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.

Schlinder's Factory & the centre of Krakow

SO today started at 4:30am which was a lovely cold start in Bristol (yay) to catch our 6:30am flight to Krakow. 

Upon arrival in the capital, -8 temperatures snow and arctic winds were the last thing I was expecting. We arrived at our hotel around 11am, then ventured into the city centre to have a wonder and see what it had to offer. Our hotel is located 5 minutes from the Jewish getto and the city centre. we found a lovely little polish cafe to have a much needed coffee/hot drink. Some of the next photos are of the city centre: 

We found a lovely cafe to warm up in- accompanied by a cheeky breakfast and a huge coffee!! 

Once we had finished here, we wondered back (and got lost in the now -10 temperatures) to our hotel and booked a taxi to Schlinder's factory. We then had a 2 hour tour which was very informative and quite emotional-! Here are some of the photos that I took there- 

In this photo German soldiers had hung some Jewish prisoners- this was pre final solution. Notice how the German guards are smiling. 

This was just one of the photos of all the Jewish people that Oskar Schlindler saved by employing them in his working factory. There were another 3 panes just like this one. 

Auschwitz visitor numbers - year of 2013

1.33 million people globally visited Auschwitz memorial in the year of 2013. The majority of tourists were young people/students that were part of school educational groups. 

*Top ten countries*

1) Poland - 336,000 visitors

2) United Kingdom - 178,000 visitors

3) United States of America - 101,000 visitors

4) Italy - 71,000 visitors

5) Germany - 169,000 visitors

6) Israel - 57,000 visitors

7) Spain - 52,000 visitors

8) France - 45,000 visitors

9) South Korea - 45,000 visitors

10) Czech Republic - 41,000 visitors

These are the current visitor numbers that were recorded from 2001-2011.

taken from - http://en.auschwitz.org/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1153&Itemid=7

The number of people visiting the Auschwitz Memorial individually, who decide to join groups specially organised for them, increases as well. In 2013, this number reached 345 thousand, which is a 32 per cent raise in comparison to 2012. Each visit guided by an educator includes both parts of the former concentration camp: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II—Birkenau.

“The number of visitors from Ireland has grown considerably (by 106 per cent)," remarks Magdalena Luranc, Head of the Visitors Service section. “The same or even slightly higher growth has been also noted among the visitors from Israel, Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and USA. However, last year’s lower attendance of Polish school groups hasn’t changed,” says Magdalena Luranc. 
The said lower number of school groups is the reason of a considerable drop in the amount of Polish visitors during the last few years (2011 – 610 thousand, 2012 – 446 thousand, 2013 – 336 thousand). Even if influenced, among others, by demographic factors, it is mainly associated with the change in the core curriculum for history teaching at schools and the removal of subjects considering World War Two from the secondary school curriculum. So far, the attempts to create a common funding programme financing school trips to such an authentic Memorial have been unsuccessful.

Liberation and Revenge 'Inside the Nazi state' Notes

SS files were removed and burnt, gas chambers burnt pre-red army overrule. Nazi SS tried to destroy all proof of what they were doing. e.g. murders torcher etc. 

27th January 1945 - soviet 60th army army overruled Auschwitz.

84 days post Auschwitz liberation, the soviet army invaded Berlin.

Nazi leaders told to hide themselves within the armed forces, so that they were not found and murdered by allies. 

All SS guards had their blood types tattooed underneath their arms, although not all guards had them that had previously worked in Auschwitz; so many escaped. 

1) Rudolf Hoss former commandant of Auschwitz worked on a farm to protect his identity; under a different name. British arrested his wife and questioned her for 5 days, she proclaimed he was dead. on the 6th day, her son would be sent to Russia, or she could write down where her husband was and she'd go free with her son together. 

2) the British army stormed the farm at 11pm that night. The British Army hit him so much he nearly died, as they obviously knew of his crimes. 
Apparently he acted as a 'normal' person, had no emotion or any sense of guilt. He showed pride in his accomplishments.

3) Subsequently, he faced trial and was sentenced to death by hanging. This took place in Auschwitz.