January 24, 2005

From the Auschwitz Museum site: All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. It was established by the Nazis in 1940, in the suburbs of the city of Oswiecim which, like other parts of Poland, was occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. The name of the city of Oswiecim was changed to Auschwitz, which became the name of the camp as well. Over the following years, the camp was expanded and consisted of three main parts: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz. It also had over 40 sub-camps. At first, Poles were imprisoned and died in the camp. Afterwards, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies, and prisoners of other nationalities were also incarcerated there. Beginning in 1942, the camp became the site of the greatest mass murder in the history of humanity, which was committed against the European Jews as part of Hitler's plan for the complete destruction of that people. The majority of the Jewish men, women and children deported to Auschwitz were sent to their deaths in the Birkenau gas chambers immediately after arrival. At the end of the war, in an effort to remove the traces of the crimes they had committed, the SS began dismantling and razing the gas chambers, crematoria, and other buildings, as well as burning documents. Prisoners capable of marching were evacuated into the depths of the Reich. Those who remained behind in the camp were liberated by Red Army soldiers on January 27, 1945. A July 2, 1947 act of the Polish parliament established the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the grounds of the two extant parts of the camp, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. 1:59:30 PM

60 Years After Liberation: An Anniversary for Auschwitz. Auschwitz remembered with the voice of an eyewitness: Every day, every night, they pass by on the other side of the barbed wire fence that separated us and the two crematoria – number 3 and number 4. You see people, women, old and young, walking hand in hand silently. Nobody made a sound. They all go into the same place, and nobody comes out. Before they go into the gas chambers, they are made to stand in the crematorium yard, and then we hear the first words, and – of course – the shouting of the Germans. “Dolmacher,” “Dolmacher.” And many probably volunteer, thinking that it is in their best interest. And then the German begins to explain that, according to the rules of the camp, all newcomers must wash and undergo delousing. They must all undress and leave their clothing where they are, in a single pile so that they are not confused when they come out of the shower room. And most importantly – they must tie their shoes together in pairs, since there have been incidents in which people have not found their shoes upon coming out of the shower room. (This, of course, was so that the Germans could find the victims shoes in pairs after their death, rather than one by one.) The first in line go in easily. The last ones crowd in, with beatings and vicious dogs frightening them, of course, so that they will go in faster, until a door is hermetically sealed after them. The shouting of the people, and the children in particular, before they go in is simply indescribable: A quarter of an hour of shouting, screaming to the heavens, until the box of Zyklon B is poured in. And then, the calm after the storm, as though not a soul had been in the gas chambers: Death, death, death. The death of two thousand people in a matter of minutes. The chimneys light up and the flame reaches a few meters high from the tip of the chimney. The smell of burning flesh can be smelled day and night. Crematoria number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4 all work at full steam – how can they keep up? They don't keep up – the Sonderkommando has its hands full. They can't keep up, the ovens cannot burn all the bodies. They found a solution. They attach a wagon to the gas chambers which leads straight to pits that burned day and night, pits that had been dug behind crematorium number 4. And I worked a few nights only at night. I went out and saw a scene that was too horrific to describe. And while the people were going into the gas chambers, as I heard the screaming, one evening I began to scream as well: Lord, You are the Master of Revenge – how long will You allow this kind of killing to continue? How long? Take pity only on the children at least. Yitzhak Cohen, Yad Vashem Archive, 03.2484 p. 5 1:50:57 PM