Information about Auswitch / Auschwitz

Since we notice a lot of people look for information on ‘Auswitch’, in this text we’ll retain the wrong name ‘Auswitch’.
Do keep this in mind when for instance you write a (school)report.
Make sure to use the correct spelling: Auschwitz.

In southern Poland, two hours from the city of Krakow, lies former concentration camp ‘Auswitch’. It has become a symbol of the terrors of Nazi Germany during World War II. In World War II, Germany was ruled by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party. The Nazis dreamed and aimed for a pure Aryan society. Aryans were believed to be a certain race of people with a healthy and strong body, a light complexion, light hair and German blood in their veins. The Nazi’s believed other people were only suitable for slave labor or to be killed (like the Jews). To achieve this goal, dozens of concentration camps were built all over Europe. Prisoners of the Nazi regime had to do manual labour if they were strong enough. The rest was gassed or shot.

What is Auswitch?

Auschwitz is a collective term for several concentration and extermination camps in southern Poland. Actually it exists of three camps. Because during the war more and more people had to be killed, Auswitch had to expand several times. Auswitch 1 was built in 1940 as a concentration camp. The nearby Auswitch-Birkenau (no. 2) was an extermination camp of which the construction started in 1941. Auschwitz-Monowitz was the third and largest camp. This started as a labor camp from 1941 and a year later acted as a concentration camp as well.

Purpose and history of Auswitch

The Nazis built concentration camps to efficiently lock up and murder larger numbers of people. In 1939 they had already occupied Poland and built different camps in this large country. The area around the town of Oświęcim in southern Poland was also identified as a spot where concentration camps were to be built. The camps around the town of Oświęcim received the German name: Auschwitz .

Prisoners in Auswitch

Nazis mostly kept Jewish people in concentration camps, but many other people died in a camp. Gypsies, gay people, people that studied, people that helped Jews, POW’s and people that disagreed with the Nazis. Also many Poles died in the camps.

Notoriety of Auswitch

Auswitch is the best known concentration camp from World War II. This is partly because no less than 1.1 million people were killed here during its five years of existence. Auswitch was at that time the largest collection of camps. The name is also known because it’s one of the few camps that is still (partly) in okay condition. When the Nazis knew they would be defeated, they destroyed as much evidence as possible. Because of that, many other camps burned to the ground. With Auswitch, they didn’t get a change to destroy all the evidence, leaving large parts of the camps unscathed. To this day, it still serves as an impressive yet depressing reminder of the horrors of World War II and an important monument that’s visited by people from all over the world.

More information about Auswitch is found on the official website.

>> Visit Auschwitz yourself, click here for all the information you need.

And did you know Auschwitz is very accessible from the fantastic city of Kraków in southern Poland? A city break to Kraków will give you history and fun packed in one trip, without costing so much. Hotel rooms are cheap, tickets as well. What are you waiting for?

last update: March 5th 2018