Auschwitz Birkenau Research Paper

85 years ago, over a 12 year period, nearly six million Jews were killed in a genocide called The Holocaust. The Holocaust was led by the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler was their leader. The mass murders took place at concentration camps throughout Europe. The majority of concentration camps resided in Poland and Germany. Many people believe there were only a few concentration camps. “However, researchers found that the Nazis had actually established 20,000 camps between 1933 and 1945” (“How Many Camps,” n.d.). In this paper I will be discussing the largest concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp could be both a good, and bad place to be. The camp had mainly held Jewish people, and other political prisoners. Many prisoners would come from other camps, but few would go, alive that is.

The Holocaust, starting in 1941, was the mass slaughter of the Jewish population. Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the most infamous concentration camps during the Holocaust, was an extermination camp where Jewish people were forcibly sent to. There, they were held as prisoners and served as laborers to the Germans; they were punished and killed for unjustified reasons. In the years following this tragic event, historians have debated the question of whether or not the United States bombing Auschwitz-Birkenau would have helped or hurt the enslaved Jewish people. Considering all perspectives and evidence, the United States should have bombed Auschwitz to protect and save the Jewish people who were dying day in and day out in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Using an outline really helped me with my writing. Having an outline there next to me, it help me to be able to go back and look to see if I forgot any main points. I actually used the outline because it helped me write strong paragraphs. Doing this I-Search paper, helped me to know how to evaluate websites and maybe some information. What I learned from this I-Search paper, was about the Warsaw Concentration Camp and websites I

was made of saw dust and flour, they were made to do excruciating work, and they

One of the most famous of these was the camp at Auschwitz. Auschwitz was nearly unparalleled in the horrendous living conditions for the prisoners there. The barracks were old stables generally made of bricks or wood with lots of holes in the walls letting in the freezing air.(Bennet) Although they were meant for approximately forty people, one barrack would house up to three hundred.(“Living Conditions”) When a person died in the barracks, the prisoners nearby stripped the bodies of everything including clothing and would move the bodies to the latrine.(Kor, 35) The treatment of the prisoners was so horrific that they took dramatic measures to survive, one woman even hid a baby under her dress for years.(Kor, 106) In addition to holding Jews in these conditions, the Nazis also did medical experiments on many

Of all of the death camps built by the Nazis during World War II, none was larger or more destructive than the terrifying Auschwitz camp. Auschwitz was built by the Nazis in 1940, in Oswiecim, Poland, and was composed of three main parts. Auschwitz I was built in June 1940 and was intended to hold and kill Polish political prisoners. Auschwitz II-Birkenau, which opened October 1941, was larger and could contain over 100,000 inmates. Auschwitz III-Monowitz provided slave labor for a plant close by. In addition, there were many sub-camps. The most important camp at Auschwitz designed for the extermination of many people was Birkenau; numerous gas chambers and crematoria were established there, mainly to murder and incinerate Jews as

The Auschwitz camp used its prisoners for forced labor. The Nazis treated the Jews poorly and as of they were nothing. Ushmm.org states “Jewish women who had been assigned to forced labor in a nearby armaments factory”. Between the years 1940-45 out of 1.3 million Jews, 1.1 million died. All of those innocent people died only because their race was hated by one very powerful, but very convincing man. After a year of the camp existing, the SS and the police cleared about forty square meters for the camp. They had all of this cleared by forced labor from the Jews. The Nazis were very cruel to the Jews and for a certain amount of time this camp was used as a killing center. Those cold- hearted people killed men, women, and innocent

Every concentration camp was different in the way they decided to deal with Jews. During the course of the Holocaust, many Jews from all over were forced into labor and worked until they no longer could. They moved frequently and had to decide whether they should fight to survive or give in to death. (Webb) Auschwitz was known as the Final Solution for prisoners. They were sent there to be killed. Auschwitz was separated into many sections that were always worse than the last. Prisoners were given the very minimum amount of food and were forced to suffer at the SS guards hands. They were worked at least 12 hours of the day, given horrible living conditions and were treated as animals, not humans. (“Auschwitz: The Camp of Death”). Mauthausen was the only category three camp which meant that prisoners were sent there to be tortured and exterminated. They would either be worked to death or be killed for the guard's enjoyment. (“Mauthausen Concentration Camp”). After registration, prisoners stripped down and were forced into the bathhouses. Their heads

One year after the camp had begun it soon built a reputation for torture and death (Auschwitz-Birkenau- “The). Auschwitz was made for three main reasons: confine both real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime, provide people for labor in construction-related enterprises, and serve a place to kill people whose life was determined by the Schutzstaffel, also known as the SS (Holocaust). A man named Adolf Hitler was determined to kill everyone who he believed were not fit for survival in Nazi Germany. In order to meet his beliefs, he turned the concentration camps into places solely for killing Jews as a “final solution”; he called the camps death camps

In 1940 Auschwitz was established in the suburbs of Oswiecim. Oswiecim is a Polish city that was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. Auschwitz was established because there were too many Polish people in the local prisons. In 1942 Auschwitz became a death camp and it was the largest known. (http://auschwitz.org/, n.d.) The camp was expanded throughout its existence, this resulted in Auschwitz consisting of three camps. The three camps were Main Camp, Birkenau, and Monowitz. Main Camp was known as Auschwitz I, Birkenau was known as Auschwitz II, and Monowitz was known as Auschwitz III. (Preisler, n.d.) Auschwitz was liberated in 1945. “Historians and analysts estimate the number of people murdered at Auschwitz somewhere between 2.1 million

The conditions of the camp were unbearable. The prisoners were barely fed, mainly bread and water, and were cramped in small sleeping arrangements. "Hundreds slept in triple-tiered rows of bunks (Adler 51)." In the quarters that they stayed, there were no adequate cleaning facilities or restrooms for the prisoners. They rarely were able to change clothes which meant the "clothes were always infested with lice (Swiebocka 18)." Those were sick went to the infirmary where also there were eventually killed in the gas chambers or a lethal injection. The Germans did not want to have anyone not capable of hard work to live. Prisoners were also harshly punished for small things such as taking food or "relieving themselves during work hours (Swiebocka 19)." The biggest punishment was execution. The most common punishment was to receive lashings with a whip.

Imagine traveling to an unknown location, with 100 other human beings in an overcrowded train car, without an food or drink, for days. This is what Holocaust prisoners faced every time they were transported to a new concentration camp. One of the worst being Auschwitz. Unlike most concentration camps, Auschwitz was made up of about 40 other wicked facilities. Also, the camp is known for having the highest death count compared to any other concentration camp. Auschwitz was the most brutal concentration camp in Europe during the Holocaust.

Once Auschwitz was fully completed it held twenty eight, two-story blocks. Each block was made to house 700 prisoners, but when put to use, each block held around 1,200 prisoners. When the camp was first put to use, the rooms had no furniture; this meant that prisoners had to sleep on straw-stuffed mattresses. Eventually the rooms were stocked with wooden bunks, tables, stools, wardrobes, and a

The prisoners would be held in a single cell in block 11. Food and water were withheld from them. Each day an SS officer would look through a peephole to see if the prisoners were still alive. About every other day the dead bodies would be removed. Auschwitz had gas chambers that were made to resemble showers. The unskilled people that arrived were told that they would be cleaned and to go to the showers. When they got in the doors they were immediately locked and the gas was turned on. In the gas chambers up to 1,500 people could be killed at one time, and it took from 10-20 minutes for the people to die. The Nazis used a cyanide gas, which was called Zyklon-B. This type of gas was manufactured by a pest-control company.