Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

==Life in the camps==
===SS garrison===
{{Main|SS command of Auschwitz concentration camp|SS-Totenkopfverbände}}
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| image1 = Richard Baer, Josef Mengele, Rudolf Hoess, Auschwitz. Album Höcker.jpg
| caption1 = From the [[Höcker Album]] (''left to right''): [[Richard Baer]] (Auschwitz commandant from May 1944), [[Josef Mengele]] (camp physician), and [[Rudolf Höss]] (first commandant) in [[Solahütte]], an SS resort near Auschwitz, summer 1944.<ref name=Wilkinson17March2008>{{cite news |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Alec |author-link1=Alec Wilkinson |title=Picturing Auschwitz |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/17/080317fa_fact_wilkinson |magazine=The New Yorker |date=17 March 2008 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121208140847/http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/17/080317fa_fact_wilkinson |archive-date=8 December 2012 |url-status=live |access-date=3 January 2020}}</ref>
| image2 = 784648 Oświęcim, obóz zagłady "Auschwitz" -dom komendanta obozu 05.JPG
| caption2 = The commandant's and administration building, Auschwitz I
}}
[[Rudolf Höss]], born in [[Baden-Baden]] in 1901,<ref>{{harvnb|Lasik|1998b|p=288}}; {{harvnb|Lasik|2000b|p=154}}.</ref> was named the first commandant of Auschwitz when [[Heinrich Himmler]] ordered on 27 April 1940 that the camp be established.{{sfn|Lasik|2000a|p=154}} Living with his wife and children in a two-story [[stucco]] house near the commandant's and administration building,{{sfn|Harding|2013|p=100}} he served as commandant until 11 November 1943,{{sfn|Lasik|2000a|p=154}} with [[Josef Kramer]] as his deputy.{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=16}} Succeeded as commandant by [[Arthur Liebehenschel]],{{sfn|Lasik|2000a|p=154}} Höss joined the SS [[SS Main Economic and Administrative Office|Business and Administration Head Office]] in Oranienburg as director of Amt DI,{{sfn|Lasik|2000a|p=154}} a post that made him deputy of the camps inspectorate.{{sfn|Lasik|1998b|pp=294–295}}

[[Richard Baer]] became commandant of Auschwitz I on 11 May 1944 and [[Fritz Hartjenstein]] of Auschwitz II from 22 November 1943, followed by Josef Kramer from 15 May 1944 until the camp's liquidation in January 1945. [[Heinrich Schwarz]] was commandant of Auschwitz III from the point at which it became an autonomous camp in November 1943 until its liquidation.{{sfn|Lasik|2000a|pp=153–157}} Höss returned to Auschwitz between 8 May and 29 July 1944 as the local SS garrison commander (''Standortältester'') to oversee the arrival of Hungary's Jews, which made him the superior officer of all the commandants of the Auschwitz camps.{{sfn|Lasik|2000a|p=154}}

According to [[Aleksander Lasik]], about 6,335 people (6,161 of them men) worked for the SS at Auschwitz over the course of the camp's existence;{{sfn|Lasik|2000b|p=314}} 4.2 percent were officers, 26.1 percent non-commissioned officers, and 69.7 percent rank and file.{{sfn|Lasik|1998a|p=282}} In March 1941, there were 700 SS guards; in June 1942, 2,000; and in August 1944, 3,342. At its peak in January 1945, 4,480 SS men and 71 SS women worked in Auschwitz; the higher number is probably attributable to the logistics of evacuating the camp.{{sfn|Lasik|2000b|p=299}} Female guards were known as SS supervisors (''SS-Aufseherinnen'').{{sfn|Lasik|1998a|p=274}}

Most of the staff were from Germany or Austria, but as the war progressed, increasing numbers of ''[[Volksdeutsche]]'' from other countries, including Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and the Baltic states, joined the SS at Auschwitz. Not all were ethnically German. Guards were also recruited from Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia.{{sfn|Lasik|2000b|pp=323–324}} Camp guards, around three quarters of the SS personnel, were members of the ''[[SS-Totenkopfverbände]]'' ([[Totenkopf|death's head]] units).{{sfn|Lasik|1998a|p=273}} Other SS staff worked in the medical or political departments, or in the economic administration, which was responsible for clothing and other supplies, including the property of dead prisoners.{{sfn|Lasik|1998a|pp=272–273}} The SS viewed Auschwitz as a comfortable posting; being there meant they had avoided the front and had access to the victims' property.{{sfn|Lasik|1998a|p=285}}

===Functionaries and ''Sonderkommando''{{anchor|functionaries}}===
[[File:Bloki Auschwitz.jpg|thumb|Auschwitz I, 2009]]
Certain prisoners, at first non-Jewish Germans but later Jews and non-Jewish Poles,{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000a|p=49}} were assigned positions of authority as ''Funktionshäftlinge'' (functionaries), which gave them access to better housing and food. The ''Lagerprominenz'' (camp elite) included ''Blockschreiber'' (barracks clerk), ''[[Kapo (concentration camp)|Kapo]]'' (overseer), ''Stubendienst'' (barracks orderly), and ''Kommandierte'' (trusties).{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|pp=35–36}} Wielding tremendous power over other prisoners, the functionaries developed a reputation as sadists.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000a|p=49}} Very few were prosecuted after the war, because of the difficulty of determining which atrocities had been performed by order of the SS.{{sfn|Wittmann|2003|pp=519–520}}

Although the SS oversaw the murders at each gas chamber, the forced labor portion of the work was done by prisoners known from 1942 as the ''[[Sonderkommando]]'' (special squad).{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=180}} These were mostly Jews but they included groups such as Soviet POWs. In 1940–1941 when there was one gas chamber, there were 20 such prisoners, in late 1943 there were 400, and by 1944 during the Holocaust in Hungary the number had risen to 874.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=180–181, 184}} The ''Sonderkommando'' removed goods and corpses from the incoming trains, guided victims to the dressing rooms and gas chambers, removed their bodies afterwards, and took their jewelry, hair, dental work, and any precious metals from their teeth, all of which was sent to Germany. Once the bodies were stripped of anything valuable, the ''Sonderkommando'' burned them in the crematoria.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=170–171}}

Because they were witnesses to the mass murder, the ''Sonderkommando'' lived separately from the other prisoners, although this rule was not applied to the non-Jews among them.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=189}} Their quality of life was further improved by their access to the property of new arrivals, which they traded within the camp, including with the SS.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=190–191}} Nevertheless, their life expectancy was short; they were regularly murdered and replaced.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=180–181}} About 100 survived to the camp's liquidation. They were forced on a death march and by train to the camp at [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex|Mauthausen]], where three days later they were asked to step forward during roll call. No one did, and because the SS did not have their records, several of them survived.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=188–189}}

===Tattoos and triangles{{anchor|Triangles}}===
{{Further|Nazi concentration camp badge}}
[[File:Auschwitz outerwear distinguish yellow Star of David.jpg|thumb|Auschwitz clothing]]
Uniquely at Auschwitz, prisoners were tattooed with a serial number, on their left breast for Soviet prisoners of war{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|pp=90–91}} and on the left arm for civilians.{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=20}}<ref name=serialUSHHM>{{cite web |title=Tattoos and Numbers: The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/tattoos-and-numbers-the-system-of-identifying-prisoners-at-auschwitz |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=25 January 2019 |archive-date=13 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613215609/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/tattoos-and-numbers-the-system-of-identifying-prisoners-at-auschwitz |url-status=live }}</ref><!--expand serial numbers--> Categories of prisoner were distinguishable by triangular pieces of cloth (German: ''Winkel'') sewn onto on their jackets below their prisoner number. Political prisoners ''(Schutzhäftlinge'' or Sch), mostly Poles, had a red triangle, while criminals (''Berufsverbrecher'' or BV) were mostly German and wore green. Asocial prisoners (''Asoziale'' or Aso), which included vagrants, prostitutes and the Roma, wore black. Purple was for Jehovah's Witnesses (''Internationale Bibelforscher-Vereinigung'' or IBV)'s and pink for gay men, who were mostly German.<ref>{{cite web |title=System of triangles |url=http://auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoner-classification/system-of-triangles |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180705195349/http://auschwitz.org/en/history/prisoner-classification/system-of-triangles |archive-date=5 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> An estimated 5,000–15,000 gay men prosecuted under German Penal Code Section 175 (proscribing sexual acts between men) were detained in concentration camps, of whom an unknown number were sent to Auschwitz.<ref>{{cite web |title=Persecution of Homosexuals in the Third Reich |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/persecution-of-homosexuals-in-the-third-reich |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=1 February 2019 |archive-date=11 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911213037/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/persecution-of-homosexuals-in-the-third-reich |url-status=live }}</ref> Jews wore a [[yellow badge]], the shape of the [[Star of David]], overlaid by a second triangle if they also belonged to a second category. The nationality of the inmate was indicated by a letter stitched onto the cloth. A racial hierarchy existed, with German prisoners at the top. Next were non-Jewish prisoners from other countries. Jewish prisoners were at the bottom.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|pp=31–32}}

===Transports===
[[File:Freight car, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, 2014.jpg|thumb|[[Goods wagon|Freight car]] inside Auschwitz II-Birkenau, near the gatehouse, used to transport deportees, 2014<ref name=traincar>{{cite web |title=An Original German Train Car at the Birkenau Ramp |url=http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/an-original-german-train-car-at-the-birkenau-ramp,659.html |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |date=14 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125215121/http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/an-original-german-train-car-at-the-birkenau-ramp,659.html |archive-date=25 January 2019}}</ref>]]
Deportees were brought to Auschwitz crammed in wretched conditions into goods or cattle wagons, arriving near a railway station or at one of several dedicated trackside ramps, including one next to Auschwitz I. The ''Altejudenrampe'' (old Jewish ramp), part of the Oświęcim freight railway station, was used from 1942 to 1944 for Jewish transports.<ref name=traincar/>{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000a|p=17}} Located between Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, arriving at this ramp meant a 2.5&nbsp;km journey to Auschwitz II and the gas chambers. Most deportees were forced to walk, accompanied by SS men and a car with a Red Cross symbol that carried the Zyklon B, as well as an SS doctor in case officers were poisoned by mistake. Inmates arriving at night, or who were too weak to walk, were taken by truck.{{sfn|Piper|1998c|p=162}} Work on a new railway line and ramp ''(right)'' between sectors BI and BII in Auschwitz II, was completed in May 1944 for the arrival of [[History of the Jews in Hungary#The Holocaust|Hungarian Jews]]{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000a|p=17}} between May and early July 1944.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=408}} The rails led directly to the area around the gas chambers.<ref name=traincar/>

===Life for the inmates===
The day began at 4:30&nbsp;am for the men (an hour later in winter), and earlier for the women, when the block supervisor sounded a gong and started beating inmates with sticks to make them wash and use the latrines quickly.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|pp=65–66}} There were few latrines and there was a lack of clean water. Each washhouse had to service thousands of prisoners. In sectors BIa and BIb in Auschwitz II, two buildings containing latrines and washrooms were installed in 1943. These contained troughs for washing and 90 faucets; the toilet facilities were "sewage channels" covered by concrete with 58 holes for seating. There were three barracks with washing facilities or toilets to serve 16 residential barracks in BIIa, and six washrooms/latrines for 32 barracks in BIIb, BIIc, BIId, and BIIe.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=56}}<!--Rewrite: The camps were infested with vermin such as disease-carrying lice, and inmates died in epidemics of typhus and other diseases.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=94}} [[Noma (disease)|Noma]], a bacterial infection, was a common cause of death among children in the gypsy camp.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=111}}--> [[Primo Levi]] described a 1944 [[#Auschwitz III-Monowitz|Auschwitz III]] washroom:

[[File:Toaletter på auschwitz 2.jpg|thumb|[[Latrine]] in the men's quarantine camp, sector BIIa, Auschwitz II, 2003]]
{{blockquote|It is badly lighted, full of draughts, with the brick floor covered by a layer of mud. The water is not drinkable; it has a revolting smell and often fails for many hours. The walls are covered by curious didactic [[fresco]]es: for example, there is the good Häftling [prisoner], portrayed stripped to the waist, about to diligently soap his sheared and rosy cranium, and the bad Häftling, with a strong Semitic nose and a greenish colour, bundled up in his ostentatiously stained clothes with a beret on his head, who cautiously dips a finger into the water of the washbasin. Under the first is written: "''So bist du rein''" (like this you are clean), and under the second, "''So gehst du ein''" (like this you come to a bad end); and lower down, in doubtful French but in Gothic script: "''La propreté, c'est la santé''" [cleanliness is health].{{sfn|Levi|2001|p=45}}<!--On the opposite wall an enormous white, red and black louse encamps, with the writing: "''Ein Laus, dein Tod'' (a louse is your death) and the inspired distich: "''Nach dem Abort, vor dem Essen / Hände waschen, nicht vergessen.''" (After the latrines, before eating, wash your hands, do not forget.){{sfn|Levi|2001|pp=45–46}}-->}}

Prisoners received half a litre of coffee substitute or a herbal tea in the morning, but no food.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=60}} A second gong heralded roll call, when inmates lined up outside in rows of ten to be counted. No matter the weather, they had to wait for the SS to arrive for the count; how long they stood there depended on the officers' mood, and whether there had been escapes or other events attracting punishment.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=66}} Guards might force the prisoners to squat for an hour with their hands above their heads or hand out beatings or detention for infractions such as having a missing button or an improperly cleaned food bowl. The inmates were counted and re-counted.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=33}}
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Auschwitz 1 concentration camp bunks 6006 4162.jpg
| caption1 = Auschwitz II brick barracks, sector BI, 2006; four prisoners slept in each partition, known as a ''buk''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Life in the camp: living conditions |url=http://auschwitz.org/en/history/life-in-the-camp/ |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |archive-url=https://archive.today/20160319121518/http://auschwitz.org/en/history/life-in-the-camp/ |archive-date=19 March 2016 |url-status=live |access-date=3 January 2020}}</ref>
| image2 = Auschwitz.Birkenau.QuarantaineBarrack.jpg
| caption2 = Auschwitz II wooden barracks, 2008}}

After roll call, to the sound of "''Arbeitskommandos formieren''" ("form work details"), prisoners walked to their place of work, five abreast, to begin a working day that was normally 11 hours long—longer in summer and shorter in winter.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=67}}<!--wearing striped camp fatigues, no underwear, and ill-fitting wooden shoes without socks.{{sfn|Gutman|1998|pp=20–21}}--> A prison orchestra, such as the [[Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz]], was forced to play cheerful music as the workers left the camp. ''Kapos'' were responsible for the prisoners' behaviour while they worked, as was an SS escort. Much of the work took place outdoors at construction sites, gravel pits, and lumber yards. No rest periods were allowed. One prisoner was assigned to the latrines to measure the time the workers took to empty their bladders and bowels.<ref>{{harvnb|Steinbacher|2005|p=33}}; {{harvnb|Gutman|1998|pp=20–21}}.</ref>

Lunch was three-quarters of a litre of watery soup at midday, reportedly foul-tasting, with meat in the soup four times a week and vegetables (mostly potatoes and [[rutabaga]]) three times. The evening meal was 300 grams of bread, often moldy, part of which the inmates were expected to keep for breakfast the next day, with a tablespoon of cheese or marmalade, or 25 grams of margarine or sausage. Prisoners engaged in hard labour were given extra rations.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|pp=60–61}}

A second roll call took place at seven in the evening, in the course of which prisoners might be hanged or flogged. If a prisoner was missing, the others had to remain standing until the absentee was found or the reason for the absence discovered, even if it took hours. On 6 July 1940, roll call lasted 19 hours because a Polish prisoner, [[Tadeusz Wiejowski]], had escaped; following an escape in 1941, a group of prisoners was picked out from the escapee's barracks and sent to block 11 to be starved to death.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|pp=68–69}} After roll call, prisoners retired to their blocks for the night and received their bread rations. Then they had some free time to use the washrooms and receive their mail, unless they were Jews: Jews were not allowed to receive mail. Curfew ("nighttime quiet") was marked by a gong at nine o'clock.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000b|p=69}} Inmates slept in long rows of brick or wooden bunks, or on the floor, lying in and on their clothes and shoes to prevent them from being stolen.<ref>{{harvnb|Gutman|1998|p=21}}; {{harvnb|Iwaszko|2000b|p=55}}; for the floor, see {{harvnb|Strzelecka|2000b|p=70}}.</ref> The wooden bunks had blankets and paper mattresses filled with wood shavings; in the brick barracks, inmates lay on straw.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000b|p=55}} According to [[Miklós Nyiszli]]:
{{blockquote|Eight hundred to a thousand people were crammed into the superimposed compartments of each barracks. Unable to stretch out completely, they slept there both lengthwise and crosswise, with one man's feet on another's head, neck, or chest. Stripped of all human dignity, they pushed and shoved and bit and kicked each other in an effort to get a few more inches' space on which to sleep a little more comfortably. For they did not have long to sleep.{{sfn|Nyiszli|2011|p=25}}}}

Sunday was not a workday, but prisoners had to clean the barracks and take their weekly shower,{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=21}} and were allowed to write (in German) to their families, although the SS censored the mail. Inmates who did not speak German would trade bread for help.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=34}} [[Shomer Shabbat|Observant Jews]] tried to keep track of the [[Hebrew calendar]] and [[Jewish holidays]], including [[Shabbat]], and the [[weekly Torah portion]]. No watches, calendars, or clocks were permitted in the camp. Only two Jewish calendars made in Auschwitz survived to the end of the war. Prisoners kept track of the days in other ways, such as obtaining information from newcomers.{{sfn|Rosen|2014|p=18}}

===Women's camp{{anchor|Women's camp}}===
{{See also|Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz}}
{{multiple image
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| caption1 = Women in Auschwitz II, May 1944
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| caption2 = Roll call in front of the kitchen building, Auschwitz II
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About 30 percent of the registered inmates were female.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|p=171}} The first mass transport of women, 999 non-Jewish German women from the [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]], arrived on 26 March 1942. Classified as criminal, asocial and political, they were brought to Auschwitz as founder functionaries of the women's camp.{{sfn|Czech|2000|pp=143–144}} Rudolf Höss wrote of them: "It was easy to predict that these beasts would mistreat the women over whom they exercised power&nbsp;... Spiritual suffering was completely alien to them."{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|p=177}} They were given serial numbers 1–999.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=144}}{{efn|This was the third set of serial numbers started in the camp.<ref name=serialUSHHM/>}} The women's guard from Ravensbrück, [[Johanna Langefeld]], became the first Auschwitz women's camp ''Lagerführerin''.{{sfn|Czech|2000|pp=143–144}} A second mass transport of women, 999 Jews from [[Poprad]], Slovakia, arrived on the same day. According to [[Danuta Czech]], this was the first registered transport sent to Auschwitz by the [[Reich Security Head Office]] (RSHA) office IV B4, known as the Jewish Office, led by SS ''Obersturmbannführer'' [[Adolf Eichmann]].{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=144}} (Office IV was the [[Gestapo]].){{sfn|Stangneth|2014|p=22}} A third transport of 798 Jewish women from [[Bratislava]], Slovakia, followed on 28 March.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=144}}

Women were at first held in blocks 1–10 of Auschwitz I,{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|p=172}} but from 6 August 1942,{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=155}} 13,000 inmates were transferred to a new women's camp (''Frauenkonzentrationslager'' or FKL) in Auschwitz II. This consisted at first of 15 brick and 15 wooden barracks in sector (''Bauabschnitt'') BIa; it was later extended into BIb,{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|pp=172–173}} and by October 1943 it held 32,066 women.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=88}} In 1943–1944, about 11,000 women were also housed in the [[#Gypsy family camp|Gypsy family camp]], as were several thousand in the [[#Theresienstadt family camp|Theresienstadt family camp]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|p=174}}

Conditions in the women's camp were so poor that when a group of male prisoners arrived to set up an infirmary in October 1942, their first task, according to researchers from the Auschwitz Museum, was to distinguish the corpses from the women who were still alive.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=88}} [[Gisella Perl]], a Romanian-Jewish gynecologist and inmate of the women's camp, wrote in 1948:
{{blockquote|There was one latrine for thirty to thirty-two thousand women and we were permitted to use it only at certain hours of the day. We stood in line to get in to this tiny building, knee-deep in human excrement. As we all suffered from dysentry, we could barely wait until our turn came, and soiled our ragged clothes, which never came off our bodies, thus adding to the horror of our existence by the terrible smell that surrounded us like a cloud. The latrine consisted of a deep ditch with planks thrown across it at certain intervals. We squatted on those planks like birds perched on a telegraph wire, so close together that we could not help soiling one another.<ref>{{harvnb|Perl|1948|pp=32–33}}; {{harvnb|van Pelt|1998|p=133}}.</ref>}}

Langefeld was succeeded as ''Lagerführerin'' in October 1942 by SS ''Oberaufseherin'' [[Maria Mandl]], who developed a reputation for cruelty. Höss hired men to oversee the female supervisors, first SS ''Obersturmführer'' Paul Müller, then SS ''Hauptsturmführer'' [[Franz Hössler]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|p=176}} Mandl and Hössler were executed after the war. Sterilisation experiments were carried out in barracks 30 by a German gynecologist, [[Carl Clauberg]], and another German doctor, [[Horst Schumann]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=88}}

===Medical experiments, block 10===
{{Main|Block 10|Nazi human experimentation}}
<!--Unsourced:[[File:Menachem taffel.jpg|thumb|Cadaver of Berlin dairy merchant Menachem Taffel. He was deported to Auschwitz in March 1943 along with his wife and child, who were gassed on arrival. He was chosen to be an anatomical specimen. He was shipped to [[Natzweiler-Struthof]] and murdered in the gas chamber in August 1943.]]-->
[[File:Auschwitz Mengele Block 10.jpg|thumb|left|[[Block 10]], Auschwitz I, where medical experiments were performed on women]]
German doctors performed a variety of experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. SS doctors tested the efficacy of [[X-rays]] as a [[forced sterilization|sterilization]] device by administering large doses to female prisoners. [[Carl Clauberg]] injected chemicals into women's [[uterus]]es in an effort to glue them shut. Prisoners were infected with spotted fever for vaccination research and exposed to toxic substances to study the effects.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|pp=114–115}} In one experiment, [[Bayer]]—then part of [[IG Farben]]—paid RM 150 each for 150 female inmates from Auschwitz (the camp had asked for RM 200 per woman), who were transferred to a Bayer facility to test an anesthetic. A Bayer employee wrote to Rudolf Höss: "The transport of 150 women arrived in good condition. However, we were unable to obtain conclusive results because they died during the experiments. We would kindly request that you send us another group of women to the same number and at the same price." The Bayer research was led at Auschwitz by [[Helmuth Vetter]] of Bayer/IG Farben, who was also an Auschwitz physician and SS captain, and by Auschwitz physicians [[Friedrich Entress]] and [[Eduard Wirths]].{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000d|p=362}}

[[File:Doctors' trial, Nuremberg, 1946–1947.jpg|thumb|Defendants during the [[Doctors' trial]], Nuremberg, 1946–1947]]
The most infamous doctor at Auschwitz was [[Josef Mengele]], the "Angel of Death", who worked in Auschwitz II from 30 May 1943, at first in the [[#Gypsy family camp|gypsy family camp]].<ref name="Kubica 1998 319">{{harvnb|Kubica|1998|p=319}}; {{harvnb|Czech|2000|p=178}}.</ref> Interested in performing research on [[identical twins]], [[Dwarfism|dwarfs]], and those with hereditary disease, Mengele set up a kindergarten in barracks 29 and 31 for children he was experimenting on, and for all Romani children under six, where they were given better food rations.{{sfn|Kubica|1998|pp=320–323}} From May 1944, he would select twins and dwarfs from among the new arrivals during "selection",{{sfn|Kubica|1998|p=325}} reportedly calling for twins with "''Zwillinge heraus!''" ("twins step forward!").{{sfn|Friedländer|2007|p=505}} He and other doctors (the latter prisoners) would measure the twins' body parts, photograph them, and subject them to dental, sight and hearing tests, x-rays, blood tests, surgery, and blood transfusions between them.{{sfn|Kubica|1998|pp=323–324}} Then he would have them killed and dissected.{{sfn|Kubica|1998|p=325}} [[Kurt Heissmeyer]], another German doctor and SS officer, took 20 Polish Jewish children from Auschwitz to use in [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] experiments at the [[Neuengamme concentration camp]] near Hamburg, where he injected them with the [[tuberculosis]] [[bacilli]] to test a cure for tuberculosis. In April 1945, the children were murdered by hanging to conceal the project.{{sfn|Kater|2000|pp=124–125}}

A [[Jewish skeleton collection]] was obtained from among a pool of 115 Jewish inmates, chosen for their perceived stereotypical racial characteristics. [[Rudolf Brandt]] and [[Wolfram Sievers]], general manager of the ''[[Ahnenerbe]]'' (a Nazi research institute), delivered the skeletons to the collection of the Anatomy Institute at the [[Reichsuniversität Straßburg]] in [[Alsace-Lorraine]]. The collection was sanctioned by [[Heinrich Himmler]] and under the direction of [[August Hirt]]. Ultimately 87 of the inmates were shipped to [[Natzweiler-Struthof]] and murdered in August 1943.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=232–234}}<!--replace source--> Brandt and Sievers were executed in 1948 after being convicted during the [[Doctors' trial]], part of the [[Subsequent Nuremberg trials]].{{sfn|Mehring|2015|pp=161–163}}

===Punishment, block 11{{anchor|block 11}}===
{{main|Block 11}}
[[File:Auschwitz - Blok Smierci and The Execution Wall Sk06 C P.jpg|thumb|[[Block 11]] and ''(left)'' the "death wall", Auschwitz I, 2000]]
Prisoners could be beaten and killed by guards and ''kapos'' for the slightest infraction of the rules. Polish historian Irena Strzelecka writes that ''kapos'' were given nicknames that reflected their sadism: "Bloody", "Iron", "The Strangler", "The Boxer".{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000d|pp=371–372}} Based on the 275 extant reports of punishment in the Auschwitz archives, Strzelecka lists common infractions: returning a second time for food at mealtimes, removing one's gold teeth to buy bread, breaking into the pigsty to steal the pigs' food, putting one's hands into one's pockets.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=373–376}}

Flogging during rollcall was common. A flogging table called "the goat" immobilised prisoners' feet in a box, while they stretched themselves across the table. Prisoners had to count out the lashes—"25 mit besten Dank habe ich erhalten" ("25 received with many thanks")— and if they got the figure wrong, the flogging resumed from the beginning.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=373–376}} Punishment by "the post" involved tying prisoners' hands behind their backs with chains attached to hooks, then raising the chains so the prisoners were left dangling by the wrists. If their shoulders were too damaged afterwards to work, they might be sent to the gas chamber. Prisoners were subjected to the post for helping a prisoner who had been beaten, and for picking up a cigarette butt.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=384–385}} To extract information from inmates, guards would force their heads onto the stove, and hold them there, burning their faces and eyes.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|p=389}}

Known as block 13 until 1941, block 11 of Auschwitz I was the prison within the prison, reserved for inmates suspected of resistance activities.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|p=381}} Cell 22 in block 11 was a windowless [[standing cell]] (''Stehbunker''). Split into four sections, each section measured less than {{cvt|1.0|m2|sqft}} and held four prisoners, who entered it through a hatch near the floor. There was a {{cvt|5|x|5|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} vent for air, covered by a perforated sheet. Strzelecka writes that prisoners might have to spend several nights in cell 22; Wiesław Kielar spent four weeks in it for breaking a pipe.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000e|pp=382, 384}} Several rooms in block 11 were deemed the ''Polizei-Ersatz-Gefängnis Myslowitz in Auschwitz'' (Auschwitz branch of the police station at [[Mysłowice]]).{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=77}} There were also ''Sonderbehandlung'' cases ("special treatment") for Poles and others regarded as dangerous to Nazi Germany.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=79}}

===Death wall===
[[File:Poland-01334 - Death Wall (31387372450).jpg|thumb|The "death wall" showing the death-camp flag, the blue-and-white stripes with a red triangle signifying the Auschwitz uniform of political prisoners]]
The courtyard between blocks 10 and 11, known as the "death wall", served as an execution area, including for Poles in the General Government area who had been sentenced to death by a criminal court.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=79}} The first executions, by shooting inmates in the back of the head, took place at the death wall on 11 November 1941, Poland's [[National Independence Day (Poland)|National Independence Day]]. The 151 accused were led to the wall one at a time, stripped naked and with their hands tied behind their backs. [[Danuta Czech]] noted that a "clandestine [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Catholic mass]]" was said the following Sunday on the second floor of Block 4 in Auschwitz I, in a narrow space between bunks.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=139}}

An estimated 4,500 Polish political prisoners were executed at the death wall, including members of the camp resistance. An additional 10,000 Poles were brought to the camp to be executed without being registered. About 1,000 Soviet prisoners of war died by execution, although this is a rough estimate. A Polish government-in-exile report stated that 11,274 prisoners and 6,314 prisoners of war had been executed.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=102}} Rudolf Höss wrote that "execution orders arrived in an unbroken stream".{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=77}} According to SS officer [[Perry Broad]], "[s]ome of these walking skeletons had spent months in the stinking cells, where not even animals would be kept, and they could barely manage to stand straight. And yet, at that last moment, many of them shouted 'Long live Poland', or 'Long live freedom'."{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=87}} The dead included Colonel [[Jan Karcz]] and Major [[Edward Gött-Getyński]], executed on 25 January 1943 with 51 others suspected of resistance activities. [[Józef Noji]], the Polish long-distance runner, was executed on 15 February that year.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=89}} In October 1944, 200 ''Sonderkommando'' were executed for their part in the [[#Sonderkommando revolt|''Sonderkommando'' revolt]].{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=89–90}} <!--add section or para on block 24, the brothel-->

===Family camps===
====Gypsy family camp{{anchor|Gypsy camp}}{{anchor|Family camp}}{{anchor|Gypsy family camp}}====
{{main|Gypsy family camp (Auschwitz)|Romani genocide}}
[[File:Romani Kids ww2.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Romani people|Romani]] children, [[Mulfingen]], Germany, 1943; the children were studied by [[Eva Justin]] and later sent to Auschwitz.<ref>{{cite web |title=Romani children in an orphanage in Germany |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1000174 |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=1 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201215416/https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1000174 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
A separate camp for the [[Romani people|Roma]], the ''Zigeunerfamilienlager'' ("Gypsy family camp"), was set up in the BIIe sector of Auschwitz II-Birkenau in February 1943. For unknown reasons, they were not subject to selection and families were allowed to stay together. The first transport of [[Romani people in Germany|German Roma]] arrived on 26 February that year. There had been a small number of Romani inmates before that; two Czech Romani prisoners, Ignatz and Frank Denhel, tried to escape in December 1942, the latter successfully, and a Polish Romani woman, Stefania Ciuron, arrived on 12 February 1943 and escaped in April.{{sfn|Bauer|1998|pp=447–448}} [[Josef Mengele]], [[the Holocaust]]'s most infamous physician, worked in the gypsy family camp from 30 May 1943 when he began his work in Auschwitz.<ref name="Kubica 1998 319"/>

The Auschwitz registry (''Hauptbücher'') shows that 20,946 Roma were registered prisoners,{{sfn|Bauer|1998|p=448}} and another 3,000 are thought to have entered unregistered.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=55, note 145}} On 22 March 1943, one transport of 1,700 [[Romani people in Poland|Polish Sinti and Roma]] was gassed on arrival because of illness, as was a second group of 1,035 on 25 May 1943.{{sfn|Bauer|1998|p=448}} The SS tried to liquidate the camp on 16 May 1944, but the Roma fought them, armed with knives and iron pipes, and the SS retreated. Shortly after this, the SS removed nearly 2,908 from the family camp to work, and on 2 August 1944 gassed the other 2,897. Ten thousand remain unaccounted for.{{sfn|Bauer|1998|pp=449–450}}

====Theresienstadt family camp{{anchor|Theresienstadt family camp}}====
{{main|Theresienstadt family camp}}
The SS deported around 18,000 Jews to Auschwitz from the [[Theresienstadt ghetto]] in [[Terezin]], [[Czechoslovakia]],{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=96}} beginning on 8 September 1943 with a transport of 2,293 male and 2,713 female prisoners.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=185}} Placed in sector BIIb as a "family camp", they were allowed to keep their belongings, wear their own clothes, and write letters to family; they did not have their hair shaved and were not subjected to selection.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=96}} Correspondence between [[Adolf Eichmann]]'s office and the [[International Committee of the Red Cross|International Red Cross]] suggests that the Germans set up the camp to cast doubt on reports, in time for a planned Red Cross visit to Auschwitz, that mass murder was taking place there.{{sfn|Keren|1998|p=429}} The women and girls were placed in odd-numbered barracks and the men and boys in even-numbered. An infirmary was set up in barracks 30 and 32, and barracks 31 became a school and kindergarten.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=96}} The somewhat better living conditions were nevertheless inadequate; 1,000 members of the family camp were dead within six months.{{sfn|Keren|1998|p=428}} Two other groups of 2,491 and 2,473 Jews arrived from Theresienstadt in the family camp on 16 and 20 December 1943.{{sfn|Czech|2000|pp=190–191}}

On 8 March 1944, 3,791 of the prisoners (men, women and children) were sent to the gas chambers; the men were taken to crematorium III and the women later to crematorium II.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=194}} Some of the groups were reported to have sung [[Hatikvah]] and the Czech national anthem on the way.{{sfn|Keren|1998|p=439}} Before they were murdered, they had been asked to write postcards to relatives, postdated to 25–27 March. Several twins were held back for medical experiments.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=97}} The [[Czechoslovak government-in-exile]] initiated diplomatic manoeuvers to save the remaining Czech Jews after its representative in Bern received the [[Vrba-Wetzler report]], written by two escaped prisoners, [[Rudolf Vrba]] and [[Alfred Wetzler]], which warned that the remaining family-camp inmates would be gassed soon.{{sfn|Fleming|2014|pp=231–232}} The BBC also became aware of the report; its German service broadcast news of the family-camp murders during its women's programme on 16 June 1944, warning: "All those responsible for such massacres from top downwards will be called to account."{{sfn|Fleming|2014|p=215}} The Red Cross [[Maurice Rossel#Rossel's report|visited Theresienstadt]] in June 1944 and were persuaded by the SS that no one was being deported from there.{{sfn|Keren|1998|p=429}} The following month, about 2,000 women from the family camp were selected to be moved to other camps and 80 boys were moved to the men's camp; the remaining 7,000 were gassed between 10 and 12 July.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=203}}