The Nazi Extermination Camps. In Review… Auschwitz I (1940) Created by Himmler Made up of: –Commandant’s office –Administration building –Kitchen –Infirmary.

The Nazi Extermination Camps

In Review…

Auschwitz I (1940)• Created by Himmler• Made up of:

– Commandant’s office– Administration building– Kitchen– Infirmary (Ka-Be)– Main guard station– One gas chamber– One crematorium– Gestapo camp– Medical experiments center– Gallows Surrounded by double

barbed wire electric fences and nine watch towers

Auschwitz II (Birkenau)

• Extermination was the main goal of this camp.• Contained four gas chambers which were

designed to resemble showers• Four crematoria• Site of horrendous medical experiments at the

hands of Dr. Josef Mengele

Auschwitz III (Monowitz)• Work camp• Buna, as called in many Holocaust

novels, was one of the camps in this system.

• Rubber and liquid fuel plants• Worked prisoners until they were of no

more use, then disposed of them• Liberated in 1945

Sobibor• Used from May 1942 to October 1943• Located in Lubin, Poland• Smallest camp• Gustav Wagner- commander in charge • Close to a railroad line• Completely out of sight (highly secret, extremely

deadly)– Tree branches were interwoven into barbed wire fences to

disguise the camp

• Took in Auschwitz overflow

Sobibor (continued)

• Methods of extermination:

– Gas Chambers

• Immediately upon arrival until disposal became problematic

• “The BIG Fib”- told prisoners that they were at a transit camp where they should all shower and get disinfected (given bars of soap)

• 450-550 prisoners could be gassed all at one time

• 20-30 minutes to die; Cyanide-B used

• Flocks of geese were kept on the premise so that they could out “squawk” the dying.

• Decided that gassing created a bottle neck; too slow

Sobibor (continued)

• Methods of Execution (cont.)

–Umbrellas off of roofs

–Work “incentives”

–Rodent infestations

–Splitting

The Big Escape• October 14, 1943• Orchestrated by Leon Feldhendler (who would

later be killed) & Alexander “Sasha” Pechorsky• 300 escapees • All prisoners who did not escape- killed to rule

out the possibility of future revolts• Himmler- had the camp shut down afterwards• Half of the escapees- captured and killed

– Mostly by anti-Semitic Poles and members of the Polish National Army (who actively patrolled for Jews)

– 60 survived

Sobibor: In Conclusion

• Most of the captors stationed at Sobibor were never brought to trial.

• The remains of the camp were ploughed over, and farm lands were planted over them by the Nazis to ensure that no evidence would remain.

• 260,000 men, women, and children were slain at this location

Treblinka

• Built in the spring of 1942 • Closed in November of 1943• Gates and wires covered with greenery to

hide what happened on the inside from the outside world

• First transport of prisoners- came on June 22, 1942

• Commander- SS Franz Strangl

SS Obersturmführer Franz Strangl• Noted for being a great organizer• Developed the technique of having victims enter the

gas chambers with their arms above their heads (600 at once instead of the average 500)

• Quoted as saying:– "Regarding the question of the optimum amount of

people gassed in one day, I can state: according to my estimation a transport of thirty freight cars with 3,000 people was liquidated in three hours. When the work lasted for about fourteen hours, 12,000 to 15,000 people were annihilated. There were many days that the work lasted from the early morning until the evening . . . I have done nothing to anybody that was not my duty. My conscience is clear.' " 

• Oversaw the deaths of over 850,000 individuals

• Ran away with Gustav Wagner of Sobibor

• Worked at a Volkwagon plant- still using his real name

• Tracked down by Simon Wiesenthal while vacationing in Brazil

• Died of a heart failure before his scheduled execution

Kurt Gerstein(The SS with a Conscience)

• Worked in Treblinka and Belzec

• Smuggled himself into Switzerland

• Alerted the Pope and Allies (FDR) of the war crimes being committed

• Refused to take part in the atrocities

• Died in a French prison because it was believed at the time that he had taken part in several heinous acts—now we know this was untrue

Belzec• Began being used in March 1942 /

Closed- December 1942

• Began as a labor camp but was transformed by orders of Reinhard Heydrich Commander- SS Colonel General Christian Wirth – T4 Euthanasia Project– Used carbon monoxide from motors

(eventually Cyanide-B had to be used b/c this was in short supply)

SS Colonel General Christian Wirth

• Credited with structuring the “Final Solution”

• Arrogant

• Believed himself to be ‘untouchable’

• Rode around in a green Mercedes Benz convertible

• Assassinated

Belzec: Final

• At the end of the war, mass graves were emptied and the bodies were burned to avoid the Allies discovering the bodies of the victims.

• 600,000 + were killed before the camp was closed

• Most of the survivors of Belzec were deported to Sobibor, where they were immediately destroyed.

Chelmno

• Established in December of 1941

• Closed in March 1943

• First death camp in Poland

• No furnaces at first, just graves

• Well-hidden, even from the Polish people

• Commander Herbert Lange

Chelmno (continued)• Tactic of Choice: carbon monoxide• Liquidated Jews from the Lodz ghetto- brought

here to undergo ‘treatment’• 88 children were slain at this location after the

assassination of Heydrich • Minor uprising led to two prisoners escaping• Eventually blown up to destroy evidence• 300,000+ casualties

Majdanek

• Established in October of 1941

• Liberated in July of 1944

• Not hidden by barricades

• Originally a p.o.w. camp

• Gas chambers (Zyklon-B) and a crematoria

• Most preserved camp

Majdanek (continued)

• Commander- Karl Otto Koch (husband of Ilse Koch)– First worked at

Buchenwald– Was condemned to the

firing squad– Accused of embezzlement,

mismanagement, and insubordination

– Responsible for the death of 300,000 people