HI All,
A simple question about Auschwitz I hope. Auschwitz was a labor camp not a death camp like Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Treblinka. Those were all death camps . What was Auschwitz's officail ( German ) designation death or labor camp.
Raistlin
P.S. Sorry about all the questions but I want to learn about all the camps and stuff.
A simple question about Auschwitz I hope
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Raistlin
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michael mills
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Its official name was KL Auschwitz. KL = Konzentrationslager = Concentration camp.
The official name of Birkenau was KGL Birkenau. KGL = Kriegsgefangenenlager = POW camp. Birkenau was originally designed as a camp to hold 100,000 Soviet POWs, who were to be used for labour on SS building projects in the area. In fact, only 10,000 Soviet POWs arrived. Thereafter it was mainly Jews who were sent to the camp, which nevertheless retained its original designation.
The designation "death camp" did not exist. Camps that were in effect death camps, since their only function was swift killing, were officially designated "Sonderlager" = Special Camp, eg Sonderlager der Waffen-SS Belzec.
But not every "Sonderlager" was a death camp. Any camp that had a special purpose of some kind was termed "Sonderlager".
The official name of Birkenau was KGL Birkenau. KGL = Kriegsgefangenenlager = POW camp. Birkenau was originally designed as a camp to hold 100,000 Soviet POWs, who were to be used for labour on SS building projects in the area. In fact, only 10,000 Soviet POWs arrived. Thereafter it was mainly Jews who were sent to the camp, which nevertheless retained its original designation.
The designation "death camp" did not exist. Camps that were in effect death camps, since their only function was swift killing, were officially designated "Sonderlager" = Special Camp, eg Sonderlager der Waffen-SS Belzec.
But not every "Sonderlager" was a death camp. Any camp that had a special purpose of some kind was termed "Sonderlager".
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Raistlin
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michael mills
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Raistlin
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WalterS
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Raistlin wrote
Here's some information about Auschwitz from the judgment of the IMT that might interest you:
"These atrocities were all part and parcel of the policy inaugurated in 1941, and it is not surprising that there should be evidence that one or two German officials entered vain protests against the brutal manner in which the killings were carried out. But the methods employed never conformed to a single pattern. The massacres of Rowno and Dubno, of which the German engineer Graebe spoke, were examples of one method, the systematic extermination of Jews in concentration camps, was another Part of the " final solution " was the gathering of Jews from all German occupied Europe in concentration camps. Their physical condition was the test of life or death. All who were fit to work were used as slave labourers in the concentration camps; all who were not fit to work were destroyed in gas chambers and their bodies burnt. Certain concentration camps such as Treblinka and Auschwitz were set aside for this main purpose. With regard to Auschwitz, the Tribunal heard the evidence of Hoess, the Commandant of the camp from 1st May, 1940, to 1st December, 1943. He estimated that in the camp of Auschwitz alone in that time 2,500,000 persons were exterminated, and that a further 500,000 died from disease and starvation. Hoess described the screening for extermination by stating in evidence:
" We had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavoured to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realised our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under their clothes, but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated."
He described the actual killing by stating:
" It took from three to fifteen minutes to kill the people in the death chamber, depending upon climatic conditions. We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. We usually waited about one half-hour before we opened the doors and removed the bodies. After the bodies were removed our special commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold from the teeth of the corpses."
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/p ... ersecution
HI All,
A simple question about Auschwitz I hope. Auschwitz was a labor camp not a death camp like Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Treblinka. Those were all death camps . What was Auschwitz's officail ( German ) designation death or labor camp.
Raistlin
P.S. Sorry about all the questions but I want to learn about all the camps and stuff.
Here's some information about Auschwitz from the judgment of the IMT that might interest you:
"These atrocities were all part and parcel of the policy inaugurated in 1941, and it is not surprising that there should be evidence that one or two German officials entered vain protests against the brutal manner in which the killings were carried out. But the methods employed never conformed to a single pattern. The massacres of Rowno and Dubno, of which the German engineer Graebe spoke, were examples of one method, the systematic extermination of Jews in concentration camps, was another Part of the " final solution " was the gathering of Jews from all German occupied Europe in concentration camps. Their physical condition was the test of life or death. All who were fit to work were used as slave labourers in the concentration camps; all who were not fit to work were destroyed in gas chambers and their bodies burnt. Certain concentration camps such as Treblinka and Auschwitz were set aside for this main purpose. With regard to Auschwitz, the Tribunal heard the evidence of Hoess, the Commandant of the camp from 1st May, 1940, to 1st December, 1943. He estimated that in the camp of Auschwitz alone in that time 2,500,000 persons were exterminated, and that a further 500,000 died from disease and starvation. Hoess described the screening for extermination by stating in evidence:
" We had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavoured to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realised our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under their clothes, but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated."
He described the actual killing by stating:
" It took from three to fifteen minutes to kill the people in the death chamber, depending upon climatic conditions. We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. We usually waited about one half-hour before we opened the doors and removed the bodies. After the bodies were removed our special commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold from the teeth of the corpses."
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/p ... ersecution