The largest extermination complex created by the Nazis during the Second World War was
Auschwitz.
Inside of the horrific camp, at least 1.1 million prisoners would be murdered, executed
and killed inside of the barbed wire fences.
Many of the stories of the camp are still being unearthed each day, and the camp was
the main killing centre of the Holocaust.
Within the walls, the guards who worked there were known for brutally administering violent
beatings and sadistic attacks upon prisoners, often which resulted in death.
The camp was split into three sections and a huge number of sub camps served it.
Auschwitz I was the main slave labour element established first, Auschwitz II Birkenau was
the extermination complex, and Auschwitz II Monowitz was the IG Farben slave labour factory.
Life inside fo the camp was incredibly hard, with a gruelling daily routine in which the
prisoners would be underfed and would be kept in horrific conditions.
The barracks were overcrowded, and there was a distinct lack of sanitation.
This led to huge outbreaks of disease and also malnutrition was common.
But the violence and sadism exhibited by the guards led to the prisoners fearing anyone
in uniform, and being scared to put a foot out of line.
The rules at the camp were intensely barbaric, but one way in which the guards tried to get
the prisoners to fall into line was by executing many prisoners in public view.
The aim of this was that prisoners would see someone being hanged for example, and then
they would not rebel or resist.
There were a number of different method of executions used at Auschwitz, but it’s believed
that inside the camp thousands were executed.
So join us today as we look at, ‘The BRUTAL Executions of the Prisoners of Auschwitz.’
Prisoners inside of Auschwitz could be killed by guards and kapos for only the smallest
of infractions in the camps rules.
One example of this is returning for a second helping of food during meals, or stealing
food from a pigsty to eat the pigs food.
The situation at the camp was so desperate that some prisoners even removed their own
gold teeth to barter to buy bread from staff.
Punishment was brutal, and during roll call many prisoners would be flogged who had been
found breaking the rules.
This was often so severe that prisoners could pass away from the pain inflicted.
Guards were routinely involved in murdering prisoners who weren’t working hard enough
too, and there were even accounts of some staff members encouraging their dogs to be
set upon the prisoners.
There was murder and death around every corner of the camp, and the Nazis sought to instil
a reign of terror over the prisoners.
Auschwitz was a place of execution.
Prisoners who were sent there as hostages or who had a file which had been marked with
the words, ‘return not desired,’ or ’do not transfer’ meant that they were to be
sent to the camp to be killed.
It was the camp’s commandant or the heads of different departments who could order executions,
and over the years in which it was operational thousands would be sentenced to death inside
of the camp.
Polish prisoners who had been sentenced to death by courts nearby for offences were also
executed inside of the camp, and it was block 11 that gained a horrific reputation for crime
and punishment.
Block 11 was the name of a brick building found inside of Auschwitz I, and it was within
here that horrific torture and execution occured.
Inside of Block 11 were a number of specially made torture chambers, such as the standing
cells where a prisoner could be forced to stand for a period of days without being allowed
to sit down.
The oxygen into these cells was very limited, and some prisoners were forced to stand up
all night for 20 nights, being let out to work during the day.
It was within Block 11 that the first attempts to kill people using Zyklon B occured, and
also torture during interrogation was administered using different devices.
One such device was the Boger Swing, which was used to suspend a prisoner in a horrific
position, and during this prisoners were often beaten badly here.
But between the courtyard of Block 10 and Block 11 stands the death wall.
This was the execution area in which many prisoners would go to their deaths being shot
by a firing range whilst stood up against the wall.
Today the death wall can still be seen, and it serves today as a memorial to those who
were executed up against it.
Thousands were executed at the death wall, including an estimated 4500 polish political
prisoners.
The condemned prisoners would be brought from their cells in Block 11 in the main camp,
and then were forced to strip naked on the ground floor.
Women who were shot against the death wall derobed in a different room, and then the
condemned prisoners were then led to the death wall in pairs.
Their hands had been secured behind their backs.
The SS executioner who was there to execute on the specific days, then walked up behind
them and then shot them in the back of the head with his small caliber rifle.
Mass shootings did also occur here where firing squads would be used.
The prisoners would then be forced to collect the corpses and place them on trucks to be
delivered to the crematoria.
There were a number of mass killings that took place at the death wall, on October 7th
1944, the SS shot 200 Jews in reprisals for the Sonderkommando rebellion.
But many other prisoners were executed by shooting, with Soviet POWs killed in this
manner being forced to stand in various gravel pits around the camp.
Many of these prisoners killed in this way never made it onto the camp’s official records.
Rudolf Hoess the commandant would state that, ‘execution orders arrived in an unbroken
stream,’ showing that many executions were ordered by the Nazis.
One SS officer who witnessed many of the executions at the Death wall said, ‘Some of these walking
skeletons had spent months in the stinking cells, where not even animals would be kept,
and they could barely manage to stand straight.
And yet at the last moment, many of them shouted Long Live Poland, or Long Live Freedom.
Hangings also were common at Auschwitz, and these were performed in public to ensure that
the prisoners were aware of the crimes of fellow prisoners.
Because of this they occured inside of public spaces usually during roll call.
Each day prisoners were forced to stand for hours on end whilst roll call took place,
and the NAzis used this as a time to conduct public executions and hangings.
There were a number of gallows found around Auschwitz, and on these structures a number
of prisoners would be killed for infringements of the laws.
During one horrific episode, 12 prisoners from the surveyors labour detail were hanged
en mass on there 19th July 1943 as 3 prisoners had escaped from their group.
The bodies were left there for a while to act as a reminder to prisoners to not run
or escape Auschwitz.
The final hangings took place shortly before the camp was liberated, and it was usually
for escape attempts that someone found themselves at the gallows.
One example is Mala Zimetbaum, who along with her boyfriend Galinski had managed to escape
Auschwitz before they were captured.
Galinski was hanged on the gallows, but Zimetbaum appealed to the crowd and defied until the
very end.
It’s said that Galinski had jumped into the noose before his verdict was read, shouting
Long life Poland, but Zimetbaum it’s believed whilst facing the gallows tried to take her
own life slicing her veins in her elbows with a concealed razor blade.
It’s claimed that she slapped a guard whilst bleeding, and that Maria Mandel a horrific
guard because of her defiance even ordered Zimetbaum to be burned alive inside of the
camp.
The whole point of hangings at Auschwitz was to put other prisoners off committing crimes
and offending.
It was inside of the gas chambers that the majority of those who died at Auschwitz were
killed inside of.
During selection processes, those deemed fit enough to work were allowed into the camp
and were registered, but those who were not were then sent straight to their deaths, thousands
of people who had simply just arrived at Auschwitz were sent straight to their deaths.
During selection on arrival, the groups selected to die instantly included mostly all children,
women, small children, the elderly and those who were deemed not fit enough to work.
Any fault, scar or blemish could lead to someone being sent to their deaths.
Children who were below a certain height were also sent to the gas chambers.
Throughout their time inside the camp, prisoners were also regularly selected with those not
fit enough to work being sent to the chambers.
The belongings of these victims were seized and then sorted, before they were then driven
towards the gas chambers.
Victims were then forced to undress when they arrived there as it was said they were going
to have a shower and delouse, however when they entered the chamber zyklon b, the poisonous
pesticide was pumped into the chamber, and within minutes hundreds were killed.
IT was said by one member of the sonderkommando that, ‘It would be difficult to imagine
that so many people would fit in such a small room.
Anyone who did not want to go inside was shot or torn apart by dogs.
The would have suffocated from lack of air, then all the doors were sealed tight and the
gas thrown in by way of a small hole in the ceiling.
There was nothing more the people could do.
Within around 10 minutes, hundreds were killed inside of the chambers.
It was in this way that hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed inside of Auschwitz.
Inside of Auschwitz, at least 1.1 million people were killed.
The Germans tried to hide the extent of their crimes there, and mass graves were filled
with the corpses of thousands, and the ashes of those who had been burned inside of the
crematoria.
It was the deadliest site used during the Holocaust to massacre and exterminate those
whom the Nazis deemed undesirable.
Today Auschwtiz remains open as a memorial to all of those who were killed inside of
the walls, by one of History’s most evil regimes.
Thanks for watching.
To support, please make sure to subscribe.
Thanks for watching,