Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

===Auschwitz III–Monowitz{{anchor|Auschwitz III|Monowitz}}===
{{Main|Monowitz concentration camp}}
[[File:FARBEN DWORY.png|thumb|Detailed map of [[Monowitz Buna Werke|Buna Werke]], [[Monowitz]], and nearby subcamps]]
After examining several sites for a new plant to manufacture [[Nitrile rubber|Buna-N]], a type of [[synthetic rubber]] essential to the war effort, the German chemical conglomerate [[IG Farben]] chose a site near the towns of [[Dwory II|Dwory]] and Monowice (Monowitz in German), about {{cvt|7|km}} east of Auschwitz I.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=45}}<!--check this: The area contained barracks, workshops and an old inn that was used as a canteen by IG Farben staff--> Tax exemptions were available to corporations prepared to develop industries in the frontier regions under the Eastern Fiscal Assistance Law, passed in December 1940. In addition to its proximity to the concentration camp, a source of cheap labour, the site had good railway connections and access to raw materials.{{sfn|Hilberg|1998|pp=81–82}} In February 1941, Himmler ordered that the Jewish population of [[Oświęcim]] be expelled to make way for skilled laborers; that all Poles able to work remain in the town and work on building the factory; and that Auschwitz prisoners be used in the construction work.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=49}}

Auschwitz inmates began working at the plant, known as Buna Werke and IG-Auschwitz, in April 1941, demolishing houses in Monowitz to make way for it.<ref>{{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=108}}; for "IG-Auschwitz", see {{harvnb|Hayes|2001|p=xii}}.</ref> By May, because of a shortage of trucks, several hundred of them were rising at 3&nbsp;am to walk there twice a day from Auschwitz I.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=108}} Because a long line of exhausted inmates walking through the town of Oświęcim might harm German-Polish relations, the inmates were told to shave daily, make sure they were clean, and sing as they walked. From late July they were taken to the factory by train on freight wagons.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=109–110}} Given the difficulty of moving them, including during the winter, IG Farben decided to build a camp at the plant. The first inmates moved there on 30 October 1942.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=111–112}} Known as ''KL Auschwitz III–Aussenlager'' (Auschwitz III subcamp), and later as the Monowitz concentration camp,{{sfn|Lasik|2000a|pp=151–152}} it was the first concentration camp to be financed and built by private industry.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=53}}

[[File:Heinrich Himmler, IG Farben Auschwitz plant, July 1942.jpeg|thumb|[[Heinrich Himmler]] ''(second left)'' visits the [[IG Farben]] plant in Auschwitz III, July 1942.]]
Measuring {{cvt|270|x|490|m}}, the camp was larger than Auschwitz I. By the end of 1944, it housed 60 barracks measuring {{cvt|17.5|x|8|m}}, each with a day room and a sleeping room containing 56 three-tiered wooden bunks.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=112}} IG Farben paid the SS three or four [[Reichsmark]] for nine- to eleven-hour shifts from each worker.{{sfn|Hayes|2001|p=353}} In 1943–1944, about 35,000 inmates worked at the plant; 23,000 (32 a day on average) were killed through malnutrition, disease, and the workload. Within three to four months at the camp, [[Peter Hayes (historian)|Peter Hayes]] writes, the inmates were "reduced to walking skeletons".{{sfn|Hayes|2001|p=359}} Deaths and transfers to the gas chambers at Auschwitz II reduced the population by nearly a fifth each month.{{sfn|Krakowski|1998|p=57}} Site managers constantly threatened inmates with the gas chambers, and the smell from the crematoria at Auschwitz I and II hung heavy over the camp.{{sfn|Hayes|2001|p=364}}<!--check: In addition to the Auschwitz inmates, who comprised a third of the work force, IG Auschwitz employed slave laborers from all over Europe.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=52}}-->

Although the factory had been expected to begin production in 1943, shortages of labour and raw materials meant start-up was postponed repeatedly.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|pp=52, 56}} The Allies bombed the plant in 1944 on 20 August, 13 September, 18 December, and 26 December. On 19 January 1945, the SS ordered that the site be evacuated, sending 9,000 inmates, most of them Jews, on a death march to another Auschwitz subcamp at [[Gliwice]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hayes|2001|p=367}}; {{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=115}}; that when the camp was evacuated, 9,054 of the 9,792 inmates were Jews, see {{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=113}}.</ref> From Gliwice, prisoners were taken by rail in open freight wagons to the [[Buchenwald]] and [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex|Mauthausen]] concentration camps. The 800 inmates who had been left behind in the Monowitz hospital were liberated along with the rest of the camp on 27 January 1945 by the [[1st Ukrainian Front]] of the [[Red Army]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=115}}