Starts evening of April 7, Sunday and ends April 8, Monday
Greek word: Holo (whole); Kaustus (burnt)
To Holocaust survivors and their future generation it is a remembrance to last a lifetime, not a day. Holocaust really began in 1933 and ended on May 8, 1945 (VE Day).
The Final Solution of the Jewish question in Europe was constructed in the Wannsee Conference in January, 1942. It was decided to deport all Jews (in the pretense of a labor camp) to Poland, already under Germany when it was invaded in September, 1939.
Holocaust deniers considered what happened in the camp a complete exaggeration and a World War II propaganda. US Allies were very slow in acknowledging the atrocities being perpetrated to Jews and others that were not of 'superior' race.
A Pictorial visit to Auschwitz, Poland
The transport trains began in early 1942 until late 1944
Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
Map of Auschwitz I, II (Birkenau), III (Monowitz)
SS Photo
Immediately after getting off the train the Jews were ordered to line up into two columns, one of women and children and the other of men. Each column was subjected to "selections' by SS doctors and medical orderlies, there and then on the ramp: the strong and healthy were separated from the old, the sick, and children. People selected as fit for work were sent to the camp. The others, usually 70 to 75 percent of a transport were sent to be murdered in the gas chambers (Zyklon B, hydrocyanic gas). The last 'Selections' was made on October 30, 1944.
Nuremberg Trials: 2.5 million Jews gassed, 500,000 died of disease (typhus) and starvation
Others in the lists:
150,000 Poles
23,000 Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)
15,000 Soviet Prisoner of Wars
400 Jehovah's Witnesses
&
Thousands of different nationalities
Memorial room inside the Gas Chambers
Click photo to enlarge
Rudolf Hess, First Commandant of Auschwitz was hanged on April 16, 1947 at this site for war crimes - a former Gestapo block that was demolished to build a gallow (in the background) for his hanging.
Block 10: For medical experimentation by Dr. Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death. He experimented with twins (doing the opposite by making them 'Siamese') and dwarfs. Mengele died in a drowning accident in Brazil in 1979.
Block 11: Execution wall seen in courtyard, through archway
Block 11: Where shortwave transmitter was hidden to inform Polish government-in-exile in London.
Museum Block Exhibits:
Men, women, and children shoes
Suitcases
Human hair (to make socks, ropes and cords, stuffing for mattresses)
Human skin (for lampshades)
Visitors' Entrance to Auschwitz Camp, a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE
Adolph Hitler and his dog Blondi never visited any of the concentration camp. He was probably not a fan of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz.
Camp Motto: Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free)
Labor Camp Menu:
Soup from nettles and weeds
KZ bread made from wild chestnut with sawdust
Sausage made from mangy horses
Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945
Reparations by the German government were made to survivors of the Holocaust ($ 100 millions only for all that pain and misery!
No comments:
Post a Comment