Auschwitz Birkenau - 69th anniversary of the liberation

On the 27th January 2014, 69 years have passed since the liberation of the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. The anniversary ceremony, which took place in the former Auschwitz II - Birkenau camp were attended by former prisoners of Auschwitz and survivors of the Holocaust.  

They were accompanied by representatives of the Polish authorities, including Cezary Grabarczyk - Deputy marshal of the Sejm of Poland, as well as a very large delegation of parliament of the Israel Knesset, which was led by Yaariv Levin - Head of the coalition, and Isaac Herzog leader of the opposition. President Bronislaw Komorowski  of the Republic of Poland has extended his official patronage over the event. 

This year's celebration of the anniversary of the liberation had a special character, because of the important upcoming anniversaries. This year marks 70 years since the beginning of the deportations of the Jews from Hungary to the camp. It was the largest extermination operation in the history of Auschwitz. Germans documented the process of deportation of Jews from Hungary, in more than 200 black and white photographs, which are today one of the most important evidence of that crime. The faces of the victims from that document were a visual symbol of the whole ceremony. Additionally, this year also marks the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the so called Zigeunerlager at Birkenau, 70th anniversary of the deportation to Auschwitz of nearly 13,000 poles arrested during the Warsaw uprising, 70th anniversary of the extermination in Auschwitz Jews deported from the liquidated ghetto in Lodz, as well as the 70th anniversary of the revolt of prisoners from the Sonderkommando* at Auschwitz.

*Sonderkommando - Jewish prisoners that worked in the crematoria at the camps. 

Cezary Grabarczyk, Deputy Marshal of the Polish Parliament, underlined that we should always react when the term 'Polish death camps' is used. 'It is a blow for both Poland and those who were murdered in this extermination camp, who become victims of such lies, such inaccurate statements, negligence or just plain ignorance. In my opinion, from Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, a clear answer should sound. It will honour the truth and the respect for those victims who we commemorate today, and will always remember' , said Cezary Grabarczyk. 

The second part of the ceremony took place at the Monument to the Victims of the Camp at the site of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. The rabbis and clergy of various Christian denominations have read together the Psalm 42 from the second book of Psalms, and after that participants of the ceremony placed candles by the monument honouring the victims of Auschwitz.

Until the liberation of the camp by the Red army, the Nazis murdered in Auschwitz about 1.1 million people. Mostly Jews, but also Poles, Sinti and Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other nationalities. Today Auschwitz is the symbol of the Holocaust and the atrocities of World War II. In 2005 the United Nations designated the 27th of January the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Anniversary in pictures. CLICK ME

2012 visitor numbers - a staggering 1.43 million

Click on the link below to view a interesting view on why visitor numbers hit an all time high in the year of 2012.
Newspaper Article on visitor numbers 

This graph shows visitor numbers between the years of 1960 and the present day - 2013. As you can see, the year of 2012 hit an all time high (1.43 million people) and seemed to have 'peaked'. There are many theories and explanations as to why this was but the majority of people seem to believe it is due to a development that encouraged many people from across Europe to travel to Poland, which opened up new air travel connections nearby to the city of Krakow.

Polish perceptions towards Auschwitz. Who sees what?

reference - http://en.auschwitz.org/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=208&Itemid=8

Josef Mengele, Angel of Death

Josef Mengele was born on March the 16th, 1911 in Gunzburg Ulm. His portrait photo is to the right and this was taken when he first started his duties in the concentration camp; Auschwitz. He was a very intelligent man, with a PhD in physical anthropology from the University of Munich. 

How he became the most feared doctor in Auschwitz

In January 1937, at the institute for Hereditory Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt, he became the assist of Dr. Otmar Von Verscheur, a leading scientific figure widely known for research with twins. 

In 1937 he joined the Nazi party. The following year he joined the SS which was the same year he gained his medical medical degree. 1940, he was drafted into the army, and therefore volunteered into the medical service of the Waffen-SS (armed SS). Although documentation is scant and often contradictory regarding Mengele's activities between this time and early 1943, is it clear that he first functioned as a medical expert for the race and settlement main office, (Rasseund Siedlungshauptant or ruSHA) in the summer of 1940 at the central immigration office. 

Wounded whilst on campaign, Mengele returned to Germany in January of 1943 and started to work for the KWI institute; and in April of 1943 he was promoted to the rank of SS captain. This advancement shortly preceded Mengele's transfer to Auschwitz on May 30th, 1943. 

Mengele's Medical Experiments

Mengele was researching for the secrets of heredity. The Nazi ideal of the future would benefit from the help of the genetics; it Aryan women could assuredly give birth to twins who were sure to be blond haired and blue eyed - then the future could be saved. 

He also believed that twins had held these secrets. Auschwitz seemed the best location for such research because of the large number of available twins to use as specimens. He saw the place as a 'human laboratory'. He experimented on dwarf people, children and mostly twins, or children with different coloured eyes. 

Some of his experiments included injecting chemicals into his victim's eyes to see if that changed their eye colour, he had two twins sewn together so they looked like Siamese twins to see how long they lived, took live muscle from arms and legs to see if it would regenerate outside of the human body, injected many victims with lethal drug concoctions including TB and typhoid, to see how long it took the human body to shut down and die. These are only a small amount of the experiments that took place in the camp and to small detail. There are not many research websites and journals available for public viewing regarding these experiments due to the horrific nature of 90% of them. The photo above is an example of Siamese twins being 'made' by sewing them together - with no anaesthetic or pain relief. 

The death of Josef Mengele

In 1945, as the Soviets moved eastward, it became apparent that the Germans would be defeated. By the time Auschwitz was liberated on January 27th, 1945, Mengele and the other SS officers were long gone. He hid out in Germany for a while, finding work as a farm labourer under an assuming name. It wasn't long before his name began appearing on lists of most wanted war criminals and in 1949 he followed many of his fellow Nazis to Argentina. He was put in contact with Argentine agents, who aided him with necessary papers and permits. It is thought that he drowned whilst swimming off a Brazilian coast in 1979 and was buried under a false name. His remains were disinterred and positively identified by forensic examination in 1985. 

Mobile killing squads

The Holocaust: A learning site for students 
this is the link to the website where I gathered all my information from. 

Mobile Killing Squads - YouTube footage

This entrée on the website referenced above gives a good summary and information on what the mobile killing squads were for and relevant dates.

Eyewitness Auschwitz: three years in the gas chambers. A review.

Filip Muller, Helmut Freitag, Susanne Flatauer

Ivan R. Dee, 1 Sep 1999 - History - 180 pages

Filip Muller came to Auschwitz with one of the earliest transports from Slovakia in April 1942 and began working in the gassing installations and crematoria in May. He was still alive when the gassings ceased in November 1944. He saw millions come and disappear; by sheer luck he survived. Muller is neither a historian nor a psychologist; he is a source one of the few prisoners who saw the Jewish people die and lived to tell about it. Eyewitness Auschwitz is one of the key documents of the Holocaust. Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "A shattering, centrally important testimony." from the Foreword by Yehuda Bauer. "A very detailed description of day-to-day life, if we can call it that, in Hell s inmost circle...Having read other books of this kind, I had expected to read this one straight through. But no, Eyewitness Auschwitz is jammed with infernal information too terrible to be taken all at once." Terrence Des Pres, New Republic. "Riveting...It is a tale of unprecedented, incomparable horror. Profoundly, intensely painful; but it is essential reading." Jewish Press Features.

I bought this book when I visited the Auschwitz camps at the end of January, and found it almost impossible to put it down. I finished it in 2 days. The eyewitness account and unimaginable experiences that lye in this book are hard to comprehend. I've researched this topic for a fair few months now, but nothing could've prepared me for the intricate and horrendous detail Filip goes into about his experiences. His time in the camp consisted of him working in the crematoria, in which he would burn and prepare the bodies of his fellow family members, friends and inmates. The extent to the SS' evil and brutality can only be understood upon reflection of this book. The sad thing is that there are hundreds more similar books of other prisoners, that wanted the world to know their story and that the SS cruelty was not just a myth - these things did happen. I've always found that hard to comprehend, as watching films and documentaries makes you feel that it didn't really happen, but is just there for entertainment purposes only. The harrowing truth is that this did happen, and we need to learn and educate younger generations about it so that it does not happen again.  

Looking at all of the reviews that people have posted about this book - each reader seems to find it difficult to understand or imagine what it was like for these poor people. 

Present reading material