Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

====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}}