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"Auschwitz." Auschwitz. Arc, 11 July 2006. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

The first prisoners sent to Auschwitz were a group of 728 Polish political prisoners, some
of which were Jewish. The first group to arrive from outside of Poland were a group of
Czechs. About two years later, the Wannsee Conference met and came up with the Final
Solution. Within the next month the first transport of all Jews arrived in Auschwitz and
the last transport wouldnt come until November on 1944. The first in command at
Auschwitz, Rudolf Hss, visited Treblinka and Chelmno and believed that their gassing
methods wereinferior to his. The main Auschwitz camp contained a total of 28
buildings that each had two stories.
In 1942, work began on Birkenau which would be able to contain around 200,000 people.
There was also a third smaller camp known as Buna-Monowitz. The Jewish prisoners
were transported to Auschwitz on trains and upon arrival they went through the selection
process which would determine if they were fit enough to work or if they should be
gassed instantly. The living conditions were awful and those who survived the selection
often died from how awful the conditions were and were basically dehumanized. The
Auschwitz camp came to an end in 1945 when the Soviet troops got too close for German
liking.

History.com Staff, History.com Staff. "Auschwitz." History.com. A&E Television Networks,

2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

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Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps created in 1940 that were located in
Southern Poland and were initially used as a detention center for political prisoners
before being used to exterminate Jewish people and other enemies of the Nazi people.
When the Soviet army started to approach in 1945, the Nazi officials ordered 60,000
prisoners to march to other locations.
Auschwitz was the largest and arguably one of the most notorious death camp. It was run
by Rudolf Hss and while being constructed, all nearby homes and factories had their
occupants forcibly ejected before being bulldozed. Originally, Auschwitz was a detention
center for criminals before it evolved into a death camp after Hitlers Final Solution was
put into place. Not all people sent to Auschwitz were killed though. Those who were
deemed fit enough to work were used as slave laborers.
The original Auschwitz camp housed about 15,000-20,000 prisoners and people entering
the camp were greeted by a sign that read Arbeit Macht Frei, or Work Makes You
Free. It was located in the village of Birkenau and construction for it began in 1941.
Birkenau was the biggest of the Auschwitz facilities and cold hold around 90,000
prisoners and contained the gas chambers and crematoriums. There were more than 40
smaller sub camps around Auschwitz, the biggest being Monowitz which could hold
about 10,000 prisoners.
Around mid-1942, most of the prisoners being sent to Auschwitz were Jewish prisoners.
Some were immediately sent to the gas chambers while others were used for forced labor.
Those who werent gassed most likely died from other causes while working. Josef
Mengele also conducted scientific experiments on some prisoners, specifically twins.

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When Soviet forces got close in 1945, Auschwitz was evacuated. The Soviets found
about 7,600 sick detainees as well as mounds of corpses. The Nazis also left behind a lot
of shoes, clothing, and human hair that had been shaved off during their liquidation.

Rosenburg, Jennifer. "A Closer Look at the Holocaust's Most Famous Death Camp." About.com
Education. 30 Oct. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

Auschwitz was created by the Nazis to be a concentration and death camp. Auschwitz
was created about 37 miles west of Krakow, Poland and about 1.1 million people were
killed there. It quickly grew to become the largest of the Nazis concentration camps. It
contained three large camps, Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buna-Monowitz, and around 45
smaller sub-camps. Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, asocials, criminals, and prisoners of war
were all packed into cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz. Each person that was sent to
Auschwitz went through a process called the selection. In this selection, those deemed
worthy of working were used as slave laborers while who were deemed unworthy were
sent to the gas chambers instantly. Those who were slave laborers were basically
dehumanized and most died from the horrible living conditions while they were working.

Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 2006. Print.

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In Night, the journey of a teenage boy named Elie Wiesel is documented. He starts off in
his small, Jewish town before it is liquidated. He is then sent to the Auschwitz
concentration camp where he and his father are slave laborers and his mother and sister
fall victim to the selection. Elie is at the site of both the Birkenau and Buna concentration
camps. He eventually gets an infection in his foot and is forced to have a doctor perform
a procedure on it. While he is recovering the Nazis announce that all prisoners must leave
the camp and travel to a new camp because the Allies advance is too fast. Elie is forced
with either staying or going. He chooses to go and it pays off because the camp he goes to
is eventually liberated by the Americans. Unfortunately though, Elies father passed away
and he leaves the concentration camps no longer having any immediate family members
that are still alive.