Auschwitz/concentration camps time line.

Auschwitz, Germany's largest concentration and extermination camp, was actually a system of three large camps. The main Auschwitz camp--built near Krakow, Poland, in 1940--was primarily a concentration camp. Most of the extermination was done at Birkenau, while the third camp, called Buna or Monowitz, was used mostly for forced labor. Today, Auschwitz remains one of the most powerful symbols of the great Nazi evil.

TIMELINE

1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Nazis establish the first concentration camps for political prisoners. Hitler calls for a boycott of Jewish businesses, and Nazis are encouraged to attack Jews.

1938: A Nazi-organized persecution of Jews known as Kristallnacht (kris-TULL-nokt)--or Night of Broken Glass--takes place. On November 9-10, thousands of Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues throughout Germany are plundered. Some 30,000 Jewish men are sent to concentration camps.

1939: In September, Germany invades Poland, and World War II begins. The Nazi governor of Poland requires Jews to wear the Star of David on their clothing for identification.

1940: Germans force Jews in the Polish cities of Lodz and Warsaw into ghettos. After conquering France, pro-Nazi officials deport Jews to concentration camps. In June, the first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz. They are members of the anti-Nazi resistance group in Poland.

1941: Inmates at Auschwitz are forced to build the IG Farben synthetic rubber plant and begin building Birkenau, the second Auschwitz camp. The first Auschwitz victims, mostly Russian prisoners of war, are killed with Zyklon B gas.

1942: In January, Nazis hold a conference in the German town of Wannsee to discuss the "final solution," a plan to kill all European Jews and Gypsies, as well as Soviet prisoners of war. In July, Nazis announce plans to send all Polish Jews to the camps.

1943: In April, German soldiers put down an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto and send the survivors to Treblinka, another extermination camp. Later, about 200 Treblinka prisoners attempt escape; most are caught or killed. In May, Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor, arrives at Auschwitz to begin brutal medical experiments on prisoners.

1944: Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz, oversees the gassing of nearly 440,000 Hungarian Jews. Some 4,000 Gypsies are gassed in July. About 60,000 Jews are sent to Auschwitz from the Lodz ghetto. In November, the last people are gassed at Auschwitz.

1945: Soviet troops liberate Warsaw on January 17. Nazis force tens of thousands of prisoners on a death march from Auschwitz, killing thousands of others on the spot. On January 27, Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. Some 7,000 prisoners are found alive.

QUESTIONS Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

1. When and why were the first concentration camps established?

2. What was Kristallnacht?

3. What did the governor of Poland force Poles to wear as a sign that they were Jews?

4. Auschwitz consisted of how many camps? Which was the main extermination camp?

5. What was the "final solution"?

6. Where and when was the final solution discussed?

7. What other extermination camp besides Birkenau is mentioned in this time line? What event resulted in many prisoners being sent there?

8. From the evidence of the time line, how were many Auschwitz inmates killed?

9. What crime other than forced labor and extermination was committed against Auschwitz inmates?

10. Imagine that you are a German sent to be manager of a plant where concentration-camp inmates are forced to work. What obligations would you have to your workers? to your employers?

1. in 1933, for political prisoners

2. the Nazi-organized plundering of thousands of Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues on November 9-10, 1938

3. a Star of David on their clothes

4. three; Birkenau

5. a Nazi plan to kill all European Jews and Gypsies, as well as Soviet prisoners of war

6. in Germany, at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942

7. Treblinka; the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943

8. with Zyklon B gas

9. cruel medical experiments, overseen by Br. Josef Mengele

10. Answers will vary. (Some may say the workers should be protected, which indeed happened, by Oskar Schindler, real-life hero of the book and film Schindler's List, among others. They may also express fear of reprisal if they do not obey the commands of their leaders.)