Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

===Use of corpses===
[[File:Auschwitz Resistance 282 cropped.JPG|thumb|One of the [[Sonderkommando photographs|''Sonderkommando'' photographs]]: Women on their way to the gas chamber, Auschwitz II, August 1944]]
''Sonderkommando'' wearing gas masks dragged the bodies from the chamber. They removed glasses and artificial limbs and shaved off the women's hair;{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=170}} women's hair was removed before they entered the gas chamber at [[Belzec extermination camp|Bełżec]], [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibór]], and [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]], but at Auschwitz it was done after death.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=408}} By 6 February 1943, the Reich Economic Ministry had received 3,000&nbsp;kg of women's hair from Auschwitz and [[Majdanek concentration camp|Majdanek]].{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=408}} The hair was first cleaned in a solution of [[sal ammoniac]], dried on the brick floor of the crematoria, combed, and placed in paper bags.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=409}} The hair was shipped to various companies, including one manufacturing plant in [[Bremen|Bremen-Bluementhal]], where workers found tiny coins with Greek letters on some of the braids, possibly from some of the 50,000 Greek Jews deported to Auschwitz in 1943.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=411}} When they liberated the camp in January 1945, the Red Army found 7,000&nbsp;kg of human hair in bags ready to ship.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=409}}

Just before cremation, jewelry was removed, along with dental work and teeth containing precious metals.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=171}} Gold was removed from the teeth of dead prisoners from 23 September 1940 onwards by order of Heinrich Himmler.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=400}} The work was carried out by members of the ''Sonderkommando'' who were dentists; anyone overlooking dental work might themselves be cremated alive.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=171}} The gold was sent to the SS Health Service and used by dentists to treat the SS and their families; 50&nbsp;kg had been collected by 8 October 1942.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=400}} By early 1944, 10–12&nbsp;kg of gold was being extracted monthly from victims' teeth.{{sfn|Strzelecki|2000b|p=406}}

The corpses were burned in the nearby incinerators, and the ashes were buried, thrown in the [[Vistula]] river, or used as fertilizer. Any bits of bone that had not burned properly were ground down in wooden [[Mortar and pestle|mortar]]s.{{sfn|Piper|1998c|p=171}}