Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

===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-->