An Annotated Bibliography: Auschwitz

Connor Maddalon

Ms. Schmidt

Honors English 9

February 25, 2018

auschwitz.org/en/history/auschwitz-i/:

When Auschwitz 1 was first created, it was made up of only 22 brick buildings. By 1944, it

stretched for about 40 square kilometers. It expanded a lot over time. In 1944 there were

approximately 135 thousand prisoners in Auschwitz. That was about 25% of all of the people the

German’s held in concentration camps. It began as a prison for political leaders but evolved over

time. The first transport of Poles the camp received was on the day of June 14th, 1940. It was the

largest concentration camp in Europe. They closed the gas chambers in October 1944 to prepare

for the Russians liberation of the camp. Auschwitz 1, the main camp, was located in Oswiecim.

It was also the location of the SS administration. Auschwitz 1 served as the main office for the

prisoner labor department. Some of the prisoners worked in the SS companies that were located

in Auschwitz. In 1944 a work camp for woman opened where they could produced artillery shell

fuses.

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/auschwitz:

Auschwitz was opened in 1940. It was the largest of the Nazi death camps. Auschwitz started out

as a prison for political leaders. When WWII began it became a network death camps for Jewish

people. It is estimated that over 1 million people lost their lives in Auschwitz. It was separated

into three different camps. The first one was Auschwitz 1, the second was Auschwitz 2

(Birkenau) and the third was Auschwitz 3 (Buna). Buna, the largest of the three, began operating

in 1942. The majority of the people that were sent to the camp were Jews but there were others

as well. Some prisoners were forced to do deadly medical experiments. Dr. Mengele was the evil
doctor that worked at the camps. They nicknamed him “The Angel of Death” because of how

horrible he was. The Russians were able to liberate Auschwitz in 1945. They found over 7,000

people there that had been left for dead. They found tons of dead bodies and particles of clothing

and shoes.

Night:

Auschwitz was the place where Elie and his family were first taken when they got off the cattle

cars. There was smoke in the air and it smelled of death. There was a pit of fire where they were

burning the bodies of the dead. It was surrounded by an extremely high electric fence. When the

first entered, they were separated by gender. The SS were all over the camp. Each of them

carried a loaded machine gun aimed at the Jews. They asked the Jews questions to make sure that

they were in good health. They stayed in the barracks with a ton of other people and formed

ranks out of those barracks. After they were assigned a barrack, they went to the barber and all of

their hair was cut off. They were treated very poorly and given small rations. They were only

given soup and sometimes bread crusts. If a prisoner ever got sick they would got to the

infirmary and receive medical care. If the were not well enough to work they would most likely

be killed. The camp had three parts, Auschwitz, Birkenau and Buna.

https://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/History/Articles/Birkenau01B.html
Auschwitz 2 was also known as Birkenau. Birkenau had two underground gas chambers, two

aboveground gas chambers and a farmhouse used for gassing. It is called Birkenau because

Birkenau means “Birch tree meadow” and the is a birch tree meadow on the western side of the

camp. The location for the second camp was chosen on March 1st ,1941. The location was

chosen because it was close to the railroad lines. The camp covered 425 acres of land. When it

was finished it had over 300 buildings and could hold 200,000 prisoners. The camp was

surrounded with electric barbed wire. Half of the deaths in the Nazi controlled concentration

camps happened at Birkenau. Birkenau did not start out as a death factory but ended up

becoming one. The interior of the camp was divided into nine sections. Men, woman and young

children were all separated into different sections. Typhus broke out at the camp and killed many

of the prisoners. The camp was built on very wet ground. The camp was abandoned in January

1945.

https://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/History/Articles/Monowitz.html

Auschwitz 3 was also called Monowitz or Buna. The camp was established in 1942. The camp

was mostly made up of chemical factories where the prisoners worked. It was the most important

concentration camp because the Nazis used the materials in the factories for the war effort.

Before they made Buna a camp the prisoners had to walk from Auschwitz 1 to Buna. The

prisoners sent to Buna had a better chance of survival because they were valuable to the Nazis so

they were not killed. They had some satellite camps in Auschwitz 3 and all around Auschwitz.

Buna was bombed often because of all of the factories there. Some of the factories are still in

operation. At the last roll call in Buna there were around 67,000 prisoners still there. Monowitz
went from a Jewish town to a German town. The factories mostly produced rubber. The camp

was located 4 kilometers from the factories. Auschwitz 3 consisted of 28 sub-camps.