Auschwitz - Birkenau

June 1940 The Germans set up a new concentration camp
intended originally for Polish political prisoners. The site was near a town called Oswiecim (Polish) known in German as Auschwitz.
Auschwitz was chosen because its location provided easy access by rail and because its extensive site ensured isolation.
Summer 1941 Himmler summoned Rudolf Hoess and tells him
that the Fuhrer ordered “final solution” of the Jewish question. Commandant Hoess moved slowly but methodically to build the largest death center the world had ever seen.
After a visit to Treblinka Hoess decided that carbon monoxide was not an ‘efficient’ killing method and introduced a new type of gas - quick working Zyklon B.
September 3, 1941 - first experiment using Zyclon B. against 600 Soviet POW and 300 Jews judged a success.
Zyklon B. was supplied to Auschwitz by two German civilian companies: Degesch at Dessau and Testa at Hamburg.
Spring 1942 an extension is added to the main existing camp. The new camp was set in a birch wood, know in German as Birkenau,
March 1942 first systematic deportations of Jews from Slovakia and France begin.
March 22, 1943 - the first of the four new crematoria in Birkenau began operating.
May 24, 1943 a 32 year-old SS doctor Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz. To advance his medical career he began to conduct medical experiments on living Jews he brought to his hospital block # 10.
October 7, 1944 crematorium IV in Birkenau blown to pieces by
members of the Sonderkommando Five SS men were killed. More than 600 people escaped, most were hunted down and shot. The Jewish women who smuggled explosives in their bosoms from the factory where they worked were hanged in front of all prisoners. A small notebook recording the plot was buried in a jar under the earth and is the main source of information on the events.
26 people are known to have escaped from Auschwitz between 1942 and 1944. Only 12 were never found by the SS.
Two of the most famous escapes were: April 7, 1944 - Alfred Wetzler and walter Rosenberg (Rudolf Vrba), both Slovak Jews. May 27, 1944 - Ernst Rosin, a Slovak Jew, and Czeslav Mordowicz, a Polish Jew. Both couples reached Slovakia with detailed reports containing statistical information about the murder process and the camp in general. By June 1944 their report reached Hungarian Jewry, the Vatican, Switzerland the British and the Americans.
Of the four, Mordowicz is the only person who escaped from Auschwitz, was brought back there and survived. Today he lives in Toronto, Canada.
October 1944 the gas chambers at Birkenau ceased their work and were slowly dismantled.
January 27, 1945 - Soviet troops entered Birkenau. They found 836,255 women’s dresses, 348,000 men’s suits, 38,000 pairs of men’s shoes.
April 1947 Commandant Rudolf Hoess was tried in Poland and executed.


	Auschwitz - Birkenau “The final solution was a turning point in history. From the fourth and sixth centuries the missionaries of Christianity said to the Jews: “You may not live among us a as Jews”. In the Middle Ages the secular rulers decided: “You man not live among us”. Finally the Nazis decreed: “You may not live.” Raul Hilberg, historian June 1940 The Germans set up a new concentration camp intended originally for Polish political prisoners. The site was near a town called Oswiecim (Polish) known in German as Auschwitz. Auschwitz was chosen because its location provided easy access by rail and because its extensive site ensured isolation. Summer 1941 Himmler summoned Rudolf Hoess and tells him that the Fuhrer ordered “final solution” of the Jewish question. Commandant Hoess moved slowly but methodically to build the largest death center the world had ever seen. After a visit to Treblinka Hoess decided that carbon monoxide was not an ‘efficient’ killing method and introduced a new type of gas - quick working Zyklon B. September 3, 1941 - first experiment using Zyclon B. against 600 Soviet POW and 300 Jews judged a success. Zyklon B. was supplied to Auschwitz by two German civilian companies: Degesch at Dessau and Testa at Hamburg. Spring 1942 an extension is added to the main existing camp. The new camp was set in a birch wood, know in German as Birkenau, March 1942 first systematic deportations of Jews from Slovakia and France begin. March 22, 1943 - the first of the four new crematoria in Birkenau began operating. May 24, 1943 a 32 year-old SS doctor Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz. To advance his medical career he began to conduct medical experiments on living Jews he brought to his hospital block # 10. October 7, 1944 crematorium IV in Birkenau blown to pieces by members of the Sonderkommando Five SS men were killed. More than 600 people escaped, most were hunted down and shot. The Jewish women who smuggled explosives in their bosoms from the factory where they worked were hanged in front of all prisoners. A small notebook recording the plot was buried in a jar under the earth and is the main source of information on the events. 26 people are known to have escaped from Auschwitz between 1942 and 1944. Only 12 were never found by the SS. Two of the most famous escapes were: April 7, 1944 - Alfred Wetzler and walter Rosenberg (Rudolf Vrba), both Slovak Jews. May 27, 1944 - Ernst Rosin, a Slovak Jew, and Czeslav Mordowicz, a Polish Jew. Both couples reached Slovakia with detailed reports containing statistical information about the murder process and the camp in general. By June 1944 their report reached Hungarian Jewry, the Vatican, Switzerland the British and the Americans. Of the four, Mordowicz is the only person who escaped from Auschwitz, was brought back there and survived. Today he lives in Toronto, Canada. October 1944 the gas chambers at Birkenau ceased their work and were slowly dismantled. January 27, 1945 - Soviet troops entered Birkenau. They found 836,255 women’s dresses, 348,000 men’s suits, 38,000 pairs of men’s shoes. April 1947 Commandant Rudolf Hoess was tried in Poland and executed.