What was the original designation of auschwitz

This decision would seem to have been made for two reasons. In the first place, the collapse of the German drive on Moscow and the entry into the war of the USA, with its vast economic and military potential, radically altered the German strategic situation in political, economic, and military terms.

This situation compelled the leaders of the Third Reich to begin treating the POWs as a labor resource, and to exploit them more widely in German industry.

In the second place, the decision to send mass transports of Jews to the concentration camps in order to exploit them in the German war economy, and the designation of Auschwitz as one of the centers for their extermination as well as a distribution point for Jewish labor resources, meant that quarters had to be prepared in which they could be held temporarily. The Birkenau camp was under construction, and, since it was no longer to be used as a POW camp, this must have seemed like the best solution to the problem.

Instead of POWs, Jews selected for labor were sent there of the approximately 1. Some of the thousand Poles registered in Auschwitz, about 23 thousand Gypsies, and men and women from other ethnic groups were also sent there. The division of Auschwitz into three camps was caused, on the one hand, by the difficulty of administering such an extensive and constantly expanding camp complex; on the other hand, this division formalized the increasingly divergent functions of the entities that made up the Auschwitz complex.

Working in these units was the principal labor assignment for the prisoners in this camp. On August 22, , there were 15, prisoners in this camp the majority Jewish, although there were 3, Poles among them. The Nazi regime, led by Adolf Hitler, ruled Germany from to The first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened in World War II had already begun and Germany started to set up these camps in its occupied territories. At the end of and beginning of , when the Nazi regime decided to systematically eliminate European Jewish people, they established extermination camps in Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek and Auschwitz.

After , the Auschwitz camp became the largest center of mass extermination of Jewish people. The camp consisted of three main parts: the first and oldest one was Auschwitz I; the second part was the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, the largest within the Auschwitz camps where the gas chambers and crematoria were located.

It is estimated that at least one million three hundred thousand people were deported to Auschwitz by the Nazi regime. In January , approximately sixty thousand prisoners were taken from Auschwitz to railway junctions and then to different concentration camps. They were also forced to work in coal mines, in stone quarries, in fisheries, and especially in armaments industries such as the SS-owned German Equipment Works established in Periodically, prisoners underwent selection.

If the SS judged them too weak or sick to continue working, they were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and killed. Prisoners selected for forced labor were registered and tattooed with identification numbers on their left arms in Auschwitz I.

They were then assigned to forced labor at the main camp or elsewhere in the complex, including the subcamps. In mid-January , as Soviet forces approached the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, the SS began evacuating Auschwitz and its subcamps.

SS units forced nearly 60, prisoners to march west from the Auschwitz camp system. Thousands had been killed in the camps in the days before these death marches began. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to march either northwest for 55 kilometers approximately 30 miles to Gliwice Gleiwitz or due west for 63 kilometers approximately 35 miles to Wodzislaw Loslau in the western part of Upper Silesia.

Those forced to march northwest were joined by prisoners from subcamps in East Upper Silesia, such as Bismarckhuette, Althammer, and Hindenburg. Those forced to march due west were joined by inmates from the subcamps to the south of Auschwitz, such as Jawischowitz, Tschechowitz, and Golleschau. SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not continue.

Prisoners also suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure on these marches. At least 3, prisoners died on route to Gliwice alone. Possibly as many as 15, prisoners died during the evacuation marches from Auschwitz and the subcamps.

The rail journey lasted for days. Without food, water, shelter, or blankets, many prisoners did not survive the transport. In late January , SS and police officials forced 4, prisoners to evacuate Blechhammer on foot. Blechhammer was a subcamp of Auschwitz-Monowitz.

The SS murdered about prisoners during the march to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. SS officials also killed as many as prisoners left behind in Blechhammer as a result of illness or unsuccessful attempts to hide. After a brief delay, the SS transported around 3, Blechhammer prisoners from Gross-Rosen to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.

On January 27, , the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated more than six thousand prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying. Berenbaum, Michael, and Yisrael Gutman, editors. Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Auschwitz from A to Z.

An Illustrated History of the Camp. Oswiecim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Dlugoborski, Waclaw et al. Auschwitz, — Central Issues in the History of the Camp. Langbein, Hermann. People in Auschwitz. Levi, Primo. New York: Collier Books, Swiebocka, Teresa, editor. The first plans for the camp from autumn envisioned an initial capacity of to thousand prisoners.

This concept underwent changes several times in The revised plans called for a doubling of capacity, to thousand. The camp would be divided into four parts, often referred to as construction segments Bauabschnitte , designated by roman numerals.

The first segment was planned for 20 thousand prisoners, and the other three for 60 thousand each. The whole camp would cover an area of acres.