AUSCHWITZ: (Polish: Oswiecim) Photos
  Located approximately 60km (37mi) west of Krakow, in Eastern Upper 
Silesia.

Site of Nazi death camp 

The first camp was built shortly after Poland's defeat, in a suburb of 
Oswiecim (Zasole), and held about 10,000 prisoners 

The second site, known as Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, was built 3km from 
the original camp, in March of 1941




  On August 8, 1938, just a few weeks after the Nazi occupation of 
Austria, prisoners from the Dachau, concentration camp near Munich, 
were transferred to the Austrian town of Mauthausen, near Linz.

  They were brought to the rock quarry there, known as the "Wiener Graben", 
where they began to build the granite fortress-prison of the main 
camp, mostly with their blood, bodies, bare hands and backs. It was known
as the mother camp for all of Austria, comprising some 49 sub-camps. Between
Aug. 8, 1938 and May 5, 1945, about 195, 000 persons, men and women, were
forced into these camps. Most of the people were imprisoned under the Nazi 
protective custody laws, that is, they were consider dangerous to the Third 
Reich of Germany and Austria, and therefore, these two nations, now joined,
had to be protected from these people because of their racial origin,
nationality, political affiliation or religious belief. It should be noted 
that Austria contributed more volunteers for the SS, per capita , than did
Germany. 

  The Mauthausen camp was one of the most infamous in the entire Nazi 
alternate universe of human destruction. Many people, most of whom were 
innocent of any crimes, were tortured to death in its rock quarry, and in 
the tunnels of Mauthausen-Gusen, the most infamous of the sub-camps. The 
policy of death through work was instituted by Chief of SS, Reichsfuhrer 
Heinrich Himmler. Prisoners were to be given only the most primitive tools,
and also, whenever possible, they were to work with their bare hands. This 
policy was known as Primitivbauweise. In Mauthausen it resulted in a harsh, 
stone world, deprived of any human kindness and compassion. It is there 
today still... sitting on a small mountain-top in the astonishingly 
beautiful and bucolic Austrian countryside, maintained by the Austrian 
government. 




  The concentration and death-camp complex at Auschwitz-Birkenau was the 
largest killing center in the entire Nazi universe; the very heart of their 
system. Of the many sub-camps affiliated with Auschwitz, Birkenau, or 
Auschwitz II, was by far the largest. The main camp, Auschwitz I was on the 
outskirts of the Polish city Oswiecim. Birkenau was in a suiburb named 
Zasole.