Auschwitz-Birkenau: The Death Factory

The gates and railway lines of
Auschwitz-Birkenau
after liberation by Soviet troops,
January 1945. CL:BPK

"At Auschwitz, I used Zyklon B, which was a
crystallized prussic acid which we dropped into the death
chamber from a small opening. It took from 3 to 15 minutes to
kill the people in the death chamber, depending on the
climatic conditions. We knew the people were dead because
their screaming stopped."
Rudolf Hoess, Nuremberg,
1946

Slovakian Jewish men selected for
labor upon arrival in June 1944. CL:Archives of the State
Museum in Oswiecim

With the introduction of Zyklon B at Auschwitz- Birkenau
and Maidahek, death became a diabolical industry. This more
efficient method rapidly spread to the other killing
centers.

Selection at Birkenau.
CL:Archives of the State Museum in
Oswiecim

Located in Upper Silesia, Auschwitz-Birkenau was the
largest Nazi camp combining the functions of concentration
camp and killing center. Originally designed by the Nazis for
Polish prisoners, the camp opened in May 1940. However, with
implementation of the "Final Solution" in 1941, it became the
largest center for the murder of millions of European Jews.

Containers of Zyklon-B pellets, a
form of crystalline prussic acid, used to murder inmates at
Auschwitz. CL:Archives of the State Museum in
Oswiecim

Burning corpses of murdered inmates
in 1944. Clandestine photo. CL: Archives of the State
Museum in Oswiecim

"When the Reichsfuehrer SS modified his original
Extermination Order of 1941, by which all Jews without
exception were to be destroyed. and ordered instead that those
capable of work were to be separated from the rest and
employed in the armaments industry. Auschwitz became a Jewish
camp. It was a collecting place for Jews, exceeding in scale
anything previously known...They knew, without exception, that
they were condemned to death ,that they would live only so
long as they could work." Rudolf Hoess, Autobiography
Captions

Birkenau housed Gypsies and women, while Monowitz, the
third camp in the Auschwitz complex, held male prisoners used
as slave labor for the I.G. Farben Buna
works.

Resource
Guide

[Home] [Index] [Courage
to Remember] [Glossary of the
Holocaust] [Educational
Resources] [36 Questions
About Holocaust] [Library]
[Bookstore]

Copyright © 1997, The Simon
Wiesenthal Center
9760 West Pico
Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90035