Auschwitz II - Birkenau |
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With the fearsome sight of the railway and camp entrance, Auschwitz Birkenau is perhaps to most famous of the three main camps. Birkenau was also the largest of the 40+ camps and sub-camps that made up the complex of Auschwitz . It had a range of functions during its three years of operation. The original intention when construction began in October 1941 was for the site to be to be a camp for 125,000 POW's. In March 1942 it opened as a branch of Auschwitz , serving as a center for the extermination of the Jews. Birkenau entered its final phase in 1944 when it also became a place where prisoners were concentrated before being transferred to labor in German industry in numerous locations under the Third Reich occupation.
The majority of the victims in the Auschwitz Concentration Camps died in Birkenau with an estimated figure of around 90% - approximately 1,000,000 people, with Jewish prisoners making up more than 90% of this number. A large proportion of the more than 70,000 Poles who died or were killed in the Auschwitz complex also perished in the Birkenau camp, as did approximately 20,000 Gypsies, plus Soviet POWs and prisoners of other nationalities. More than 40 sub-camps were founded and they were only too willing to exploiting the prisoners as slave labourers. It was mainly German industrial plants and farms that took full advantage. The largest of them was Buna where 10,000 workers were deployed. The Buna sub-camp became the seat of the commandant of the third part of the camp, Auschwitz III, On November 1943. All the camps and sub-camps were isolated from the outside world, surrounded them with barbed wire fences and prisoners were not permitted any contact with the world beyond their camp boundary.
The areas patrolled by the SS camp garrison and administered by the commandant had additional security in the form of 40km of electrified barbed wire fencing, mostly around the Auschwitz I camp, Auschwitz II Birkenau camp and surrounding area if "interest". The local Polish population and Jews that lived near the camp were evicted in 1940-1941. It is believed that some 1,000 homes were raised to the ground. Other buildings were assigned to German officers and non commissioned officers from the camp SS garrison, including their families in many cases. A number of existing industrial facilities in the area were taken over by Germans and expanded while others were demolished to make way for new plants associated with the military requirements. The camp administration used the zone around the camp for auxiliary camp technical support,storage, workshops, offices, and barracks for the SS. |