Auschwitz: Place of Horrors - Chapter 2, OSWIECIM: A POLISH TOWN

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>AUSCHWITZ</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 2 - OSWIECIM:<br> A POLISH TOWN</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">The sign above the gate was located at a concentration camp called Auschwitz, found near a Polish town called Oswiecim. The camp, and what happened there, is infamous to this day.</p> <p>Most of the Nazi death camps were located in Poland. One of the most notorious was <a href="http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/VR/AUSCHWIT.HTM" target="_blank"><b>Auschwitz</b></a>, located <a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/images/other/FULL.jpg" target="_blank"><b>near</b></a> the Polish city of <a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/foto/oswiecim_foto_gorgolewski_miasto.html" target="_blank"><b>Oswiecim</b></a>, about 60 kilometers from Krakow. Jewish people lived and <a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/foto/oswiecim_foto_synagoga.html" target="_blank"><b>worshiped</b></a> in Oswiecim, a city on the Vistula River, before World War II.</p> <p>In October of 1939, Germany annexed part of Poland. Oswiecim was <a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/foto/zalozenie_obozu_foto_most.html" target="_blank"><b>part</b></a> of that annexation and, <a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/oswiecim_ok.html" target="_blank"><b>according</b></a> to the city’s archives, the Germans removed all Jews from the town council. By the next month, the city’s ability to govern itself was completely eliminated. Instead, a German administration was set up.</p> <p>By June of <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/menus/tl2.gif" target="_blank"><b>1940</b></a>, Henrich Himmler ordered a concentration camp to be built at Oswiecim. (It was an ideal spot since it already had Polish Army <a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/foto/zalozenie_obozu_foto_koszary.html" target="_blank"><b>facilities</b></a>) On June 14, 1941, the first camp inmates arrived: Polish political prisoners. Soon after, the camp was flooded with people. (A <a href="http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/MAPS/map008.htm" target="_blank"><b>large number</b></a> of rail lines led directly to it.) The notorious Josef Mengele worked there. It was he who was personally responsible for the "<a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/foto/birkenau_rampa_foto_rampa.html" target="_blank"><b>selection</b></a>" that ended the lives of so many men, <a href="http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/historia_KL/foto/liczba_narodowosc_ofiar_foto_po_selekcji.html" target="_blank"><b>women and children</b></a>. </p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="auschwitz_place_ch1.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="auschwitz_place_ch3.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>