For those of you new to this topic there were basically two types of Nazi camps: the “extermination camp”, for which the sole purpose was the mass killing of human beings. The German word for extermination camp is “Vernichtungs Lager”. The“Konzentrations Lager”, or concentration camp, was also a place of horror, but while in hundreds of thousands of cases, there was no real difference between the two types of camps, very generally speaking, there was a greater chance to survive in the camps designated “KZ” or “kah tsett”, as the letters and acronym was pronounced in German. In the extermination camps one's chances of survival were dramatically reduced.Though it is the most infamous camp, Auschwitz was actually three camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz IIBirkenau,and Auschwitz III – Monowitz. As you may know, “Auschwitz” is the German word for the town of Óswięcim ( pronounced “Ohss vee etch im”) in southwest Poland, where the camp was located. By the time Auschwitz IIBirkenau (“beer keh now”) was gassing its first victims in March, 1942, the name “Auschwitz” already chilled the blood, at least for those “in the know”.By the time the name filtered down to the people on the lowest rung of the hierarchy of the Nazi state, the Jews and others who made up the Nazi's victims, rumors abounded about what really lay at Auschwitz, and make no mistake, by 1943, the knowledge of what Birkenau, whose name “place among the birches” peacefully belies its function, was an open secret. Escapees and the Polish resistance disseminated the information – though most of the information went to governments and military men in the Allied countries. But, as one saw in the famous movie “Schindler's List”, the Jews, who made up 90% of the victims of the Holocaust, had heard rumors about what happened at Auschwitz, although they, like many Nazi victims, went into denial, for to believe the rumors was to lose all hope. There were six extermination camps: AuschwitzBirkenau, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka. All were located in Poland. At Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka, fences covered with pine branches hid the main extermination areas, which, at all three camps, were gas chambers harnessing the exhaust from truck and/or tank engines.My mustread list of Holocaust books:Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account: https://amzn.to/3Sp7lsuRena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz: https://amzn.to/3Q2dBnQMaus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History: https://amzn.to/3bjlcQ8The Last Jew of Treblinka: https://amzn.to/3oIe1o0Things We Couldn't Say: https://amzn.to/3vufwtH#nazi #auschwitz #history #concentrationcamp #auschwitzbirkenau #holocaust #hitlerScriptwriter: Matthew GaskillVoiceover Artist: Chris RedishMusic: Motionarray.com Copyright © 2021 A Day In History. All rights reserved.DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commissionDISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to [email protected]Managed by PodcastPayouts.com

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