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Auschwitz
Auschwitz was the German name for Oswiecim, a town in southern Poland which was annexed to the Reich after the Polish campaign in September– October 1939. The name is now reserved for the complex of three Nazi concentration camps, and 36 sub-camps, which were built outside the town in 1940–2. Auschwitz I was built in June 1940 for Polish political prisoners; Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, which could accommodate over 100,000 inmates, opened in October 1941; and Auschwitz III grew out of a camp at nearby Monowitz which supplied forced labour for the nearby I. G. Farben synthetic rubber and oil plant. To help implement the Final Solution gas chambers and crematoria capable of disposing of 2,000 bodies at a time, and using zyklon-B gas, were constructed at Birkenau, making part of it a death-camp similar to those built for OPERATION REINHARD. By 1944, according to some sources over 6,000 a day were being murdered and 250,000 Jews from Hungary were exterminated in six weeks. Elsewhere in the complex hundreds were dying daily from maltreatment, from the pseudo-medical experiments of Dr Mengele, or from execution.
A resistance network operated within Auschwitz from the start, two Polish escapers from Auschwitz I brought the first detailed news of conditions within the camps to the outside world in 1942. The full extent of Birkenau's genocidal operations was not known, however, until two years later when three Jewish escapers reached Slovakia. In October 1944 there was a revolt when one gas chamber was blown up with explosives smuggled in from a nearby armaments factory, and another was set on fire. About 250 then escaped but they were all shot, as were another 200 who were also involved. Some weeks before the camps were liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945, the SS had begun to demolish the installations, and all the surviving inmates fit to walk had been marched into Germany. Later, the Soviet government announced that four million people may have died at Auschwitz; and this impossible figure passed unchallenged into conventional wisdom. Only in 1991, after the fall of communism, did the Auschwitz museum issue a revised estimate of 1.2–1.5 million victims, of whom about 800,000 were Jews. Norman Davies Bibliography Garlinski, J. , Fighting Auschwitz (London, 1975). |
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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Auschwitz." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Auschwitz." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Auschwitz.html I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "Auschwitz." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-Auschwitz.html |
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Auschwitz
Auschwitz The largest concentration camp ever, its main sites were the labour camp Auschwitz and the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland. Owing to its proximity to the industrial areas of Upper Silesia, a forced labour camp was established in June 1940. In spring 1941 the chemical conglomerate IG Farben set up a large factory there to benefit from the camp's cheap labour. IG Farben produced, among other things, the poisonous gas Cyclon B, whose effectiveness was ‘tested’ for the first time in the new camp at Birkenau on 900 Soviet prisoners of war in September 1941. Subsequently, mostly Jews, but also homosexuals, gypsies, and other groups which the German Nazis wanted to exterminate, were murdered there before the camp's liberation in January 1945.
Upon their arrival from all over German-occupied Europe, the prisoners were sorted according to their fitness for work. The majority, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were sent to the gas chambers for immediate extermination, while around 20 per cent were sent to the labour camps until they, too, were too weak to work and were exterminated. A total of 405,000 people were admitted to the labour camps, of whom more than 260,000 died. Those sent to the extermination camps were never registered, but are estimated between one and a half and two million. The camp was vacated and destroyed by the Germans on 1 November 1944. Around 60,000 prisoners were sent on a march westwards and large numbers died of illness and exhaustion. On 27 January 1945, the advancing Russians liberated around 5,000 frail inmates who had been left behind. |
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JAN PALMOWSKI. "Auschwitz." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JAN PALMOWSKI. "Auschwitz." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O46-Auschwitz.html JAN PALMOWSKI. "Auschwitz." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. 2004. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O46-Auschwitz.html |
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Auschwitz
Auschwitz (Pol. Oświc̨cim) Town in s Poland. It was the site of a German concentration camp during World War II. A group of three main camps, with 39 smaller camps nearby, Auschwitz was Hitler's most “efficient” extermination centre. Between June 1940 and January 1945 more than 4 million people were executed here, mostly Jews, and comprising about 40 different nationalities, principally Polish. The vast majority were gassed in its chambers, but many others were shot, starved or tortured to death. The buildings have been preserved as the National Museum of Martyrology. Together with the world's largest burial ground at Birkenau, one of the other two main camps, Auschwitz is a place of pilgrimage. Pop. (1999) 43,700.
http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/start |
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"Auschwitz." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Auschwitz." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Auschwitz.html "Auschwitz." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-Auschwitz.html |
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Oświęcim
Oświęcim , Ger. Auschwitz, town (1992 est. pop. 45,100), Małopolskie prov., SE Poland. It is a railway junction and industrial center producing chemicals, leather, and agricultural implements. There are coal deposits in the vicinity. In World War II the Germans organized a concentration camp system there, consisting of 3 main and 30 forced-labor camps. At the Brzezinka (Ger. Birkenau ) extermination camp as many as 4,000,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were killed. |
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"Oświęcim." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Oświęcim." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Oswiecim.html "Oświęcim." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Oswiecim.html |
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Auschwitz
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JOHN BOWKER. "Auschwitz." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Auschwitz." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Auschwitz.html JOHN BOWKER. "Auschwitz." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Auschwitz.html |
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Auschwitz
Auschwitz a Nazi concentration camp in the Second World War, near the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz) in Poland. It may be referred to as a symbol of the Holocaust.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Auschwitz." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Auschwitz." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Auschwitz.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Auschwitz." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Auschwitz.html |
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Auschwitz
Auschwitz ˈowʃvits a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, near the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz) in Poland.
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"Auschwitz." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Auschwitz." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-Auschwitz.html "Auschwitz." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-Auschwitz.html |
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Auschwitz
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Cite this article
"Auschwitz." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Auschwitz." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-Auschwit.html "Auschwitz." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-Auschwit.html |
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Auschwitz
Auschwitz
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"Auschwitz." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 12 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Auschwitz." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (February 12, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Auschwitz.html "Auschwitz." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Auschwitz.html |
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