Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

====Construction====
{{multiple image
| direction = vertical
| align = right
| width = 220
| 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}}