On the territory of occupied Poland, the Nazis created a place that became synonymous with genocide. In 1940, following the wish of Heinrich Himmler, a camp complex, later known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, was erected on the outskirts of Oświęcim.
When speaking about the Nazi concentration camps it should be remembered that, in reality, we are talking about two camps. The so-called Auschwitz I camp, erected in 1940, was a “proper” concentration camp. Its purpose was first and foremost to serve as a slave labor camp for opponents of the Nazi regime and citizens of occupied countries, mainly Poland. The German occupation authorities sent mainly members of the Polish elite there. Later, the Nazis also began to send in groups of prisoners from other countries. Lethal conditions, violence and starvation were meant to complete the physical exhaustion of prisoners. From 1942, the camp’s register also included Jews that – after selection – were classified by SS doctors as capable to work in the nearby factories.
On the other hand, the second camp, Auschwitz II, is inseparably intertwined with the moving tragedy of the Holocaust. In the summer of 1941 Himmler singled out Auschwitz-Birkenau as one of the places of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. In the camp, implementation of this sinister plan started in the spring of 1942. In the summer of 1942 the construction of four massive cremation oven complexes (II, III, IV, V) began. Cremation ovens II and III were equipped with underground undressing rooms and gas chambers. Cremation ovens IV and V were entirely above-ground buildings. All of these buildings were put into operation between March and June of 1943. People died here in indescribable torment, pain, and humiliation, further heightened by the sight of their loved ones dying in anguish.