pockets.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=373–376}}

Flogging during roll-callrollcall was common. A flogging table called "the goat" immobilizedimmobilised prisoners' feet in a box, while they stretched themselves across the table. Prisoners had to count out the lashes—"25 mit besten Dank habe ich erhalten" ("25 received with many thanks")— and if they got the figure wrong, the flogging resumed from the beginning.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=373–376}} Punishment by "the post" involved tying prisoners' hands behind their backs with chains attached to hooks, then raising the chains so the prisoners were left dangling by the wrists. If their shoulders were too damaged afterwards to work, they might be sent to the gas chamber. Prisoners were subjected to the post for helping a prisoner who had been beaten, and for picking up a cigarette butt.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=384–385}} To extract information from inmates, guards would force their heads onto the stove, and hold them there, burning their faces and eyes.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|p=389}}

Known as block 13 until 1941, block 11 of Auschwitz I was the prison within the prison, reserved for inmates suspected of resistance activities.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|p=381}} Cell 22 in block 11 was a windowless [[standing cell]] (''Stehbunker''). Split into four sections, each section measured less than {{cvt|1.0|m2|sqft}} and held four prisoners, who entered it through a hatch near the floor. There was a {{cvt|5&nbsp;cm&nbsp;|x&nbsp;|5&nbsp;|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} vent for air, covered by a perforated sheet. Strzelecka writes that prisoners might have to spend several nights in cell 22; Wiesław Kielar spent four weeks in it for breaking a pipe.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=382, 384}} Several rooms in block 11 were deemed the ''Polizei-Ersatz-Gefängnis Myslowitz in Auschwitz'' (Auschwitz branch of the police station at [[Mysłowice]]).{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=77}} There were also ''Sonderbehandlung'' cases ("special treatment") for Poles and others regarded as dangerous to Nazi Germany.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=79}}

On 8 March 1944, 3,791 of the prisoners (men, women and children) were sent to the gas chambers; the men were taken to crematorium III and the women later to crematorium II.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=194}} Some of the groupgroups were reported to have sung [[Hatikvah]] and the Czech national anthem on the way.{{sfn|Keren|1998|p=439}} Before they were murdered, they had been asked to write postcards to relatives, postdated to 25–27 March. Several twins were held back for medical experiments.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=97}} The [[Czechoslovak government-in-exile]] initiated diplomatic manoeuvers to save the remaining Czech Jews after its representative in Bern received the [[Vrba-Wetzler report]], written by two escaped prisoners, [[Rudolf Vrba]] and [[Alfred Wetzler]], which warned that the remaining family-camp inmates would be gassed soon.{{sfn|Fleming|2014|pp=231–232}} The BBC also became aware of the report; its German service broadcast news of the family-camp murders during its women's programme on 16 June 1944, warning: "All those responsible for such massacres from top downwards will be called to account."{{sfn|Fleming|2014|p=215}} The Red Cross [[Maurice Rossel#Rossel's report|visited Theresienstadt]] in June 1944 and were persuaded by the SS that no one was being deported from there.{{sfn|Keren|1998|p=429}} The following month, about 2,000 women from the family camp were selected to be moved to other camps and 80 boys were moved to the men's camp; the remaining 7,000 were gassed between 10 and 12 July.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=203}}

The first gassings at Auschwitz took place in earlyon September 3, 1941, when around 850 inmates—Soviet prisoners of war and sick Polish inmates—were killed with Zyklon B in the basement of [[block 11]] in Auschwitz I. The building proved unsuitable, so gassings were conducted instead in crematorium I, also in Auschwitz I, which operated until December 1942. There, more than 700 victims could be killed at once.{{sfn|Piper|1998c|pp=157–159}} Tens of thousands were killed in crematorium I.<ref name="Müller 1999 31"/> To keep the victims calm, they were told they were to undergo disinfection and [[Delousing|de-lousing]]; they were ordered to undress outside, then were locked in the building and gassed. After its decommissioning as a gas chamber, the building was converted to a storage facility and later served as an SS air raid shelter.{{sfn|Piper|1998c|pp=159–160}} The gas chamber and crematorium were reconstructed after the war. Dwork and van Pelt write that a chimney was recreated; four openings in the roof were installed to show where the Zyklon B had entered; and two of the three furnaces were rebuilt with the original components.{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=364}}

During "selection" on arrival, those deemed able to work were sent to the right and admitted into the camp (registered), and the rest were sent to the left to be gassed. The group selected to die included almost all children, women with small children, the elderly, and others who appeared on brief and superficial inspection by an SS doctor not to be fit for work.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=103ff}} Practically any fault—scars, bandages, boils and emaciation—might provide reason enough to be deemed unfit.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=109–110}} Children might be made to walk toward a stick held at a certain height; those who could walk under it were selected for the gas.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=111}} Inmates unable to walk or who arrived at night were taken to the crematoria on trucks; otherwise, the new arrivals were marched there.{{sfn|Piper|1998c|pp=162, 169}} Their belongings were seized and sorted by inmates in the [[Kanada warehouses, Auschwitz|"Kanada" warehouses]], an area of the camp in sector BIIg that housed 30 barracks used as storage facilities for plundered goods; it derived its name from the inmates' view of Canada as a land of plenty.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=97–98}}

Just before cremation, jewelry was removed, along with dental work and teeth containing precious metals.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=171}} Gold was removed from the teeth of dead prisoners from 23 September 1940 onwards by order of Heinrich Himmler.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=400}} The work was carried out by members of the ''Sonderkommando'' who were dentists; anyone overlooking dental work might themselves be cremated alive.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=171}} The gold was sent to the SS Health Service and used by dentists to treat the SS and their families; 50&nbsp;kg had been collected by 8 October 1942.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=400}} By early 1944, 10–12&nbsp;kg of gold werewas being extracted monthly from victims' teeth.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=406}}

The Germans tried to conceal how many they had murdered. In July 1942, according to [[Rudolf Höss]]'s post-war memoir, Höss received an order from [[Heinrich Himmler]], via [[Adolf Eichmann]]'s office and SS commander [[Paul Blobel]], that "[a]ll mass graves were to be opened and the corpses burned. In addition, the ashes were to be disposed of in such a way that it would be impossible at some future time to calculate the number of corpses burned."<ref>{{harvnb|Höss|2003|p=188}}; also see {{harvnb|Friedländer|2007|p=404}}.</ref>

The last mass transports to arrive in Auschwitz were 60,000–70,000 Jews from the [[Łódź Ghetto]], some 2,000 from Theresienstadt, and 8,000 from [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovakia]].<ref>{{harvnb|Steinbacher|2005|p=109}}; {{harvnb|Evans|2008|p=655}}.</ref> The last selection took place on 30 October 1944.{{sfn|Piper|1998c|p=174}} On 1 or 2 November 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered the SS to halt the mass murder by gas.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=173}}; {{harvnb|Cesarani|2016|p=747}}.</ref>{{Why?|date=August 2022}} On 25 November, he ordered that Auschwitz's gas chambers and crematoria be destroyed. The ''Sonderkommando'' and other prisoners began the job of dismantling the buildings and cleaning up the site.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=173–174}} On 18 January 1945, Engelbert Marketsch, a German criminal transferred from [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex|Mauthausen]], became the last prisoner to be assigned a serial number in Auschwitz, number 202499.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=227}}

Other former staff were hanged for war crimes in the [[Dachau Trials]] and the [[Belsen Trial]], including camp leaders [[Josef Kramer]], [[Franz Hössler]], and [[Vinzenz Schöttl]]; doctor [[Friedrich Entress]]; and guards [[Irma Grese]] and [[Elisabeth Volkenrath]].{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=140}} [[Bruno Tesch]] and [[Karl Weinbacher]], the owner and chief executive officer of the firm [[Tesch & Stabenow]], one of the suppliers of Zyklon B, were arrested by the British after the war and executed for knowingly supplying the chemical for use on humans.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=744}} The 180-day [[Frankfurt Auschwitz trials]], held in [[West Germany]] from 20 December 1963 to 20 August 1965, tried 22 defendants, including two dentists, a doctor, two camp adjudants and the camp's pharmacist. The 700-page indictment, presenting the testimony of 254 witnesses, was accompanied by a 300-page report about the camp, ''Nationalsozialistische Konzentrationslager'', written by historians from the ''[[Institute of Contemporary History (Munich)|Institut für Zeitgeschichte]]'' in Germany, including [[Martin Broszat]] and [[Helmut Krausnick]]. The report became the basis of their book, ''Anatomy of the SS State'' (1968), the first comprehensive study of the camp and the SS. The court convicted 19 of the defendants, giving six of them life sentences and the others between three and ten years.{{sfn|Wittmann|2005|p=3}} [[East Germany]] also held trials against several former staff members of Auschwitz. One of the defendants they tried was [[Horst Fischer]]. Fischer, one of the highest -ranking SS physicians in the camp, had personally selected at least 75,000 men, women, and children to be gassed. He was arrested in 1965. The following year, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, sentenced to death, and guillotinedexecuted by [[guillotine]]. Fischer was the highest-ranking SS physician from Auschwitz to ever be tried by a German court.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wollheim Memorial |url=http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/prozess_gegen_horst_fischer_1966 |access-date=2022-10-01 |website=www.wollheim-memorial.de |archive-date=1 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001171415/http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/prozess_gegen_horst_fischer_1966 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the decades since its liberation, Auschwitz has become a primary symbol of the Holocaust. [[Seweryna Szmaglewska]]'s 1945 autobiograpy ''[[Dymy nad Birkenau]]'' (''Smoke over Birkenau'') has been credited with spreading knowledge about the camp to the general public.<ref name="Huener2007">{{cite book |last1=Huener |first1=Jonathan |editor1-last=Finder |editor1-first=Gabriel N. |editor2-last=Aleksiun |editor2-first=Natalia |editor3-last=Polonsky |editor3-first=Antony |title=Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 20: Making Holocaust Memory |year=2007 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-80034-534-8 |page=167 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AnFvEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 |chapter=Auschwitz and the Politics of Martyrdom and Memory, 1945–1947}}</ref>{{Rp|page=167}}<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Morawiec |first=Arkadiusz |date=2009 |title=Realizm w służbie (nieosiągalnego) obiektywizmu. "Dymy nad Birkenau" Seweryny Szmaglewskiej |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=166368 |journal=Pamiętnik Literacki. Czasopismo kwartalne poświęcone historii i krytyce literatury polskiej |language=Polish |issue=1 |pages=121–143 |issn=0031-0514}}</ref> Historian [[Timothy D. Snyder]] attributes this to the camp's high death toll and "unusual combination of an industrial camp complex and a killing facility", which left behind far more witnesses than single-purpose killing facilities such as [[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]] or [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]].{{sfn|Snyder|2010|pp=382–383}} In 2005 the [[United Nations General Assembly]] designated 27 January, the date of the camp's liberation, as [[International Holocaust Remembrance Day]].<ref>{{cite news |title=General Assembly designates International Holocaust Remembrance Day |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2005/11/158642-general-assembly-designates-international-holocaust-remembrance-day |work=UN News |date=1 November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905023327/https://news.un.org/en/story/2005/11/158642-general-assembly-designates-international-holocaust-remembrance-day |archive-date=5 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Helmut Schmidt]] visited the site in November 1977, the first [[West Germany|West German]] [[Chancellor of Germany (1949–present)|chancellor]] to do so, followed by his successor, [[Helmut Kohl]], in November 1989.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Butturini |first1=Paula |title=Kohl visits Auschwitz, vows no repetition of 'unspeakable harm' |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-11-15-8901310354-story.html |work=Chicago Tribune |date=15 November 1989 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720064824/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-11-15-8901310354-story.html |archive-date=20 July 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In a statement on the 50th anniversary of the liberation, Kohl said that "[t]he darkest and most awful chapter in German history was written at Auschwitz."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kinzer |first1=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Kinzer |title=Germans Reflect on Meaning of Auschwitz |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/28/world/germans-reflect-on-meaning-of-auschwitz.html |work=The New York Times |date=28 January 1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410130720/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/28/world/germans-reflect-on-meaning-of-auschwitz.html |archive-date=10 April 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In January 2020, world leaders gathered at [[Yad Vashem]] in Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th anniversary.<ref>{{cite news |first=David M. |last=Halbfinger |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/middleeast/holocaust-jerusalem-auschwitz-leaders-antisemitism.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200122225006/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/middleeast/holocaust-jerusalem-auschwitz-leaders-antisemitism.html |archive-date=2020-01-22 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=World Leaders, Gathering to Mark Holocaust, Are Urged to Fight 'Deadly Cancer' |work=The New York Times |date=22 January 2020}}</ref> It was the city's largest-ever political gathering, with over 45 heads of state and world leaders, including royalty.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/22/jerusalem-hosts-largest-ever-political-gathering-for-holocaust-forum |title=Jerusalem hosts largest-ever political gathering for Holocaust forum |first=Oliver |last=Holmes |date=22 January 2020 |work=The Guardian |access-date=24 January 2020 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125031702/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/22/jerusalem-hosts-largest-ever-political-gathering-for-holocaust-forum |url-status=live }}</ref> At Auschwitz itself, [[Reuven Rivlin]] and [[Andrzej Duda]], the presidents of Israel and Poland, laid [[Wreath|wreaths]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51266883 "Auschwitz 75 years on: Holocaust Day prompts new anti-Semitism warnings"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128030155/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51266883 |date=28 January 2020 }}. BBC News, 27 January 2020.</ref>

In 2017, a [[Körber Foundation]] survey found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was.<ref>{{cite news |title=Auschwitz-Birkenau: 4 out of 10 German students don't know what it was |url=https://www.dw.com/en/auschwitz-birkenau-4-out-of-10-german-students-dont-know-what-it-was/a-40734980 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=28 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928204158/https://www.dw.com/en/auschwitz-birkenau-4-out-of-10-german-students-dont-know-what-it-was/a-40734980 |archive-date=28 September 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Posener |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Posener |title=German TV Is Sanitizing History |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/09/dont-mention-the-war-germany-television-holocaust-anti-semitism-babylon-berlin-europe/ |work=[[Foreign Policy]] |date=9 April 2018 |access-date=20 January 2019 |archive-date=20 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720064815/https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/09/dont-mention-the-war-germany-television-holocaust-anti-semitism-babylon-berlin-europe/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The following year a survey organized by the [[Claims Conference]], [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] and others found that 41 percent of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66 percent of [[millennials]], did not know what Auschwitz was, while 22 percent said they had never heard of the Holocaust.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Survey by Claims Conference Finds Significant Lack of Holocaust Knowledge in the United States |url=http://www.claimscon.org/study |publisher=Claims Conference |date=2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180412152716/http://www.claimscon.org/study |archive-date=12 April 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{pbcite news |last1=Astor |first1=Maggie |title=Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html |work=The New York Times |date=12 April 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180418071414/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html |archive-date=18 April 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> A [[CNN]]-[[ComRes]] poll in 2018 found a similar situation in Europe.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Allen |title=CNN poll reveals depth of anti-Semitism in Europe |url=http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/ |publisher=CNN |date=November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127064644/http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/ |archive-date=27 November 2018}}</ref>

| image2 = AuschwitzIsraeli IAir Force jets Fly-16over Auschwitz concentration camp.jpg

| image3 = IsraeliEnd Airof Forcethe jetsrailway Fly-overline, Auschwitz-Birkenau, concentration2012 camp(2).jpg

| caption3 = [[IsraeliEnd Airof Force]]the [[F-15rail Eagle]]strack fly overinside Auschwitz II-Birkenau, 2003

| image4 = End of the railway line,Mattarella Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2012 (2).jpg

| caption4 = EndItalian ofpresident the[[Sergio railMattarella]] trackstanding insidein front of the Auschwitz"Death IIWall"

On 4 September 2003, despite a protest from the museum, three [[Israeli Air Force]] [[F-15 Eagle]]s [[Israeli Air Force flight over Auschwitz|performed a fly-over]] of Auschwitz II-Birkenau during a ceremony at the camp below. All three pilots were descendants of Holocaust survivors, including the man who led the flight, Major-General [[Amir Eshel]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barkat |first1=Amiram, and agencies |title=IAF Pilots Perform Fly-over at Auschwitz Death Camp |url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5370524 |work=Haaretz |date=4 September 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619064758/https://www.haaretz.com/1.5370524 |archive-date=19 June 2018}}</ref> On 27 January 2015, some 300 Auschwitz survivors gathered with world leaders under a giant tent at the entrance to Auschwitz II to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation.{{sfn|BBC News|2015a}}{{efn|Attendees included the president of the [[World Jewish Congress]], [[Ronald Lauder]], Polish president [[Bronisław Komorowski]], French President [[François Hollande]], German President [[Joachim Gauck]], the film director [[Steven Spielberg]], and King [[Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands]].{{sfn|BBC News|2015a}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=Connolly |first1=Kate |title=Auschwitz liberation ceremony will be the last for many survivors present |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/auschwitz-holocaust-survivors-liberation-70-anniversary-nazi-poland |work=The Guardian |date=27 January 2015 |access-date=31 January 2019 |archive-date=1 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201065432/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/auschwitz-holocaust-survivors-liberation-70-anniversary-nazi-poland |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Museum curators consider visitors who pick up items from the ground to be thieves, and local police will charge them as such; the maximum penalty is a 10-year prison sentence.{{sfn|BBC|2016}} In 2017 two British youths from the [[The Perse School|Perse School]] were fined in Poland after picking up buttons and shards of decorative glass in 2015 from the "Kanada" area of Auschwitz II, where camp victims' personal effects were stored.<ref>{{cite news |title=Court fines UK teens for stealing from Auschwitz |url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/court-fines-uk-teens-for-stealing-from-auschwitz/ |work=The Jewish News |agency=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=30 March 2017 |access-date=30 December 2019 |archive-date=30 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230204350/https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/court-fines-uk-teens-for-stealing-from-auschwitz/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The {{cvt|16|ft|m|adj=on}} ''{{lang|de|Arbeit Macht Frei''}} sign over the main camp's gate was stolen in December 2009 by a Swedish former neo-Nazi and two Polish men. The sign was later recovered.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Paterson |first=Tom |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/former-neo-nazi-jailed-for-auschwitz-sign-theft-2172533.html |title=Former neo-Nazi jailed for Auschwitz sign theft |work=The Independent |date=31 December 2010 |access-date=20 January 2019 |archive-date=1 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001114017/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/former-neo-nazi-jailed-for-auschwitz-sign-theft-2172533.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2018 the Polish government passed an amendment to its [[Act on the Institute of National Remembrance]], making it a criminal offence to violate the "good name" of Poland by accusing it of crimes committed by Germany in the [[Holocaust]], which would include referring to Auschwitz and other camps as [["Polish death camp" controversy|"Polish death camps"]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Henley |first1=Jen |title=Poland provokes Israeli anger with Holocaust speech law |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/01/poland-holocaust-speech-law-senate-israel-us |work=The Guardian |date=1 February 2018 |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-date=8 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208103724/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/01/poland-holocaust-speech-law-senate-israel-us |url-status=live }}</ref> Staff at the museum were accused by nationalist media in Poland of focusing too much on the fate of the Jews in Auschwitz at the expense of ethnic Poles. The brother of the museum's director, [[Piotr Cywiński]], wrote that Cywiński had experienced "50 days of incessant hatred".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Davies |first1=Christian |title=Poland's Holocaust law triggers tide of abuse against Auschwitz museum |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/07/polands-holocaust-law-triggers-tide-abuse-auschwitz-museum |work=The Guardian |date=7 May 2018 |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-date=19 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190219064238/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/07/polands-holocaust-law-triggers-tide-abuse-auschwitz-museum |url-status=live }}</ref> After discussions with Israel's prime minister, amid international concern that the new law would stifle research, the Polish government adjusted the amendment so that anyone accusing Poland of complicity would be guilty only of a civil offence.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Davies |first1=Christian |title=Poland makes partial U-turn on Holocaust law after Israel row |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/27/poland-partial-u-turn-controversial-holocaust-law |work=The Guardian |date=27 June 2018 |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-date=3 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203134837/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/27/poland-partial-u-turn-controversial-holocaust-law |url-status=live }}</ref>

*[[HöckerCensorship Albumin Auschwitz]]

==SourcesFootnotes==

===Citations===

{{Reflist|22em}}

*[http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/index.asp "The Auschwitz Album"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717041800/http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/index.asp |date=17 July 2018 }}. [[Yad Vashem]].

{{Portal bar|Germany|Poland|World War II}}