Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Miss Schmidt
Honors English 9
An Annotated Bibliography
“Auschwitz.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189.
Auschwitz I, Birkenau, and Monowitz were located approximately thirty-seven miles
west of Krakow, a city in Poland. It is estimated that between 1940 and 1945, around 1.3
million people were deported to Auschwitz. Of these, 1.1 million were murdered. Around
960,000 Jews were killed, 74,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war,
and 12,000 people of other nationalities. On October 7, 1944, several hundred prisoners
revolted in Birkenau after learning that they were going to be killed. They were assigned
to a crematorium but soon learned what their fate was meant to be. The prisoners killed
three guards and blew up the crematorium and a gas chamber nearby. They used
explosives that were smuggled into the camp by Jewish women who were assigned to
work at a weaponry factory. The Germans quickly took control and killed almost all of
the prisoners involved in the revolt. The women who helped were publicly hanged in
January of 1945. Gas chambers continued to be used until late 1944, when SS received
approached Auschwitz, SS officers began to evacuate it and its sub-camps. Over 60,000
prisoners were forced to march to new concentration camps. On January 27, 1945, the
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Soviet army finally made it to Birkenau and Monowitz. They liberated more than 6,000
beginning of World War II. It was chosen to play a major role in the “Final Solution.”
This was probably because of its location. The camp was at a railway junction with forty-
four parallel tracks. These rail lines were used to transport Jews throughout Europe to the
concentration camps. The first camp, Auschwitz I, received its first transport of prisoners
on June 14, 1940. Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, began construction in October of 1940. The
camp was located outside the village of Brzezinka. In Birkenau, SS officers developed a
huge concentration camp that consisted of over three hundred prison barracks, four large
gas chambers, corpse cellars, and crematoriums. Auschwitz III, or Monowitz, began work
in May of 1942. It was located near the village Dwory, and mainly served as a slave labor
camp. During most of the time between 1940 and 1945, the commandant of the
Auschwitz camps was SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Rudolf Franz Hoss. Prisoners were divided
upon entering the death camp in a process known as Selektion. Young children, their
mothers, and the old were sent directly to the gas chambers. Prisoners lived in harsh
conditions and those who suffered greatly and could no longer work faced transport to
southern Poland, it was responsible for the deaths of more than 1.3 million people.
Auschwitz was made up of over forty sub-camps where Jews and other enemies of the
Nazis were exterminated. Auschwitz came to be after Hitler rose to power in Germany.
Hitler implemented a policy known as the “Final Solution.” He sought to eliminate every
Jew in his domain, along with others who did not fit Hitler’s image of the master race.
When Auschwitz began construction, those living in the area were removed from their
homes, which were bulldozed by the Nazis. Auschwitz’s first commandment was Rudolf
Hoss, who had helped run a different concentration camp before then. Those who were
not immediately killed upon entering Auschwitz were employed as slave labor. They
made a variety of products that were considered essential to Germany’s efforts in the war.
When entering Auschwitz through the main gate, prisoners read the inscription on the
gate, “Work Makes You Free.” They were inspected by Nazi doctors, who decided if
they were to be killed or sent to work. Those who were not sent to work were told that
they were taking showers. However, when they entered the showers, the doors were
locked, and a poisonous gas was released into the room, killing everyone inside. Some
Mengele. Mengele would inject serum into the eyes of children to study eye color, inject
chloroform into the hearts of twins to see if they died in the same manner, and many
Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Stratus and Giroux,
2006.
Night tells the story of Elie Wiesel’s survival of the Holocaust. Wiesel is held as a
including Birkenau, Monowitz, and Gleiwitz. Wiesel recounts the events that took place
in Auschwitz and describes them in great detail. Jews were taken from their homes and
sent to concentration camps with no knowledge of what was about to happen to them.
Some were immediately killed upon entering the camp by gas chambers or crematoriums.
Babies were thrown into pits filled with flames. While at Auschwitz, prisoners were
given little food and water, and hard labor was forced upon them. If one disobeyed
orders, they were beaten or killed. Wiesel witnessed SS officers hang prisoners of all
ages, even a young boy. At one point, Wiesel receives twenty-five lashes from a whip for
leaving his work place and disobeying the Kapo. The SS officers are brutal towards the
prisoners and show them no mercy throughout the book. They are forced to run all night
to travel to different concentration camps. When marching to another camp, those who
could not keep up with the pace were shot and killed. Wiesel and his father struggle to
survive for a long time, but only Wiesel makes it out of the Holocaust alive.
greatly over time, and eventually covered about forty square kilometers in the core area.
Over forty sub-camps covered an area of several hundred kilometers. Since running such
a large camp was challenging, Auschwitz was divided into three camps on November 22,
1943. Auschwitz I was the main camp, located in Oswiecim. It contained the main supply
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prisoners being held in Auschwitz I in August of 1944. Auschwitz II, also referred to as
Birkenau, was the largest camp in the Auschwitz complex. It was first used for holding
over a hundred thousand prisoners of war but opened as a branch of Auschwitz in March
1942. Birkenau’s purpose was then shifted to the killing of Jews. It is estimated that
about 90% of the victims of Auschwitz were killed in Birkenau. This means that over a
million people, nine out of ten being Jews, were murdered here. Auschwitz III, or
Monowitz, was one of the first sub-camps of Auschwitz. It was also one of the largest
camps in the massive complex. After some time, it earned the status of the headquarters