Auschwitz Camp

Just a week before Christmas in 2009, a group of bold thieves helped themselves to a rather unusual item: an iron sign hanging over the entrance to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Police reported the incident and claimed the theft occurred in the early morning hours of December 18th. The sign, which could weigh as much as ninety pounds, was apparently unscrewed at one end and simply pulled down on the other.

The sign was first erected in 1940 after construction on the prison camp was completed. The simple iron “banner” is comprised of an upper and lower border with the words “arbeit macht frei” or, “work sets you free”, running the length. Thieves cut the sign into three individual pieces which were recovered from a forest nearly 200 miles away following a police investigation.

Arrested and charged in the incident three days later were five Polish men described by authorities as “common thieves”. According to an Associated Press article published Dec. 21, 2009, one investigator was quoted as saying, “Robbery and material gain are considered one of the main possible motives, but whether that was done on someone’s order will be determined in the process of the investigation.”

Officials at Auschwitz, which now serves as a museum and memorial to the untold numbers of prisoners killed there, have pledged to increase security measures to protect not only the sign, but also the many other artifacts and buildings the site contains. The sign itself was welded back together and returned to its original place at the camp’s entrance. The museum will receive about $87 million from Germany to help upgrade and maintain Auschwitz and Birkenau, its sister site nearby, but that sum is only about half of what the museum says it needs.

Born in Poland January 7, 1894, the Conventual Franciscan friar Maximilian Kolbe had already distinguished himself by his unrelenting battle against the world’s evils and his intense devotion to Mary Immaculate when he became an inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp in May 1941.

Fr Maximilian was still a seminary student when he helped found the Militia Immaculatae (Army of Mary), whose mission was to convert sinners and enemies of the Catholic Church through the influence of the Blessed Virgin. In his subsequent career as a friar he founded monastaries in Poland, Japan and India despite worsening health.

Back in Poland at the outbreak of World War II, Maximilian sheltered refugees (including many Jews) at the Niepokalanow friary he had founded in 1927. He was still publishing the widely circulated monthly Knight of the Immaculate when he was arrested in February 1941 after speaking out against the Nazis in his magazine. He was incarcerated at Pawiak prison (Warsaw), then transferred to Auschwitz in May.

Surviving Auschwitz inmates have testified in detail about Fr Maximilian’s selflessness and service to others during his weeks at the death camp before his August execution. With other priests, he was targeted for abuse by the most sadistic guards. His ministering to others—hearing confessions while hospitalized after a near-fatal beating, or celebrating Mass in secret—never wavered. Although survival was precarious and food was always scarce, he held back so others could get food, or shared his ration.

The final episode of Fr. Maximilian’s life exemplified self-sacrifice. When ten prisoners were selected for death by starvation as punishment for the escape of three inmates, the Franciscan persuaded the Nazi officer in charge to allow him to take the place of one doomed man so that the other prisoner might still have hope of seeing his family again. Fr. Maximilian was the last in the punishment cell to die; after supporting his fellow prisoners in prayer and song for two weeks, he was killed by lethal injection on August 14.

He was canonized October 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II.

Of all the death camps, Auschwitz concentration camp is considered the worst and is the most well-known. Already malnourished and ill, Jews were gassed almost daily. Children under fifteen were killed upon arrival. Everyone knew there was only one way out: through the chimney. To escape, one must die.

Auschwitz Daily Life: Morning Hours

Morning was signaled by a series of whistles, and upon wakening, the prisoners had to make their beds, wash up and then get breakfast. The mattresses were straw, and had to be made up perfectly. Anyone who wasn’t able to stand up was taken away. Breakfast consisted of an unsweetened coffee product or tea.

After breakfast, the prisoners had to line up in rows for the morning roll call. After roll call, the prisoners were marched to their work stations.

The Work Day at Auschwitz

Different prisoners had different assignments during the eleven-hour work day. Some prisoners remained in the camp, working as doctors, writing letters or creating items for everyday life as commanded by the overseers. Some prisoners were assigned to private factories, where they did whatever labor was required of them. Factories paid for this privilege and could dispose of the workers as they saw fit. Most prisoners worked outside the camp, constructing buildings, working on the roads, building train tracks or mining coal.

The workers had a half-hour break for lunch. They were given soup or water. The soup had to be eaten there. If it was stored and found later, the prisoners were beaten and the food removed.

After work, the prisoners were kept in order as they were taken back to the concentration camp.

Evening Hours at Auschwitz

Upon return, the prisoners were greeted with the evening roll call. This took substantially longer than the morning roll call, since it was considered a punishment for people who tried to escape or didn’t work as hard as the guards felt they should have.

Dinner was served after roll call. It usually consisted of bread, which was often spoiled. On some days, usually Saturdays, bread and jam went with the bread.

Not ever prisoner was able to partake of every meal. Only those who arrived on time, while food was still available, were able to eat. Even those who had every meal weren’t eating enough food to sustain themselves for the heavy work day.

After dinner, the prisoners returned to their tight quarters.

The gas chambers of the Auschwitz concentration camps represent the ultimate physical manifestation and implementation of Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution”. These death traps fatally gassed close to a million Jews, hundreds of thousands of Poles (Polish individuals), Gypsies and others that were deemed undesirable. Their sole purpose – to commit mass murder – was accomplished with brutal efficiency; their utilitarian design stemming from a pressing “need” to systematically dispose of large quantities of Jews.

The gas chambers do not so much shock the conscience with menacing artifacts, as would a torture chamber’s chains, straps and crude metal tools, but rather disturb the mind with their coldly indifferent operation. The buildings that housed the gas chambers were built by a military bureaucracy and teams of civil engineers, not maniacal mobs or depraved dungeon keepers. There was no passion, no virulent hate evident in their construction, there was only a focused desire to accomplish the task at hand. It is this very lack of emotion that alienates our humanity, that defies our understanding. How could so many people, so many lives be so methodically, yet casually extinguished?

The birth of the gas chambers began in the 1920′s with the fabrication of a new and more effective cyanide-based insecticide, Zyklon B. This product, packaged in innocuous looking metal canisters, was never meant to be used as an accessory to murder. The Nazis first experimented with the insecticide as a means to induce death when they gassed 250 Gypsy children in 1940. The following year, similar experiments were conducted at Auschwitz; 600 Soviet POWs and 250 sick Polish prisoners became the first gassing victims at the camp. The successful trials – and necessity – spurred the building of two dedicated gas chambers and the conversion of an additional building for the same purpose.

The gas chambers would continue to operate at Auschwitz until the advance of the Red Army in 1944 forced the the SS to demolish the buildings. The structures that housed these gas chambers are were rebuilt and the entire camp in Auschwitz, Poland now serves as a Holocaust memorial and museum.

Trying to describe an average day in the life of a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp would be like trying to describe an average day in hell. Each day brought about new horrors for the unfortunate victims of the Holocaust interred in this Nazi operated extermination camp. Just under one million Jews were killed over the five year history of Auschwitz.

The “lucky” few who weren’t immediately sent to the gas chambers after being shipped to the concentration camp could expect a life of degradation and random punishment. Barracks were overcrowded with not enough beds to house the prisoners. Only the luckiest would receive blankets to keep warm during the cold Polish nights. Days were spent working the prisoners to exhaustion in factories providing materials for the war effort or doing pointless labors such as digging ditches. The unluckiest would have to deal with the remains of their fallen friends, family, and prison mates. Even amongst the prisoners, these prisoners were often reviled although they had little choice in the matter.

Every day, the victims of Nazi cruelty would see their peers taken in front of firing squads, taken away for medical experimentation, starved, beaten, and otherwise tortured. The understanding that it was only a matter of time loomed large in the thoughts of every prisoner. Until Soviet forces freed the prisoners in 1945, it seemed there was no hope of rescue as Allied forces ignored the reality of the situation.

Although the camp conditions were specifically designed to break the spirits of its inhabitants, the fighting spirit of the Jews, Poles, Gypsies, and Russians housed within the walls of Auschwitz did not falter. Over five years, nearly 300 individual prisoners escaped. Unfortunately, Nazis would terrorize inmates by publicly starving ten prisoners for each escaped prisoner. Every prisoner at Auschwitz had to face the hard reality that every moment could be their last and no amount of good behavior or cooperation could prevent an arbitrary punishment.

The Auschwitz Concentration Camp Museum – a Somber Reflection of History

Not all aspects of our world’s history are pleasant, and the happenings at Auschwitz are one of the many tragic events of times past. However, unlike other atrocities — the events of World War II, specifically in Nazi-controlled Germany, have affected many of us — our family members, our friends, and even ourselves. While there are many who would like nothing more than to completely forget about the 1930’s and 1940’s and all the history that this era created, there are some of us who want to remember, those of us who want to study, understand, and pay respects to those who suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime. For those who want to remember, the Auschwitz Concentration Camp Museum offers an up-close and unforgettable glimpse into that part of history.

The Auschwitz Concentration Camp Museum is not like any other, arguably on the face of the planet. Most experts agree that between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people lost their lives in Auschwitz’s three camps in a few short years — many of them in horrific ways. While some of Auschwitz’s structures were destroyed in early 1945, just before the Russians took command and freed the captives, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau have been turned into a memorial, museum, and learning center for those who want to better- understand the era and all that transpired during it.

If you want to visit the Auschwitz Concentration Camp Museum by yourself, or maybe with a family member or two — admission is free. However, if you want a guided tour of the facilities, there are nominal fees for the tours, and those rates depend on the type of guided tour that you choose, and how many people are joining you. To get a better understanding of the concentration camp, the people who controlled it, and those who worked, lived, and died there, though — you should at least consider one of the many tours that the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum offers — it will be well worth the small price.

Whether you are just on holiday in the area, or whether you are making a special trip to Poland to visit the memorial — the Auschwitz Concentration Camp Museum offers an unforgettable glimpse into our world’s history.

Auschwitz.

The events surrounding perhaps the worst disaster known to mankind – World War II, are many and varied, not the least of which was the Holocaust by the German people on the various minorities that they deemed unsuitable for the purposes of their country. Many people forget the fact that not only the Jewish people were condemned, tortured, and subjected to many horrific phenomenon. However some of the facts in particular are in dispute, or rather not everyone agrees on just how many people died or in what fashion. No one argues that the events were horrific and demeaning, but what are the actual statistics regarding the deaths at concentration camps such as infamous Auschwitz?

If we take the Red Cross as a valid and legitimate source for all things Holocaust and statistical, certain facts emerge. For instance, according to Charles Biedermann of the Red Cross, the amount of names and death certificates for all the various individuals who died at Auschwitz add up to a number roughly lower than that of 400,000. Almost seventy five percent of these people were between the ages of 20 and 50. However, according to other sources there may have been anywhere from one million to the exceedingly large number of four million. The commander and authority in charge of the camp, Rudolf Höss admits to the deaths of at least two and a half million people.

The most disturbing lack of consistency in the statics of this massive failure of humanity is in the statistics that the Soviet government gathered on Auschwitz. According to Soviet sources, the numbers lower, in the realm of anywhere from seven thousand to ten thousand total deaths. As a wise man once said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

Auschwitz.

Just hearing the name itself brings thoughts of genocide and atrocities that the Nazi Germans were accused of in WWII.

But the camp did not begin as a concentration camp. It was originally built in 1916 for migratory workers on their way to seasonal work. From 1919 to 1939 Germany was divided into two sections- Germany and German-occupied Poland. During WWI the Polish used the camp as a military garrison. In 1939 Poland was annexed by the Greater German Reich when Nazi and Soviet troops defeated Poland. Because the camp was conveniently located near a railroad, centrally located in Europe, and had usable military buildings already available, it was chosen to be the first concentration camp in WWII, although Germany had already been employing concentration camps for seven years. On June 14, 1940 Auschwitz received the first prisoners: men of Polish political standing.

At the same time Auschwitz was made a concentration camp, a company called I.G. Farben also chose this site for a new chemical factory. On January 20, 1942 the Wannsee Conference was held, and plans were made for the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” which ultimately resulted in the deaths of some 6 million Jews. In October 1941, Auschwitz II was formed 3 kilometers from the original camp. Auschwitz III was opened in a factory complex constructed by the I.G. Farben company. On January 27, 1945 Auschwitz was liberated.

Today Auschwitz is known as the place of the greatest mass murder of all time. In 1947 parts of Auschwitz I and II were preserved and converted to the Auschwitz Museum by Poland. It is visited by people from all over the world today who want to see the infamous Auschwitz. The iron gates that receive the visitors is crowned with the words “Arbeit macht frei,” or Work brings freedom.