Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

==Camps==
===Auschwitz I{{anchor|Auschwitz I}}===
====Growth====
{{multiple image
| direction = vertical
| align = right
| width = 220
| image1 = Auschwitz I - Birkenau, Oświęcim, Polonia - panoramio (5).jpg
| caption1 = Auschwitz I, 2013 ({{Coord|50.0275|19.2050|display=inline|region:PL-MA_type:landmark|name=Auschwitz I}})
| image2 = Museum Auschwitz.jpg
| caption2 = Auschwitz I, 2009; the prisoner reception center of Auschwitz I became the visitor reception center of the [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]].{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=362}}
| image3=Auschwitz I visitor reception centre, July 2014 (panoramio) cropped.jpg
| caption3=Former prisoner reception center; the building on the far left with the row of chimneys was the camp kitchen.
| image4 = AerialAuschwitz1944.jpg
| caption4 = An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Auschwitz concentration camp showing the Auschwitz I camp, 4 April 1944
}}
A former World War I camp for transient workers and later a Polish army barracks, Auschwitz I was the main camp (''Stammlager'') and administrative headquarters of the camp complex. {{convert|50|km|spell=In}} southwest of [[Kraków]], the site was first suggested in February 1940 as a quarantine camp for Polish prisoners by [[Arpad Wigand]], the inspector of the [[Sicherheitspolizei]] (security police) and deputy of [[Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski]], the [[SS and Police Leader|Higher SS and Police Leader]] for Silesia. [[Richard Glücks]], head of the [[Concentration Camps Inspectorate]], sent [[Walter Eisfeld]], former commandant of the [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp]] in [[Oranienburg]], Germany, to inspect it.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000a|pp=52–53}}; {{harvnb|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=166}}.</ref> Around {{convert|1000|m}} long and {{convert|400|m}} wide,{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=16}} Auschwitz consisted at the time of 22 brick buildings, eight of them two-story. A second story was added to the others in 1943 and eight new blocks were built.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000a|pp=52–53}}; also see {{harvnb|Iwaszko|2000b|p=51}}; {{harvnb|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=166}}</ref>

[[Reichsführer-SS]] [[Heinrich Himmler]], head of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]], approved the site in April 1940 on the recommendation of SS-[[Obersturmbannführer]] [[Rudolf Höss]] of the camps inspectorate. Höss oversaw the development of the camp and served as its first commandant. The first 30 prisoners arrived on 20 May 1940 from the Sachsenhausen camp. German "career criminals" (''Berufsverbrecher''), the men were known as "greens" (''Grünen'') after the [[#Triangles|green triangles]] on their prison clothing. Brought to the camp as functionaries, this group did much to establish the sadism of early camp life, which was directed particularly at Polish inmates, until the political prisoners took over their roles.{{sfn|Iwaszko|2000a|p=15}} [[Bruno Brodniewicz]], the first prisoner (who was given serial number 1), became ''[[Lagerälteste]]'' (camp elder). The others were given positions such as ''[[Kapo (concentration camp)|kapo]]'' and block supervisor.<ref>{{harvnb|Czech|2000|p=121}}; for serial number 1, {{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=65}}.</ref>

====First mass transport====
{{Further|First mass transport to Auschwitz concentration camp}}
The first mass transport—of 728 Polish male political prisoners, including Catholic priests and Jews—arrived on 14 June 1940 from [[Tarnów]], Poland. They were given serial numbers 31 to 758.{{efn|[[Danuta Czech]] (''[[Auschwitz 1940–1945]]'', Volume V, [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]], 2000): "June 14 [1940]: The first transport of Polish political prisoners arrived from the Tarnów prison: 728 men sent to Auschwitz by the commander of the Sipo&nbsp;u. SD (Security Police and Security Service) in Cracow. These prisoners were given camp serial numbers 31 to 758. The transport included many healthy young men fit for military service, who had been caught trying to cross the Polish southern border in order to make their way to the Polish Armed Forces being formed in France. The organizers of this illegal emigration operation were also in this transport, along with resistance organizers, political and community activists, members of the Polish intelligentsia, Catholic priests, and Jews, arrested in the 'AB' (Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion) operation organized by [[Hans Frank]] in the spring of 1940. At the same time, a further 100 SS men—officers and SS enlisted men—were sent to reinforce the camp garrison."{{sfn|Czech|2000|pp=121–122}}}} In a letter on 12 July 1940, Höss told Glücks that the local population was "fanatically Polish, ready to undertake any sort of operation against the hated SS men".{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=71}} By the end of 1940, the SS had confiscated land around the camp to create a 40-square-kilometer (15 sq mi) "zone of interest" (''Interessengebiet'') patrolled by the SS, Gestapo and local police.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=72–73}} By March 1941, 10,900 were imprisoned in the camp, most of them Poles.{{sfn|Gutman|1998|p=16}}

An inmate's first encounter with Auschwitz, if they were registered and not sent straight to the gas chamber, was at the prisoner reception centre near the gate with the {{lang|de|Arbeit macht frei}} sign, where they were tattooed, shaved, disinfected, and given a striped prison uniform. Built between 1942 and 1944, the center contained a bathhouse, laundry, and 19 gas chambers for delousing clothing. The prisoner reception center of Auschwitz I became the visitor reception center of the [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]].{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=362}}

====Crematorium I, first gassings{{anchor|first gassing}}====
{{Further|#Gas chambers}}
{{multiple image
| direction = vertical
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| image1 = Auschwitz I krematorium.jpg<!--Auschwitz I, crematorium I, 1967 (Fortepan 60957).jpg-->
| caption1 = Crematorium I, photographed in 2016, reconstructed after the war{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=364}}
}}
Construction of crematorium I began at Auschwitz I at the end of June or beginning of July 1940.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=121}} Initially intended not for mass murder but for prisoners who had been executed or had otherwise died in the camp, the crematorium was in operation from August 1940 until July 1943, by which time the crematoria at Auschwitz II had taken over.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000b|pp=121, 133}}; {{harvnb|Piper|1998c|pp=158–159}}.</ref> By May 1942 three ovens had been installed in crematorium I, which together could burn 340 bodies in 24 hours.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=128}}

The first experimental gassing took place around August 1941, when Lagerführer [[Karl Fritzsch]], at the instruction of Rudolf Höss, murdered a group of Soviet prisoners of war by throwing [[Zyklon B]] crystals into their basement cell in [[block 11]] of Auschwitz I. A second group of 600 Soviet prisoners of war and around 250 sick Polish prisoners were gassed on 3–5 September in the old crematorium after being told they were to march naked there to receive new clothing.<ref>Pilecki, W. report from Auschwitz. "Der Spion von Auschwitz — Der Mann, der sich ins Lager schmuggelte. ORF III, 27 January 2025, c.9:50 pm CET.</ref><!--check this--><ref>{{harvnb|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=292}}; {{harvnb|Piper|1998c|pp=157–158}}; {{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=117}}.</ref> The morgue was later converted to a gas chamber able to hold at least 700–800 people.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=128}}{{efn|[[Franciszek Piper]] writes that, according to post-war testimony from several inmates, as well as from Rudolf Höss (Auschwitz commandant from May 1940), the gas chamber at Auschwitz I could hold 1,000 people.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=128}}}} Zyklon B was dropped into the room through slits in the ceiling.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=128}}

====First mass transport of Jews====
{{Further|Bytom Synagogue|Beuthen Jewish Community}}
Historians have disagreed about the date the all-Jewish transports began arriving in Auschwitz. At the [[Wannsee Conference]] in Berlin on 20 January 1942, the Nazi leadership outlined, in euphemistic language, its plans for the [[Final Solution]].<ref>{{harvnb|Czech|2000|p=142}}; {{harvnb|Świebocki|2002|pp=126–127, n.&nbsp;50}}.</ref> According to [[Franciszek Piper]], the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss offered inconsistent accounts after the war, suggesting the extermination began in December 1941, January 1942, or before the establishment of the women's camp in March 1942.{{sfn|Piper|2000a|p=61}} In ''Kommandant in Auschwitz'', he wrote: "In the spring of 1942 the first transports of Jews, all earmarked for extermination, arrived from Upper Silesia."{{sfn|Höss|2003|p=148}} On 15 February 1942, according to [[Danuta Czech]], a transport of Jews from Beuthen, [[Upper Silesia]] ([[Bytom]], Poland), arrived at Auschwitz I and was sent straight to the gas chamber.{{efn|[[Danuta Czech]] (''[[Auschwitz 1940–1945]]'', Volume V, [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum]], 2000): "February 15, 1942: "The first transport of Jews arrested by the Stapo (State Police) in Katowice and fated to die at Auschwitz arrived from Beuthen. They were unloaded at the ramp on the camp railroad siding and ordered to leave their baggage there. The camp SS flying squad received the Jews from the Stapo and led the victims to the gas chamber in the camp crematorium. There, they were killed with the use of Zyklon B gas."{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=142}}}}<ref>{{harvnb|van Pelt|1998|p=145}}; {{harvnb|Piper|2000a|p=61}}; {{harvnb|Steinbacher|2005|p=107}}; [http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/anniversary-of-the-first-transport-of-polish-jews-to-auschwitz,120.html "Anniversary of the First Transport of Polish Jews to Auschwitz"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114203017/http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/anniversary-of-the-first-transport-of-polish-jews-to-auschwitz,120.html |date=14 January 2020 }}. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 13 February 2006.</ref> In 1998 an eyewitness said the train contained "the women of Beuthen".{{efn|[[Mary Fulbrook]] (''A Small Town Near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust'', Oxford University Press, 2012): "Gunter Faerber, for example, recalled the moment in February 1942 when the Jews of Beuthen (Bytom in Polish), where his grandmother lived, were brought through Bedzin on their way to Auschwitz.&nbsp;... Two large army trucks of Jewish women from Beuthen were brought 'straight to the station, they were queuing at the station&nbsp;... I was still given a chance to say goodbye because we knew already&nbsp;... that the women of Beuthen are arriving'&nbsp;... I went down to the station, I saw the long queue of women.' Faerber asked permission of a Gestapo guard to go up to his grandmother, who was with her sister, 'and I said goodbye, and that was the last I saw of them and the whole transport was moved out by train&nbsp;...'"{{sfn|Fulbrook|2012|pp=220–221, 396, n.&nbsp;49}}}} [[Saul Friedländer]] wrote that the Beuthen Jews were from the [[Organization Schmelt]] labor camps and had been deemed unfit for work.{{sfn|Friedländer|2007|p=359}} According to [[Christopher Browning]], transports of Jews unfit for work were sent to the gas chamber at Auschwitz from autumn 1941.{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=357}} The evidence for this and the February 1942 transport was contested in 2015 by [[Nikolaus Wachsmann]].{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=707}}

Around 20 March 1942, according to Danuta Czech, a transport of Polish Jews from [[Silesia]] and [[Dąbrowa Basin|Zagłębie Dąbrowskie]] was taken straight from the station to the Auschwitz II gas chamber, which had just come into operation.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=143}} On 26 and 28 March, two transports of Slovakian Jews were registered as prisoners in the [[#Women's camp|women's camp]], where they were kept for slave labour; these were the first transports organized by [[Adolf Eichmann]]'s [[Reich Security Head Office Referat IV B4|department IV B4]] (the Jewish office) in the [[Reich Security Head Office]] (RSHA).{{efn|[[Danuta Czech]] (''[[Auschwitz 1940–1945]]'', Volume V, 2000): "March 26, 1942: Nine hundred ninety-nine Jewish women from Poprad in Slovakia arrived, and were assigned numbers 1000–1998. This was the first registered transport sent to Auschwitz by RSHA IV B4 (the Jewish Office, directed by SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann)."{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=144}}}} On 30 March the first RHSA transport arrived from France.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=144}} "Selection", where new arrivals were chosen for work or the gas chamber, began in April 1942 and was conducted regularly from July. Piper writes that this reflected Germany's increasing need for labour. Those selected as unfit for work were gassed without being registered as prisoners.{{sfn|Piper|2000a|p=62}}

There is also disagreement about how many were gassed in Auschwitz I. [[Perry Broad]], an ''SS-Unterscharführer'', wrote that "transport after transport vanished in the Auschwitz [I] crematorium."{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=133, n.&nbsp;419}} In the view of [[Filip Müller]], one of the Auschwitz I ''[[Sonderkommando]]'', tens of thousands of Jews were murdered there from France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Upper Silesia, and Yugoslavia, and from the [[Theresienstadt]], [[Ciechanow]], and [[Grodno Ghetto|Grodno]] ghettos.<ref name="Müller 1999 31">{{harvnb|Müller|1999|p=31}}; {{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=133}}.</ref> Against this, [[Jean-Claude Pressac]] estimated that up to 10,000 people had been murdered in Auschwitz I.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=133, n.&nbsp;419}} The last inmates gassed there, in December 1942, were around 400 members of the Auschwitz II ''Sonderkommando'', who had been forced to dig up and burn the remains of that camp's mass graves, thought to hold over 100,000 corpses.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=132, for more on the corpses, p.&nbsp;140}}; for 400 prisoners and over 107,000 corpses, see {{harvnb|Czech|2000|p=165}}.</ref>

===Auschwitz II-Birkenau{{anchor|Auschwitz II–Birkenau|Birkenau}}===<!-- This section is linked from [[Treblinka extermination camp]] -->
{{redirect|Birkenau}}

====Construction====
{{multiple image
| direction = vertical
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| image1 = Gate of Auschwitz II, 28 November 2007 (3).jpg
| caption1 = Auschwitz II-Birkenau gate from inside the camp, 2007
| image2 = Selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1944 (Auschwitz Album) 1a.jpg
| caption2 = Same scene, May/June 1944, with the gate in the background. "Selection" of [[Holocaust in Hungary|Hungarian Jews]] for work or the [[gas chamber]]. From the [[Auschwitz Album]], taken by the camp's [[Auschwitz Erkennungsdienst|Erkennungsdienst]].
| image3 = Museum Auschwitz Birkenau.jpg
| caption3 = Gate with the camp remains in the background, 2009<!--
| image4 = Auschwitz Resistance 280 cropped.jpg
| caption4 = Outside crematorium V, Auschwitz II, August 1944; one of the [[Sonderkommando photographs|''Sonderkommando'' photographs]].-->
}}
After visiting Auschwitz I in March 1941, it appears that Himmler ordered that the camp be expanded,{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=144}} although [[Peter Hayes (historian)|Peter Hayes]] notes that, on 10 January 1941, the Polish underground told the [[Polish government-in-exile]] in London: "the Auschwitz concentration camp&nbsp;...can accommodate approximately 7,000 prisoners at present, and is to be rebuilt to hold approximately 30,000."{{sfn|Hayes|2003|p=335}} Construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau—called a ''Kriegsgefangenenlager'' (prisoner-of-war camp) on blueprints—began in October 1941 in [[Brzezinka]], about three kilometers from Auschwitz I.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=144, 155 for ''Kriegsgefangenenlager''}} The initial plan was that Auschwitz II would consist of four sectors (Bauabschnitte I–IV), each consisting of six subcamps (BIIa–BIIf) with their own gates and fences. The first two sectors were completed (sector BI was initially a quarantine camp), but the construction of BIII began in 1943 and stopped in April 1944, and the plan for BIV was abandoned.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=80–83}}<!--describe the sectors-->

SS-Sturmbannführer [[Karl Bischoff]], an architect, was the chief of construction.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=144}} Based on an initial budget of [[Reichsmark|RM]] 8.9&nbsp;million, his plans called for each barracks to hold 550 prisoners, but he later changed this to 744 per barracks, which meant the camp could hold 125,000, rather than 97,000.{{sfn|van Pelt|1998|pp=118–119}} There were 174 barracks, each measuring {{cvt|116|by|36|ft|order=flip|1}}, divided into 62 bays of {{cvt|43|sqft|order=flip|0}}. The bays were divided into "roosts", initially for three inmates and later for four. With personal space of {{cvt|11|sqft|order=flip|0}} to sleep and place whatever belongings they had, inmates were deprived, [[Robert-Jan van Pelt]] wrote, "of the minimum space needed to exist".{{sfn|van Pelt|1998|pp=122–123}}

The prisoners were forced to live in the barracks as they were building them; in addition to working, they faced long roll calls at night. As a result, most prisoners in BIb (the men's camp) in the early months died of [[hypothermia]], starvation or exhaustion within a few weeks.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=87}} Some 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war arrived at Auschwitz I between 7 and 25 October 1941,{{sfn|Czech|2000|pp=138–139}} but by 1 March 1942 only 945 were still registered; they were transferred to Auschwitz II,{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=142}} where most of them had died by May.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=94}}

====Crematoria II–V====
{{Further|#Gas chambers}}
The first gas chamber at Auschwitz II was operational by March 1942. On or around 20 March, a transport of Polish Jews sent by the Gestapo from [[Silesia]] and [[Dąbrowa Basin|Zagłębie Dąbrowskie]] was taken straight from the [[Oświęcim]] freight station to the Auschwitz II gas chamber, then buried in a nearby meadow.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=143}} The gas chamber was located in what prisoners called the "little red house" (known as bunker 1 by the SS), a brick cottage that had been turned into a gassing facility; the windows had been bricked up and its four rooms converted into two insulated rooms, the doors of which said "''Zur Desinfektion''" ("to disinfection"). A second brick cottage, the "little white house" or bunker 2, was converted and operational by June 1942.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000b|pp=134–136}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|1998c|p=161}}.</ref> When Himmler visited the camp on 17 and 18 July 1942, he was given a demonstration of a selection of Dutch Jews, a mass-murder in a gas chamber in bunker 2, and a tour of the building site of Auschwitz III, the new [[IG Farben]] plant being constructed at [[Monowitz]].<ref>{{harvnb|Pressac|van Pelt|1998|pp=214–215}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=138}}.</ref> Use of bunkers I and 2 stopped in spring 1943 when the new crematoria were built, although bunker 2 became operational again in May 1944 for the murder of the Hungarian Jews. Bunker I was demolished in 1943 and bunker 2 in November 1944.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=143}}

Plans for crematoria II and III show that both had an oven room {{cvt|30|by|11.24|m|ft}} on the ground floor, and an underground dressing room {{cvt|49.43|by|7.93|m|ft}} and gas chamber {{cvt|30|by|7|m|ft}}. The dressing rooms had wooden benches along the walls and numbered pegs for clothing. Victims would be led from these rooms to a five-yard-long narrow corridor, which in turn led to a space from which the gas chamber door opened. The chambers were white inside, and nozzles were fixed to the ceiling to resemble showerheads.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=165–166}} The daily capacity of the crematoria (how many bodies could be burned in a 24-hour period) was 340 corpses in crematorium I; 1,440 each in crematoria II and III; and 768 each in IV and V.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=159}} By June 1943 all four crematoria were operational, but crematorium I was not used after July 1943. This made the total daily capacity 4,416, although by loading three to five corpses at a time, the ''Sonderkommando'' were able to burn some 8,000 bodies a day. This maximum capacity was rarely needed; the average between 1942 and 1944 was 1,000 bodies burned every day.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=164}}

===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}}

===Subcamps===
{{Further|List of subcamps of Auschwitz}}
Several other German industrial enterprises, such as [[Krupp]] and [[Siemens-Schuckert]], built factories with their own subcamps.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=57}} There were around 28 camps near industrial plants, each camp holding hundreds or thousands of prisoners.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=103–104}} Designated as ''Aussenlager'' (external camp), ''Nebenlager'' (extension camp), ''Arbeitslager'' (labor camp), or ''Aussenkommando'' (external work detail),<ref>{{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=103, 119}}; {{harvnb|Gutman|1998|p=17}}.</ref> camps were built at [[Blechhammer]], [[Jawiszowice]], [[Central Labour Camp Jaworzno|Jaworzno]], [[Będzin|Lagisze]], [[Mysłowice]], [[Trzebinia]], and as far afield as the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] in Czechoslovakia.<ref>{{harvnb|Gutman|1998|p=18}}; {{harvnb|Piper|1998a|p=45}}; {{harvnb|Steinbacher|2005|p=58}}.</ref> Industries with satellite camps included coal mines, foundries and other metal works, and chemical plants. Prisoners were also made to work in forestry and farming.{{sfn|Gutman|1998|pp=17–18}} For example, ''Wirtschaftshof Budy'', in the Polish village of Budy near [[Brzeszcze]], was a farming subcamp where prisoners worked 12-hour days in the fields, tending animals, and making compost by mixing human ashes from the crematoria with sod and manure.<ref>{{harvnb|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=106}}; {{harvnb|Kubica|2009|pp=233–234}}.{{pb}}
Also see [http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/the-budy-massacre-a-grim-anniversary,23.html "The Budy Massacre—A grim anniversary"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226171939/http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/the-budy-massacre-a-grim-anniversary,23.html |date=26 February 2020 }}. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 10 October 2007.</ref> Incidents of sabotage to decrease production took place in several subcamps, including Charlottengrube, [[Gliwice|Gleiwitz II]], and [[Rajsko, Oświęcim County|Rajsko]].{{sfn|Dunin-Wasowicz|1984|p=139}} Living conditions in some of the camps were so poor that they were regarded as punishment subcamps.{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|p=104}}