Auschwitz concentration camp

:For other uses of the term, see Auschwitz (disambiguation).

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Auschwitz is the name loosely used to identify three main Nazi German concentration camps and 45-50 sub-camps. The name is derived from the Germanized form of the nearby Polish town of O?wi?cim, situated about 60 km southwest of Krakow. Beginning in 1940, Nazi Germany built several concentration camps and an extermination camp in the area, which at the time had been annexed by Nazi Germany. The camps were a major element in the perpetration of the Holocaust.

Related Topics:
Nazi - German concentration camps - Polish - O?wi?cim - Km - Krakow - 1940 - Nazi Germany - Concentration camp - Extermination camp - Annexed - The Holocaust

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The three main camps were:

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• Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp which served as the administrative centre for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 Poles, gay men and Soviet Prisoners of War
• Auschwitz II (Birkenau), an extermination camp and the site of the deaths of roughly 1 million Jews, 75,000 Poles, gay men and some 19,000 Roma
• Auschwitz III (Monowitz), which served as a labor camp for the IG Farben company

See List of subcamps of Auschwitz for others. The total number of casualties is still under debate, but most modern estimates are around 1-1.5 million.

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Like all Nazi concentration camps, the Auschwitz camps were operated by Heinrich Himmler's SS. The commandants of the camp were the SS-Obersturmbannführers Rudolf Höß (sometimes transliterated in English as "Hoess") until Summer 1943, and later Arthur Liebehenschel and Richard Baer. Höß provided a detailed description of the camp's workings during his interrogations after the war and also in his autobiography. He was hanged in 1947 in front of the entrance to the crematorium of Auschwitz I.

Related Topics:
Heinrich Himmler - SS - Rudolf Höß - Arthur Liebehenschel - Richard Baer - 1947 - Crematorium

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About 700 prisoners attempted to escape from the Auschwitz camps during the years of their operation, with about 300 attempts successful. A common punishment for escape attempts was death by starvation; the families of successful escapees were sometimes arrested and interned in Auschwitz and prominently displayed to deter others.

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Auschwitz concentration camp: The camp ►