Auschwitz concentration camp is a synonym for death and horror. Talking about Auschwitz, our imagination and the knowledge of the atrocities committed at this Nazi death camp seems surreal. Auschwitz concentration camp through Nazi Germany ideology and war efforts started to amass undescribable horror inside its walls. Why and how did Auschwitz earn its nickname? What was the true scope of horror brought by this Nazi death camp?
When was the Auschwitz death camp set up?
Auschwitz was first established as a camp for war and political prisoners in 1940 with the occupation of Upper Silesia in Poland by Nazi Germany. Soon after the establishment of the camp and the growing strength of the Nazi regime and ideology, Auschwitz turned into a concentration. Its goal was to create an SS utopia in the occupied territory of Upper Silesia. Further growth of Nazi power in 1942 and its hold on Europe began to turn Auschwitz into a death camp with the sole purpose of dealing with the Jewish question and Himmler’s Final Solution plans focused on the extermination of the Jewish population across Europe.
From the beginning, Auschwitz concentration camp already gained its horrible reputation of sadism and death with first prisoners being beaten, tortured, and executed for trivial reasons. With Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union and plans of creating the utopia in Upper Silesia, first gassings had begun in 1941 on Soviet prisoners as part of experimentation in order to find the most effective way of exterminating larger groups of people at once. All the experiments and expansion of the Auschwitz concentration camp were for the implementation of Himmler’s Final Solution. Set on exterminating the Jewish population in Europe, the first organized trains started in 1942 deporting Jews from all over Europe continuing to run until late 1944, fully adopting the nickname of a death camp.
How many people died in Auschwitz?
With all the crimes and atrocities committed at Auschwitz concentration camp from 1940 until 1945, historians can only assume the number of people who perished in this death camp. It is estimated that of 1.3 million people brought to Auschwitz, at least 1.1 million people perished inside the walls of this death camp. The death toll of Auschwitz includes a total of 960 000 Jewish prisoners with the highest number being from Hungary, followed by Poland, France, the Netherlands, and Greece. 75 000 Ethnic Poles, 21 000 Roma and Sinti, 15 000 Soviet prisoners of war, and around 10 000 to 15 000 other Europeans of mostly Slavic and Germanic origin.
The story of Auschwitz is a story of war, ideology, inhumanity, and… numbers. With Nazi ideology as a backbone and their power on the rise through World War II, the crimes and horror happening inside the walls of Auschwitz and the number of people who deported from their homes imprisoned and executed rose as well. Auschwitz concentration camp was responsible for over a million lives, broken families, and humanity lost, fully earning its nickname of a death camp.
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