Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

===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
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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>