Auschwitz: Arbeit Macht Frei. The Holocaust.
Arbeit macht frei are the three German words above the entrance of Auschwitz,the worst concentration camp in the Holocaust. It's the biggest cemetery recorded in history,only bodies aren't buried. The bodies were turned to ash after passing to help control diseases and sickness.
Auschwitz was in southern Poland which at the time was controlled by Germany. It got its name from Oświęcim,German for Auschwitz. Though since German controlled this portion of Poland it ended up becoming German land. Auschwitz occupied such a large piece of land that over 5000 football fields could fit in it.
The camp was divided into three sub-camps. Auschwitz I was the original camp and near 70,000 people perished there. The second sub-camp was Auschwitz II (Birkenau) which served as an extermination camp, about 960,000 Jews, 75,000 Poles, 19,000 Roma (Gypsies) were killed in this sub-section. The third and final sub-camp of Auschwitz was Auschwitz III (Monowitz). This served as a labor camp,or a work came, where the victims were literally worked to death.
The entrance to Auschwitz I.
On January 17, 1945 Auschwitz was liberated at last. Death tolls are predicted to be between 1.1 million and 1.6 million.
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Holocaust Experiments
During WWI, Nazi soldiers and doctors performed many medical experiments to try to gather valuable information. These experiments took place on those imprisoned within camps. The most common result was death.
An experiment conducts by Dr. Josef Mengele today is most commonly know as the Mengele Twins. He was attempting to discover how similar and different genetics were in twins. He experimented on at least 1,500 twins whom were imprisoned. Merely 200 survived.He even attempted sewing twins together,hoping to get conjoined twins.
In 1942 experiments began on trying to figure out how to treat hypothermia. Victims bodies would be rapidly heated or cooled to find ways to revive them or return the temperature to normal. Methods used for heating was a warm bath and the temperature would gradually be increased or women wold be forced to have sex with men to create body heat. Methods for cooling were ice baths or being stripped naked and strapped to a stretched and placed outside in subzero temperatures. They were trying to learn at what colder temperature you would pass out or die. They learned you passed out and died when your temperature reached 77 degrees.
They also experimented on how to make salt water drinkable. This how ever failed completely. The subjects were only give salt water,no food. They became so desperate they would lick the mopped floors hoping to get just a little water.
Other experiments were conducted such as burns,poison,reattaching body parts and other horrible things.
A picture of some of the male victims. No nudity.
Take it or leave it, but from what I know, the great majority of bodies that were burned were dead.
The Nazis even changed the gas used in the chambers so that people would die for certain.
So the people who were burned alive might have been either ones that went in the cambers before the gases were changed to Zyklon B. Or the victims of the sickening experiences like Phosphorus burns.
But that's just what I got from my history course, mind you.
Anyways. It's hard to fully grasp the concept of such horror. That's really all I can say. Also, learning about them so technically hasn't really helped me understand how people could to such a thing. I do agree that the camps (well actually the whole Second World War period) are terrible, but they're also very interesting, somehow.
Also concerning the message on the iron gates: talk about the biggest lie in history...?
stilinski, April 6th, 2008 at 08:56:46pm
No, I mean alot of people were burned alive. Alive, not after they were gassed or killed.
BREASTS, April 6th, 2008 at 05:02:53pm
The bodies were actually burned to stop them from being dug up and identifed,
great blog though!
Sherlock Holmes, April 6th, 2008 at 04:47:40pm
Love,I'm German also.
Heroin Bob, April 4th, 2008 at 08:48:52pm
Arbeit macht frei translates into "working makes you free"
schooldropout, April 3rd, 2008 at 11:28:31am
I've been studying the whole concept of the holocaust, it's the o nly thing I've really kept in mind.
schooldropout, April 3rd, 2008 at 11:27:37am
You have a mistake in there, it should be "during WW2". WWI is false. Also, check spelling and punctuation. there should be a space after a comma and after a full stop. It makes it easier to read.
To the topic: The holocaust is the worst crime in the 20th century and we should never forget about it. I hope we all learned our lesson. I'm German myself, and Germans feel really ashamed for what happened even though none of us has lived during that time.
Also, in my opinion it is not just the Germans who are to blame. The Allied forces have not dared to do anything against those crimes in Germany and I am very sure they knew about it. Most Germans did not know what happened behind those walls or if they knew they didn't dare to do anything against it because they would be imprisoned in those camps themselves.
The most important thing is to never let a dictatorship rule again. But even with a democracy there may still be torture. Just look at the United States nowadays and what they do in Iraq, Guantanamo or Afghanistan. Nevertheless, nowadays we have NGOs and international contracts that fight and are there for human rights. In addition, everyone of us can do something to prevent things like that from happening again. Don't vote for fascist parties, get involved in human rights and make sure no one forgets what happened in the past.
Love, April 3rd, 2008 at 07:28:15am
thats just discusting, how can people do that?
Mycophobia, April 2nd, 2008 at 10:30:06pm
Passing away.
Heroin Bob, April 2nd, 2008 at 09:53:45pm
The bodies were turned to ash after passing to help control diseases and sickness.
After passing?
BREASTS, April 2nd, 2008 at 09:38:33pm
I find learning about the Holocaust .. fascinating.
Its all very morbid but I love it.
Hopefully we can keep this from happening again, because it was so terrible.
great blog, though.
ROSLYNN, April 2nd, 2008 at 09:07:26pm