Auschwitz I

Auschwitz I is the first camp created by the nazis (February 1940). It was an old polish military camp. The nazis used it as a concentration camp for political opponents. It was not an extermination camp. A few months later, the nazis developed a gas chamber in the prison block. They made few tests and they finally decided to move the gas chamber in the old munition bunker. They began to murder a lot of people with this new gas chamber.

The first gas chamber
(photo taken by Eliot Dupasquier)

Auschwitz II

It was created by prisoners from Auschwitz I. This camp was used for Jews, Gypsies and Homosexuals. It is a huge camp (720m times 2340m). People arrived by train. They were selected on the train Platform. The one who can work and the one who can’t. Those who couldn’t work were sent to the gas chambers. They took off their clothes before going in the chambers. Then the nazis closed the doors and threw some Zyklon B crystals. A lot of people died of suffocation. Then the Sonderkommandos came to take the dead bodies out from the chambers. They burned the bodies. After that, they had to clean the gas chambers for other executions.

Those who could work were sent to a large building where they were washed up and dressed with the camp clothes. In the camp, life conditions were horrible. Prisoners had to work all day long. There was a lot of mud. They were freezing with their thin clothes. There were many diseases and infections. People were starving.

Eliot Dupasquier