A Horrible History
“final solution of the Jewish question in Europe”A horrible massive killing center, this marks one of the biggest massacres in history. Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II–Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III–Monowitz, also known as Buna–Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps. Jews were transported to the camp's gas chambers from all over Europe between early 1942 until late 1944. Close to 90% of the victims of Auschwitz Concentration Camps died in Birkenau, and about nine out of ten were Jews.
On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops, a day commemorated around the world as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 1947, Poland created a museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, which gathers about 1,300,000 visitors annual. As visitors pass through the iron gates, the infamous motto Arbeit macht frei (“work makes free”) hangs above the passage. By 2011, more than 30 million people had visited the camp.
The holocaust has been something I have been fascinated with since I remember learning about it in grade school. The stories I have read and the pictures I have seen have brought me to tears on some occasions, and always leave a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know that this will be one of the most emotional and heavy places we visit this summer. How could so many people participate in this disgusting event in history? To be in this building is going to be indescribable.
References
http://www.israelarbeitergallery.org/2011/09/07/auschwitz-birkenau/
http://www.firststreetconfidential.com/index.history.0120.html
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