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Location DB > Poland > Poland > Oswiecim > Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
 Name
Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
 Viewing Options
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 Database Info
created by Yimmy on 8/8/2009 11:33 PM
last modified by Yimmy on 8/8/2009 11:55 PM
 Viewability
Publically Viewable Publically Viewable
This location has been labeled by its creator as Public, and therefore can be viewed by anyone.
 Overview
 Description
Massive Three-Part concentration camp used during World War II by the Nazis as an attempt to cleanse the world of Jews and any opposers of the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany. Open for public tours and public viewing.
 Basic Information
Type: Concentration Camp
Status: Closed, but open to the public
Accessibility: Easy, paid tours available
Recommendation: drop everything - must see
 Physical Information
Address

Oswiecim, Poland
Poland
Owner: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
  • See a map of this location
  •  Hazards
     Interesting Features
    Old camp occupied by Nazi Germany. Lots of sights to see, lots of history. Offers a very emotional expierience. It details the sufferance of Jews, Russians, and all other POWs during the war. Very enriching experience.
     Security Measures
  • No need to infiltrate, open to public
  •  Historical Dates
    Built: 1942
    Closed: 1945
     Required Equipment
  • flashlight
  • Camera
  •  Recommended Equipment

     History
    Auschwitz-Birkenau ( Konzentrationslager Auschwitz (help·info)) was the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps and extermination camps, established in Nazi German occupied Poland. The camp took its German name from the nearby Polish town of Oświęcim. Birkenau, the German translation of Brzezinka (birch tree), refers to a small Polish village nearby which later was mostly destroyed by the Germans.

    Following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Oświęcim was annexed by Nazi Germany and renamed Auschwitz, the town's German name.[1]

    The camp commandant, Rudolf Höss, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has revised this figure to 1.1 million,[2][3] about 90% of whom were Jews from almost every country in Europe.[4] Most victims were killed in Auschwitz II's gas chambers using Zyklon B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and purported "medical experiments".

    In 1947, in remembrance of the victims, Poland founded a museum at the site of the first two camps. By 1994, some 22 million visitors - 700,000 annually - had passed through the iron gate crowned with the motto "Arbeit macht frei (Work brings freedom)". The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945 is celebrated on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom, and other similar memorial days in various countries.

    Auschwitz-Birkenau claimed more victims than any other German Nazi extermination camp despite coming into use after all the others. In 1941, 1.1 million Jews were murdered, largely by mass shootings in the occupied territories. In 1942, 2.7 million Jews were murdered, many in Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka, the extermination camps built in occupied Poland specifically to destroy Poland's three million Jews. Only 200,000 were killed at Auschwitz. In 1943, some 500,000 Jews were killed, half of whom were killed in Auschwitz. With the destruction of Poland's Jews mostly complete, the other four camps were closed by the end of 1943. Auschwitz alone continued to operate, both as a giant slave labor complex and an extermination facility dedicated to the genocide of Jews from the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe.[23]


    The busiest time for Auschwitz as an extermination camp was from April-June 1944, when it was the center for the massacre of Hungary's Jews. Hungary was an ally of Germany during the war but had resisted turning over its Jews to the Germans until Germany sent troops to occupy Hungary in March 1944. In 56 days from April until the end of June 1944, 436,000 Hungarian Jews, half of the pre-war population, were deported to Auschwitz and to their deaths.[citation needed] Jews continued to arrive from other parts of Nazi Europe as well. The incoming volume was so great that the SS at Auschwitz resorted to burning corpses in open-air pits as well as the crematoria. The total of over 400,000 Jews gassed during the Hungarian Action in early 1944 represented some ⅔ of all the 600,000 Jews exterminated in that year and ⅓ of all the Jews killed at Auschwitz in the 2½ years that it operated as an extermination camp.[24]

    --From Wikipedia
    (For more information, see http://en.wikipedi...concentration_camp)

    Auschwitz offers tours for groups and individuals to see the camp. Some areas, like the laboratory of Dr. Mangele are barree off due to the disturbing nature of the sights.

    For tours of auschwitz, see http://www.krakow-....com/auschwitz.php

     Media Coverage
    Millions of pages - run a Google search
     Future Plans
    --The Future of the Memory of Auschwitz Is in the Hands of Europe--

    Polish premier Donald Tusk’s letter to the leaders of European and other countries about the new Auschwitz-Birkenau foundation has evoked a range of publications and reactions around the world.

    At the beginning of January, International Auschwitz Council chairman Władysław Bartoszewski signed the notarial document establishing the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Its goal is to guarantee resources for the conservation of the Memorial so that future generations visiting the remains of the Auschwitz Nazi German concentration camp will be able to see, with their own eyes, the authentic sites of the crimes that the Nazis committed during World War II.

    http://en.auschwit...ew&id=595&Itemid=8


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     Photo Galleries
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    October 2011
    Tue, Oct 11th, 2011
    posted by phrenzee
    18 pictures
     


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     Web Links
    http://en.wikipedi...concentration_camp
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     Validation
    This location's validation is current. It was last validated by Mike Dijital on 9/30/2014 9:53 PM.

     Latest Changes
  • on Sep 30 14 at 21:53, Mike Dijital validated this location
  • on Jun 25 14 at 8:59, Steed conditionally validated this location
  • on Dec 6 13 at 13:37, phrenzee added some pictures to a gallery
  • on Dec 6 13 at 13:35, phrenzee added some pictures to a gallery
  • on Dec 6 13 at 13:33, phrenzee updated gallery October 2011
  • on Dec 6 13 at 13:33, phrenzee created a new gallery
  • on Sep 11 11 at 2:19, Opheliaism validated this location
  • on Jun 8 11 at 17:57, Steed conditionally validated this location
  • on Mar 7 11 at 10:16, Steed conditionally validated this location
  • on Dec 6 10 at 23:23, Steed conditionally validated this location
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