Auschwitz
             Auschwitz was one of the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camps during World War II. Auschwitz was composed of three large camps, Auschwitz I (Stammlager), Auschwitz II (Birkenau), Auschwitz III (Buna-Monowitz) and 45 sub-camps. Each camp was growing year after year with an increase in prisoners. This complex was located in southern Poland outside the town of Oswiecim (which the Germans called Auschwitz) on the Wisla (Vistula) River about 30 miles southwest of the city of Krakow. (Sanford, p.1) This area was annexed to the Third Reich after the defeat of Poland in September 1939. (Gutman, p. 107) The Nazis established Auschwitz on April 27, 1940 under the direction of Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was the chief of two Nazi organizations-the Nazi guards known as Schutzstaffel (SS) and the secret police the Gestapo. Under Himmler's command, Rudolph Hoss was appointed camp commandant. (Sanford, p.1)
             Beginning in June 1940, the first prisoners brought to Auschwitz were Polish political prisoners. The population was 10,900 after the first year. Afterwards, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, asocials, criminals, and prisoners of war accompanied them, mainly Jews. (Rosenberg, p.1) The journey to Auschwitz was an inhumane way of transporting individuals. By train, hundreds of people crammed into locked cattle cars. There was not enough room to sit or even move about freely.
             The sanitation in these cars became unbearable from urination. For days and weeks at times, these people were being transported with no food and no water. Hardly any light or fresh air was present either. Some did not survive the transport to Auschwitz. (Nyiszli, p.17) Upon arrival at the gates of Auschwitz, a sign that read "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Brings Freedom) which gave false hope to prisoners. Then the unloading begins. The people inside were brutally forced to leave the cars in a great hurr...