Located thirty-seven miles west of Krakow, auschitz wad the
camp where Jewish people were killed and worked. This camp
there was a a place caled the "Black Wall," this was where
the people were executed . In March of of 1941, there was
another camp that started to be built. This second camp was
called Auschwitz II, or Birkinau. It was located 1.9 miles
away from Auschitz I. Peple that were chosen to come to
these camps were expelled from their homes. Their houses
were destroyed for the pupose of buildinf Birkinau.
Birkinau had nine sub-units. They were separated from each
other by electrically charged fences that lines their
borders. In August 1942, the womens section at Auscwitz I
was moved to Birkinau. Nine hundred and ninty-nine women
from Ravensbruck camp and other women from different camps
joined them also. Birkinau now had over 6,000 women
prisoners being held. In the town Monowitz, another camp
was being built. This camp was called auschwitz III, or
Buna-Monowitz. Other camps that were located close to
Monowitz were moved to Buna-Monowitz. The population of
Bikinau was the most densly populated out of all the camps.
It also had the most cruel and and bad conditions of all
the camps in the complex. The prisoners at Birkinau mostly
consisted of Jews, Poles , and Germans. There were a number
of Gypsy and Czech Jew family camps located at Birkinau for
the creamatoria, where the bodies were burned operated at
auschwitz I. Birkinau and all the other sub-camps were
mostly forced labor camps. The most recognized of the labor
camps are, Budy, Czechowitz, Glenwitz, Rajsko, and
Furstenarube. The prisoners here were worked to the piont
of death. Trains transported people to the camps, and
violently forced them off the train. All of the people's
property was left on the train also. They prisoners were
sent into two different lines, one for women and the other
for men. The lines moved into the place were a procedure
called Selektion took place. The ones who could work were
not killed ot this time, but the women, children, and
others that couldn't work were gased. The prisoners that
were to work, had their clothes taken, heads shaved, got
sterilized, and were given black and white striped clothes
to wear. In the forced labor camps, the average life time
was only a few months. Some of the prisoners that couldn't
react or move became what was known as Muselmann. A dreaded
part of camps was the Appell, or roll call. In this,
prisoners were sent out into the cold night after a hard
day of work, and lined up. Anyone that fell to the ground
was shot or gased. One more of all the bad work chores was
the Sonderkommando. Dong this meant that you burned the
bodies of the dead prisoners in the creamatoria. Tattoos
were given to the prisoners on their right arm as an easier
way of registration. Not all of the earlier prisoners had
this tattoo, but the regiterd number of prisoners was
405,000. The daily routine in the complex differed in each
camp, but the basic routine was the same. They: woke at
dawn, cleaned their areas, morning roll call was taken,
they walked to the work site, worked for long hours, had to
wait in lines for food, then walked bback to their bunks,
block inspection was done, and then evening roll call was
taken. There were also people who got picked for medical
experiments. The best known docter at Auschwitz was Josef
Mengele. His experiments were mostly done on twins and
dwarfs. He did lots of things that had to do with seeing
how ling it would take a person to die if you do this or
that. He also did experiments that had to do with cutting
off body parts, and reattaaching them to different parts of
the body. By January 20th, 1944, the population of the
Aushwitz complex had reached 80,839. That number rose up
and up as the monthes past and more prisoners came. The
first gas chamber to be used was bult in Auschwitz I. The
gas that was used in the chambers was called Zyklon B. In
Birkinau, the largest number of people that could be killed
in the gas chambers was 6,000 people daily. The gas
chambers lookes just like shower rooms. The prisoners were
told they needed to be cleaned before work, and were then
killed in the stalls. On the borders of Auschwitz I and
Birkinau, electrical fences were put up. Watchtowers and
S.S. men lined the complex with automatic guns to be used
in any escape situations. Canals also lined the border of
Birkinau. Starting in March of 1942, trains arrived at
Auschwitz-Birkinau daily, carrying Jews from Europe. The
prisoners anger and rebelion to the Nazis was always there,
but only a few people decided to do anthing though. In the
most difficult times, 667 prisoners tried to escape. Only
270 of them made it, and the ones who got caught were
executed. Jewish leaders wanted to have the Allied powers
bomb Auschwitz at one time. This never did happen though. A
group of women at the camp destroyed one of the gas
chambers in an uprise. The leaders of the uproar were found
and executd on January 6th, 1945. 

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