Auschwitz I - Main Camp |
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Germany invaded Poland on 1st September 1939 and the town of Oswiecim was captured on the 6th September. The plan to establish a concentration camp at Auschwitz (the name given to the town by the Germans) was first announced by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on 27th April 1940. Auschwitz I (Auschwitz Konzentrationslager) was the main camp and was a Class I concentration camp. Opened on 14th June 1940, the barracks of this former Polish Army garrison housed first prisoners were mostly Polish political prisoners who were seen as a threat to the Third Reich, although a few Jews were also imprisoned here. The first transfer of prisoners to Auschwitz was of German prisoners from Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany in May 1940, again largely political dissidents and/or agitators.
While the camp began it's new role as a place of confinement it went through a number of changes during the war, becoming the administration hub for the overall Auschwitz complex. The history of the site can be divided into two basic periods: From its founding in 1940 to the first few months of 1942 it functioned exclusively as a concentration camp. Another way to describe it would be to say that is was predominantly a place of slow death as the result of intentionally inhuman conditions that were created, and above all, starvation. From early 1942 to October 1944 the camp continued to function as a concentration camp for prisoners of various ethnic backgrounds (from mid-mainly Jews, Gypsies and Poles, while simultaneously functioning as the largest center for, mass killing of Jews. The Auschwitz main camp, and was called KL Auschwitz. This was designated a Class I camp, which meant a low category prison for political dissidents who were considered capable of being "rehabilitated."
The Auschwitz main camp was a place where the prisoners had such amenities as a swimming pool, theatre, a museum where their artwork was displayed, library, several orchestras and even a brothel. The barracks in the main camp were brick buildings with flush toilets, double-paned casement windows and porcelain-covered stoves. There was also a hospital where Otto Frank (father of Anne Frank) stayed for three months as he was suffering from exhaustion. Auschwitz I was too small to accommodate the numbers of prisoners that were to be sent to Auschwitz. On 22nd November 1943 it was decided that a further two camps were required. 16,000 prisoners, mostly Jews and Poles, remained Auschwitz I in August 1944. This was the administration centre of the local SS garrison, the commander of the local garrison and the commandant of Auschwitz I' The commandant enjoyed the prerogative of “senior” service status in relation to the other two commandants. The camp was also home to the main political department offices and the prisoner labor department. Additionally is was home to the main workshops, supply stores, and 3 SS companies. Much of the work in these administrative and economic units and companies was performed by the prisoners in this camp. A camp for thousands of women prisoners employed producing artillery shell fuses in the Union-Werke factory opened in October 1944 in the new blocks in camp extension. The genocide of the Jewish people did not officially start until after the Wannsee Conference (led by Reinhard Heydrich), was held on 29th January 1942, where the plans for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" were complete. The conference was . The exact date of the order to exterminate the Jews by Hitler is not known, but an order from Hermann Goering to Reinhard Heydrich on 31st July 1941 reads as follows: Complementing the task already assigned to you in the directive of January 24, 1939, to undertake, by emigration or evacuation, a solution to the Jewish question as advantageous as possible under the conditions at the time, I hereby charge you with making all necessary organizational, functional, and material preparations for a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe. The round-up of all the Jews in Nazi occupied Europe begin after February 1942 at which point millions of Jews were deported to the Aktion Reinhard camps, never to return. Many Jews had been sent to Dachau and other camps previously, but not only because they were Jewish. The first Jews were sent to concentration camps because they were either Communists, Social Democrats, labor union leaders, homosexuals, races of people who had broken the Nuremberg law against having sex with an ethnic German.
The plan to annihilate the Jews of Europe was first implemented in February 1942 , although the murder of Jews in gas vans had already started on 6th December 1941 at Chelmno. The Auschwitz main camp originally had 20 brick barracks buildings, of which 6 were two stories high and 14 were single story buildings. When the camp was converted into a concentration camp, the 14 single story buildings were converted in to story buildings and a further 8 new two-story buildings were erected, making a total of 28 barracks buildings. There were between 13,000 and 16,000 prisoners which were crowded into these 28 buildings where they slept in three-tiered bunks. The numbers of prisoners peaked at 20,000 prisoners at the Auschwitz main camp at one point, in 1942. |