By late 1941, Himmler had briefed Commandant Hss about the "Final Solution" and by

the following year Auschwitz-Birkenau became the center of the mass destruction of the
European Jews.
Before begining Jewish exterminations, though, the Nazi's used the Soviet POWs at the
Auschwitz camp in trials of the poison gas Zyklon-B, produced by the German company
"Degesch" (Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Schdlingsbekmpfung), which was marked as
the best way to kill many people at once. The POWs were gassed in underground cells
in Block 11, the so called "Death Block," and following these trials, one gas chamber
was setup just outside the main camp and two temporary gas chambers were opened at
Birkenau.
The Nazis marked all the Jews living in Europe for total extermination, regardless of
their age, sex, occupation, citizenship, or political views. They were killed for one
reason, and one reason alone - because they were Jews. At Auschwitz-Birkenau, the
'Final Solution' was put to the ground in Nazi-like efficiency:
When a train carrying Jewish prisoners arrived "selections" would be conducted on the
railroad platform, or ramp. Newly arrived persons classified by the SS physicians as
unfit for labor were sent to the gas chambers: these included the ill, the elderly, pregnant
women and children. In most cases, 70-75% of each transport was sent to immediate
death. These people were not entered in the camp records; that is, they received no
serial numbers and were not registered, and this is why it is possible only
toestimate the total number of victims.
Those deemed fit enough for slave labor were then immediately registered, tattooed with
a serial number, undressed, deloused, had their body hair shaven off, showered while
their clothes were disinfected with Zyklon-B gas, and entered the camp under the
infamous gateway inscribed 'Arbeit Macht Frei' ("Labor will set you free"). Of
approximately 2.5 million people who were deported to Auschwitz, 405,000 were given
prisoner status and serial numbers. Of these, approximately 50% were Jews and 50%
were Poles and other nationalities.
Camp Reorganization & Worsening Conditions
The situation in the subcamps was often even worse than in the main camps. In mid1944, Auschwitz was designated a SS-run security area of over 40 square miles. By
August 1944, the camp population reached 105,168. The last roll-call on January 18th,
1945, showed 64,000 inmates.
During its history, the prison population of Auschwitz changed composition
significantly. At first, its inmates were almost entirely Polish. From April 1940 to March
1942, on about 27,000 inmates, 30 percent were Poles and 57 percent were Jews. From
March 1942 to March 1943 of 162,000 inmates, 60 percent were Jews.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is the general term for the network of Nazi concentration and labor camps,
established near the Polish city of Oswiecim. Together this complex was the largest of all the
Nazi death camps across Europe and could hold upwards of 150,000 inmates at any given time.

The complex, which divided into three main areas, was established by the Nazi's in 1940 and
was in use until its Allied liberation in 1945. Historians and analysts estimate the number of
people murdered at Auschwitz somewhere between 2.1 million to 4 million, of whom the vast
majority were Jews. The majority of prisoners held at Auschwitz were killed in the various gas
chambers though many died from starvation, forced labor, disease, shooting squads, and
heinous medical experiments.
Established November 1, 1941, Belzec extermination center consisted of two camps
divided into three parts: administration section, barracks and storage for plundered
goods, and extermination section. Initially, there were three gas chambers using carbon
monoxide housed in a wooden building. They were later replaced by six gas chambers in
a brick and concrete building. Belzec extermination center began operations March
17, 1942, and ended operations December 1942. The estimated number of deaths is 500600,000, mainly Jews.
Belzec extermination camp, the model for two others in the "Aktion Reinhard" murder
program, started as a labor camp in April 1940. Situated in the Lublindistrict, it was
conveniently between the large Jewish populations of south east Poland and eastern
Galicia. Construction began on November 1st 1941, using labor from the preexisting
labor camp and local Jewish communities. SS Colonel General Christian Wirth, a former
police officer who had played a leading role in implementing the T4 "euthanasia
program," was appointed the first camp commander. He commanded 20-30 SS men, plus
a guard company of 90-120 Ukrainians who were trained at the Trawniki camp.
Belzec extermination camp was quite small, with a circumference of +- 1,220 yards. It
was divided into two sections, each one surrounded by a barbed wire fence. There were
guard towers all around the main perimeter. The first camp was split into two parts. The
smaller area contained the administration buildings and the Ukrainians barracks. The
larger part included the spur line which carried rail trucks into the camp, an expanse
where the Jewish deportees were sorted into groups of men or women and children, the
barracks where they were forced to undress and were shaven, storerooms for their
clothes, personal objects, etc..., and huts for the Jewish workers who were employed by
the SS to carry out the duties associated with the murder process.
The second camp housed the gas chambers and burial pits. It was reached by a long,
narrow passageway with barbed wire fencing on either side, known as 'the tube'. The
extermination site was screened off from the rest of the camp by leafy branches
intertwined with the barbed wire.
Camouflage was essential to the murder process. A transport numbering 40-60 rail
trucks, holding about 2-2,500 Jews, would arrive at Belzec station. It would be divided
into two or three smaller convoys which would be pushed into the camp. The Jews
would then be rapidly disembarked onto the platform where they were assured that they
had arrived at a transit camp. They were told that before being assigned to labor duties
elsewhere they would be disinfected and showered. Men were separated from women
and children and marched off to large huts where they undressed. Women had their hair

shaven off. They were then brutally pushed to "the tube" and into the gas chambers
which were disguised as "showers." The brutalized and disoriented Jews, often weak
from hours or days spent in cattle trucks, had barely any time to evaluate their fate or
react defensively.
In the first phase of its operations, from mid-March 1942 to mid-May 1942, Belzec had
three gas chambers in a wooden barrack with a double wall filled with sand. The gas
chambers were half-lined with tin and equipped with two airtight doors, one for entry
and one through which corpses were removed. The carbon monoxide gas was piped in
from a diesel engine mounted outside. Once the gas chambers were filled and the doors
shut, the killing process took up to 30 minutes. Teams of Jewish laborers who had been
selected from earlier transports then removed the corpses and dragged them to burial
pits. Other Jewish workers removed gold teeth from the bodies. Back at the platform,
teams of Jews cleaned up the trucks and tidied the platform. In the undressing rooms
more Jewish work units were busy sorting clothing, luggage and personal objects. It took
up to three hours to "process" one section of a transport.
In mid-May the transports stopped while the system was refined. In mid-June,
construction began on a brick and concrete building housing six gas chambers, each one
13 by 16 feet. This enabled the SS to kill up to 1,200 Jews at a time, which meant that
trains needed to be broken down into only two parts. Jews could also be moved through
all the stages of undressing and shaving more quickly. During this period, about 1,000
Jews were kept alive for short periods of time to man the various work teams. A
substantial number were employed by the SS as craftsmen. All were liquidated after a
while. Those remaining when the camp ceased to function were transported
to Sobibor death camp and murdered. There were only two survivors of Belzec, neither
of whom is still alive [ED].
It is estimated that about 600,000 Jews were murdered at Belzec and probably dozen
thousands ofGypsies. In the first phase of its operations, 80,000 Jews were killed, having
been brought from the ghettos of Lublin, Lvov and elsewhere in the Lublin area and
Eastern Galicia. The second phase, from mid-July 1942 to the end of December 1942,
saw the arrival and gassing of 130,000 Jews from the Cracow area, 215,000 from the
Lvov region and smaller numbers from Lublin and Radom.
During the early months of 1943, the corpses of the murdered Jews were disinterred and
burned in open air pits. The camp was then closed. However, local people excavated the
ground for valuables and had to be driven off by guards. To deter other scavengers, the
area of the camp was ploughed over and turned into a farm. One of the Ukrainian guards
was made the farmer.
The Majdanek concentration camp is situated in a major urban area, four kilometers
from the city center ofLublin, and can be easily reached by trolley car. The location of
the Majdanek camp is in an area of rolling terrain and can be seen from all sides; it could
not be more public or accessible. It is located in an entirely open area with no trees
around it to hide the activities inside the camp, as at Dachau. There was no security zone
established around the Majdanek camp, as at Birkenau, and there is no natural

protection, such as a river or a forest, as at Treblinka. Besides being bounded on the

north by a busy main road, the camp was bounded on the south by two small villages
named Abramowic and Dziesiata. People driving past the camp, while it was in
operation, had a completely unobstructed view, being able to see the tall brick chimney
of the crematorium wafting smoke from the top of a slope not far away, and the gas
chamber building which is very close to the street.
One of the first sights that the tour guide pointed out was the old Castle, high on a hill
just east of the Old Town in the city of Lublin, where the Nazis held Polish political
prisoners during their occupation of this area of Poland. The castle was built in the
1820ies on the site of King Kazimierz the Great's 14th century fortress. Just below the
hill is the location of one of the former Jewish ghettos of Lublin. The Castle now
contains a Museum which has a section devoted to the history of the Gestapo prison
there. When the Russian liberators were approaching Lublin, the Nazis took all the
prisoners at the Castle to Majdanek and killed them just before they retreated. Just like
the executions of Polish political prisoners at the "black wall" in Auschwitz, there were
also executions of Polish political prisoners in the courtyard of the Castle. Beginning in
1944, prisoners from the Castle were taken to Majdanek for execution.
Although the first prisoners at Majdanek were Russian Prisoners of War, who were
transferred from a barbed wire enclosure at Chelm, the camp soon became a detention
center for Jews after the Final Solution was decided upon in January 1942. Mass
transports of Jews began arriving at the Majdanek camp, beginning in April 1942, during
the same time period that Auschwitz was also being converted to an extermination camp
for Jews.
Just as at Auschwitz, the first Jewish prisoners were from Slovakia, followed by
transports from the area that is now the Czech Republic. Jews from Austria, Germany,
France and Holland were also sent to Majdanek, but from mid 1942 until mid 1943, most
of the Jews sent to the camp were from the Lublin region and the ghettos of Warsaw
andBialystok. According to a Museum booklet, "The transports of Jews from the General
Government were in direct connection with Action Reinhard whose aim was mass
extermination of Jews and plunder of Jewish property. The headquarters of this action,
managed by O. Globocnik, was in Lublin." The Action Reinhard camps were
at Sobibor,Belzec and Treblinka, all on the border of Russian occupied Poland, and the
General Government was the name given to central Poland by the Nazis. Lublin is the
easternmost large city in Poland.
Majdanek was originally a labor camp but was transformed into a death camp.
Unlike Belzec, it had some industrial activity. Non-Jewish prisoners were admitted. At
first death was induced by carbon monoxide asphyxiation, but later hydrocyanic, or
prussic, acid fumes were used following successful tests at Belzec. It is estimated that
80,000 inmates were gassed at Majdanek. After Russian troops discovered the camp on
July 23, 1944, Konstatin Simonov, a Soviet writer, wrote a full account of the death
camp for Pravda. In a special issue the London Illustrated News published photographs
of the gas chambers and ovens at Majdanek.*