Holocaust during World War II. Auschwitz concentration camp: experiments on women

18-year-old Soviet girl in extreme exhaustion. The photo was taken during the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945. This is the first German concentration camp, founded on March 22, 1933 near Munich (a city on the Isar River in southern Germany). It contained more than 200 thousand prisoners, according to official figures, of which 31,591 prisoners died from illness, malnutrition or committed suicide. The conditions of detention were so terrible that hundreds of people died here every week.

This photo was taken between 1941 and 1943 by the Holocaust Memorial in Paris. Pictured here is a German soldier aiming at a Ukrainian Jew during a mass execution in Vinnitsa (the city is located on the banks of the Southern Bug, 199 kilometers southwest of Kyiv). On the back of the photo card was written: "The last Jew of Vinnitsa."
The Holocaust is the persecution and mass extermination of Jews living in Germany during World War II during 1933-1945.

German soldiers interrogate Jews after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. Thousands of people died of disease and starvation in the overcrowded Warsaw ghetto, where in October 1940 the Germans had herded over 3 million Polish Jews.
The uprising against the occupation of Europe by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto took place on April 19, 1943. During this riot, about 7,000 ghetto defenders were killed and about 6,000 were burned alive as a result of massive arson of buildings by German troops. The surviving residents, and this is about 15 thousand people, were sent to the Treblinka death camp. On May 16 of the same year, the ghetto was finally liquidated.
The Treblinka death camp was organized by the Nazis in occupied Poland, 80 kilometers northeast of Warsaw. During the existence of the camp (from July 22, 1942 to October 1943), about 800 thousand people died in it.
To preserve the memory of the tragic events of the 20th century, the international public figure Vyacheslav Kantor founded and headed the World Holocaust Forum.

1943 A man takes the bodies of two Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. Every morning several dozen corpses were removed from the streets. The bodies of Jews who died of starvation were burned in deep pits.
The officially established food rations for the ghetto were designed to starve the inhabitants to death. In the second half of 1941, the food ration for Jews was 184 kilocalories.
On October 16, 1940, Governor General Hans Frank decided to organize a ghetto, during the existence of which the population decreased from 450 thousand to 37 thousand people. The Nazis claimed that the Jews were carriers of infectious diseases, and their isolation would help protect the rest of the population from epidemics.

On April 19, 1943, German soldiers escort a group of Jews to the Warsaw Ghetto, among whom there are small children. This picture was attached to the report of SS Gruppenfuehrer Stroop to his commander and was used as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials in 1945.

After the uprising, the Warsaw ghetto was liquidated. 7 thousand (out of more than 56 thousand) captured Jews were shot, the rest were transferred to death camps or concentration camps. The photo shows the ruins of a ghetto destroyed by SS soldiers. The Warsaw ghetto existed for several years, during which time 300,000 Polish Jews perished there.
In the second half of 1941, the food ration for Jews was 184 kilocalories.

Mass execution of Jews in Mizoch (urban-type settlement, the center of the Mizoch settlement council of the Zdolbunovsky district of the Rovno region of Ukraine), Ukrainian SSR. In October 1942, the inhabitants of Mizoch opposed the Ukrainian auxiliary units and the German policemen, who intended to liquidate the population of the ghetto. Photo courtesy of the Paris Holocaust Memorial.

Deported Jews in the Drancy transit camp, on their way to a German concentration camp, 1942. In July 1942, the French police rounded up more than 13,000 Jews (including more than 4,000 children) to the Vel d'Hiv winter velodrome in the southwestern part of Paris, and then sent them to the railway terminal in Drancy, northeast of Paris. Paris and deported to the east. Almost no one returned home ...
"Dranci" - a Nazi concentration camp and transit point that existed in France in 1941-1944, was used for the temporary detention of Jews, who were subsequently sent to death camps.

This photo is courtesy of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It depicts Anne Frank, who in August 1944, together with her family and other people, was hiding from the German occupiers. Later, everyone was captured and sent to prisons and concentration camps. Anna died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen (a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony, located a mile from the village of Belsen and a few miles southwest of Bergen) at the age of 15. Since the posthumous publication of her diary, Frank has become a symbol of all Jews killed during World War II.

Arrival of a train with Jews from Carpathian Rus at the Auschwitz-2 death camp, also known as Birkenau, in Poland, May 1939.
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Auschwitz-Birkenau - a complex of German concentration camps located in 1940-1945 to the west of the General Government, near the city of Auschwitz, which in 1939 was annexed to the territory of the Third Reich by Hitler's decree.
At Auschwitz 2, hundreds of thousands of Jews, Poles, Russians, Gypsies and prisoners of other nationalities were kept in one-story wooden barracks. The number of victims of this camp amounted to more than a million people. New prisoners arrived daily by train to Auschwitz 2, where they were divided into four groups. The first - three-quarters of all those brought in (women, children, the elderly and all those who were not fit for work) went to the gas chambers for several hours. The second - went to hard labor at various industrial enterprises (most of the prisoners died from illness and beatings). The third group went to various medical experiments to Dr. Josef Mengele, known by the nickname "angel of death." This group consisted mainly of twins and dwarfs. The fourth - consisted mainly of women who were used by the Germans as servants and personal slaves.

14-year-old Cheslava Kvoka. The photo, courtesy of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, was taken by Wilhelm Brasse, who worked as a photographer in Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where huge numbers of people, mostly Jews, died during World War II. In December 1942, a Polish Catholic, Czeslaw, ended up in a concentration camp with her mother. They both died three months later. In 2005, photographer and former prisoner Brasset described how he photographed Czeslava: “She was young and very scared, she did not understand why she was here and what she was being told. And then the prison guard took a stick and hit her in the face. The girl was crying, but she couldn't help it. I felt like I was being beaten, but I couldn't intervene. For me it would be fatal."

A victim of Nazi medical experiments that were carried out in the German city of Ravensbrück. Photo showing a man's hand with a deep burn from phosphorus, taken in November 1943. During the experiment, a mixture of phosphorus and rubber was applied to the subject's skin, which was then set on fire. After 20 seconds, the flame was extinguished with water. After three days, the burn was treated with liquid echinacin, and the wound healed after two weeks.
Josef Mengele was a German doctor who conducted experiments on the prisoners of the Auschwitz camp during World War II. He was personally involved in the selection of prisoners for his experiments, more than 400 thousand people, by his order, were sent to the gas chambers of the death camp. After the war, he moved from Germany to Latin America (for fear of persecution), where he died in 1979.

Jewish prisoners in "Buchenwald", one of the largest concentration camps in Germany, located near Weimar in Thuringia. Many medical experiments were carried out on the prisoners, as a result of which most died a painful death. People were infected with typhus, tuberculosis and other dangerous diseases (to test the effect of vaccines), which later almost instantly developed into epidemics due to overcrowding in the barracks, insufficient hygiene, poor nutrition, and because all this infection was not was amenable to treatment.

There is a huge camp documentation on the conduct of hormonal experiments, carried out on the secret decree of the SS, Dr. Karl Wernet - he performed operations on sewing homosexual men into the inguinal region of a capsule with "male hormone", which was supposed to make them heterosexuals.

American soldiers inspect the wagons with the bodies of the dead in the Dachau concentration camp on May 3, 1945. During the war, Dachau was known as the most sinister concentration camp, where the most sophisticated medical experiments were carried out on prisoners, who were visited regularly by many high-ranking Nazis.

An emaciated Frenchman sits among the dead at Dora-Mittelbau, a Nazi concentration camp established on August 28, 1943, located 5 kilometers from the city of Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. Dora-Mittelbau is a subdivision of the Buchenwald camp.

The bodies of the dead are piled up against the wall of the crematorium in the German Dachau concentration camp. The photo was taken on May 14, 1945 by soldiers of the 7th US Army who entered the camp.
In the entire history of Auschwitz, there were about 700 escape attempts, 300 of which were successful. If someone escaped, then all his relatives were arrested and sent to the camp, and all the prisoners from his block were killed - this was the most effective method that prevented attempts to escape. January 27 is the official day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust.

An American soldier inspects thousands of gold wedding rings that were confiscated from Jews by the Nazis and hidden in the salt mines of Heilbronn (a city in Germany, Baden-Württemberg).

American soldiers examine lifeless bodies in a crematorium oven, April 1945.

A pile of ashes and bones in the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar. Photo taken April 25, 1945. In 1958, a memorial complex was founded on the territory of the camp - on the site of the barracks, only a cobbled foundation remained, with a memorial inscription (the number of the barrack and who was in it) at the place where the building was previously located. Also, the building of the crematorium has survived to this day, with plates with names in different languages ​​embedded in the walls (relatives of the victims immortalized their memory), observation towers and barbed wire in several rows. The entrance to the camp lies through the gate, untouched since those terrible times, the inscription on which reads: “Jedem das Seine” (“To each his own”).

Prisoners greet American soldiers near an electric fence in the Dachau concentration camp (one of the first concentration camps in Germany).

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and other American officers at the Ohrdruf concentration camp shortly after its release in April 1945. When the American army began to approach the camp, the guards shot the remaining prisoners. The Ohrdruf camp was established in November 1944 as a subdivision of Buchenwald to house prisoners forced to build bunkers, tunnels and mines.

A dying prisoner in a concentration camp in Nordhausen, Germany, April 18, 1945.

The death march of prisoners from the Dachau camp through the streets of Grunwald on April 29, 1945. As the Allied forces went on the offensive, thousands of prisoners moved from outlying POW camps into the interior of Germany. Thousands of prisoners who could not stand such a road were shot on the spot.

American soldiers walk past corpses (over 3,000 bodies) lying on the ground behind the barracks at the Nazi concentration camp at Nordhausen on April 17, 1945. The camp is located 112 kilometers west of Leipzig. The US Army found only a small group of survivors.

The lifeless body of a prisoner lies near a wagon near the Dachau concentration camp, May 1945.

Soldiers-liberators of the Third Army under the command of Lieutenant General George S. Paton on the territory of the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945.

On their way to the Austrian border, soldiers of the 12th Armored Division under the command of General Patch witnessed the terrible spectacles that took place in the prisoner of war camp in Schwabmünchen, southwest of Munich. More than 4,000 Jews of various nationalities were kept in the camp. The prisoners were burned alive by the guards, who set fire to the sleeping barracks and shot at anyone who tried to escape. The photo shows the bodies of some Jews found by soldiers of the 7th US Army in Schwabmünchen, May 1, 1945.

A dead prisoner lies on a barbed wire fence in the Leipzig-Teckle (a concentration camp that is part of the Buchenwald).

By order of the American army, German soldiers carried the bodies of the victims of Nazi repressions from the Austrian Lambach concentration camp and buried them on May 6, 1945. 18 thousand prisoners were kept in the camp, 1600 people lived in each of the barracks. There were no beds or any sanitary conditions in the buildings, and every day 40 to 50 prisoners died here.

A man, lost in thought, sits near a charred body in the Thekla camp near Leipzig, April 18, 1954. The workers of the Tecla plant were locked in one of the buildings and burned alive. The fire claimed the lives of about 300 people. Those who managed to escape were killed by members of the Hitler Youth, a youthful paramilitary National Socialist organization led by the Reichsugendführer (the highest position in the Hitler Youth).

The charred bodies of political prisoners lie at the entrance to a barn in Gardelegen (a city in Germany, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt) on April 16, 1945. They died at the hands of the SS, who set fire to the barn. Those who tried to escape were overtaken by Nazi bullets. Of the 1,100 prisoners, only twelve managed to escape.

Human remains in the German concentration camp at Nordhausen, discovered by soldiers of the 3rd Armored Division of the US Army on April 25, 1945.

When American soldiers liberated the prisoners of the German Dachau concentration camp, they killed several SS men and threw their bodies into a moat that surrounded the camp.

Lieutenant Colonel Ed Sailer of Louisville, Kentucky, stands among the bodies of Holocaust victims and addresses 200 German civilians. The photo was taken in the Landsberg concentration camp, May 15, 1945.

Hungry and extremely emaciated prisoners in the Ebensee concentration camp, where the Germans carried out "scientific" experiments. The photo was taken on May 7, 1945.

One of the prisoners recognizes a former guard who brutally beat prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Thuringia.

The lifeless bodies of emaciated prisoners lie on the territory of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The British Army found the bodies of 60,000 men, women and children who had died of starvation and various diseases.

SS men stack the bodies of the dead in a truck at the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp on April 17, 1945. In the background are British soldiers with guns.

Residents of the German city of Ludwigslust inspect a nearby concentration camp, May 6, 1945, on whose territory the bodies of victims of Nazi repressions were found. In one of the pits were 300 emaciated bodies.

Many decomposing bodies were found by British soldiers in the German Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation on April 20, 1945. About 60,000 civilians died from typhus, typhoid and dysentery.

Arrest of Josef Kramer, commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, April 28, 1945. Kramer, nicknamed "The Beast of Belsen", was executed after a trial in December 1945.

SS women unload the bodies of victims at the Belsen concentration camp on April 28, 1945. British soldiers with rifles are standing on a pile of earth, which will be covered with a mass grave.

An SS man among hundreds of corpses in a mass grave of concentration camp victims in Belsen, Germany, April 1945.

In the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp alone, about 100,000 people died.

A German woman covers her son's eyes with her hand as she passes the exhumed bodies of 57 Soviet citizens who were killed by the SS and buried in a mass grave shortly before the arrival of the American army.

On April 27, 1940, the first Auschwitz concentration camp was created, designed for the mass extermination of people.

Concentration camp - places for forced isolation of real or perceived opponents of the state, the political regime, etc. Unlike prisons, ordinary camps for prisoners of war and refugees, concentration camps were created according to special decrees during the war, the aggravation of the political struggle.

In fascist Germany, concentration camps are an instrument of mass state terror and genocide. Although the term "concentration camp" was used to refer to all Nazi camps, there were actually several types of camps, and the concentration camp was just one of them.

Other types of camps included labor and hard labor camps, extermination camps, transit camps, and POW camps. As the war progressed, the distinction between concentration camps and labor camps became increasingly blurred, as hard labor was used in the concentration camps as well.

Concentration camps in Nazi Germany were created after the Nazis came to power in order to isolate and repress opponents of the Nazi regime. The first concentration camp in Germany was established near Dachau in March 1933.

By the beginning of World War II, 300 thousand German, Austrian and Czech anti-fascists were in prisons and concentration camps in Germany. In subsequent years, Nazi Germany created a gigantic network of concentration camps on the territory of the European countries it occupied, turned into places for the organized systematic murder of millions of people.

Fascist concentration camps were intended for the physical destruction of entire peoples, primarily Slavic; total extermination of Jews, Gypsies. To do this, they were equipped with gas chambers, gas chambers and other means of mass extermination of people, crematoria.

(Military Encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing. Moscow. In 8 volumes - 2004. ISBN 5 - 203 01875 - 8)

There were even special death camps (destruction), where the liquidation of prisoners went on at a continuous and accelerated pace. These camps were designed and built not as places of detention, but as death factories. It was assumed that in these camps, people doomed to death had to spend literally a few hours. In such camps, a well-functioning conveyor was built, turning several thousand people a day into ashes. These include Majdanek, Auschwitz, Treblinka and others.

Concentration camp prisoners were deprived of their freedom and the ability to make decisions. The SS strictly controlled all aspects of their lives. Violators of the order were severely punished, subjected to beatings, solitary confinement, deprivation of food and other forms of punishment. Prisoners were classified according to their place of birth and reasons for imprisonment.

Initially, the prisoners in the camps were divided into four groups: political opponents of the regime, representatives of "inferior races", criminals and "unreliable elements". The second group, including Gypsies and Jews, was subject to unconditional physical extermination and was kept in separate barracks.

They were subjected to the most cruel treatment by the SS guards, they were starved, sent to the most exhausting work. Among the political prisoners were members of anti-Nazi parties, primarily communists and social democrats, members of the Nazi party accused of serious crimes, listeners of foreign radio, members of various religious sects. Among the "unreliable" were homosexuals, alarmists, dissatisfied, etc.

The concentration camps also housed criminals who were used by the administration as overseers of political prisoners.

All prisoners of the concentration camps were required to wear distinctive signs on their clothes, including a serial number and a colored triangle ("winkel") on the left side of the chest and right knee. (In Auschwitz, the serial number was tattooed on the left forearm.) All political prisoners wore a red triangle, criminals - green, "unreliable" - black, homosexuals - pink, gypsies - brown.

In addition to the classification triangle, the Jews also wore yellow, as well as a six-pointed "Star of David". A Jew who violated racial laws ("racial defiler") had to wear a black border around a green or yellow triangle.

Foreigners also had their own distinctive signs (the French wore a sewn letter "F", the Poles - "P", etc.). The letter "K" denoted a war criminal (Kriegsverbrecher), the letter "A" denoted a violator of labor discipline (from German Arbeit - "work"). The feeble-minded wore the patch Blid - "fool". Prisoners who participated or were suspected of escaping were required to wear a red and white target on their chest and back.

The total number of concentration camps, their branches, prisons, ghettos in the occupied countries of Europe and in Germany itself, where people were kept and destroyed in the most difficult conditions by various methods and means, is 14,033 points.

Of the 18 million citizens of European countries who passed through camps for various purposes, including concentration camps, more than 11 million people were killed.

The system of concentration camps in Germany was liquidated along with the defeat of Hitlerism, condemned in the verdict of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as a crime against humanity.

Currently, Germany has adopted the division of places of forced detention of people during the Second World War into concentration camps and "other places of forced detention, under conditions equated to concentration camps," in which, as a rule, forced labor was used.

The list of concentration camps includes approximately 1,650 names of concentration camps of the international classification (main and their external teams).

On the territory of Belarus, 21 camps were approved as "other places", on the territory of Ukraine - 27 camps, on the territory of Lithuania - 9, Latvia - 2 (Salaspils and Valmiera).

On the territory of the Russian Federation, places of detention in the city of Roslavl (camp 130), the village of Uritsky (camp 142) and Gatchina are recognized as "other places".

List of camps recognized by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany as concentration camps (1939-1945)

1.Arbeitsdorf (Germany)
2. Auschwitz/Oswiecim-Birkenau (Poland)
3. Bergen-Belsen (Germany)
4. Buchenwald (Germany)
5. Warsaw (Poland)
6. Herzogenbusch (Netherlands)
7. Gross-Rosen (Germany)
8. Dachau (Germany)
9. Kauen/Kaunas (Lithuania)
10. Krakow-Plaschow (Poland)
11. Sachsenhausen (GDR‑FRG)
12. Lublin/Majdanek (Poland)
13. Mauthausen (Austria)
14. Mittelbau-Dora (Germany)
15. Natzweiler (France)
16. Neuengamme (Germany)
17. Niederhagen-Wewelsburg (Germany)
18. Ravensbrück (Germany)
19. Riga-Kaiserwald (Latvia)
20. Faifara/Vaivara (Estonia)
21. Flossenburg (Germany)
22. Stutthof (Poland).

Major Nazi concentration camps

Buchenwald is one of the largest Nazi concentration camps. It was created in 1937 in the vicinity of the city of Weimar (Germany). Originally called Ettersberg. Had 66 branches and external working teams. The largest ones: "Dora" (near the city of Nordhausen), "Laura" (near the city of Saalfeld) and "Ohrdruf" (in Thuringia), where the FAA projectiles were mounted. From 1937 to 1945 about 239 thousand people were prisoners of the camp. In total, 56 thousand prisoners of 18 nationalities were tortured in Buchenwald.

The camp was liberated on April 10, 1945 by units of the 80th US division. In 1958, a memorial complex dedicated to him was opened in Buchenwald. heroes and victims of the concentration camp.

Auschwitz (Auschwitz-Birkenau), also known by the German names Auschwitz or Auschwitz-Birkenau, is a complex of German concentration camps located in 1940-1945. in southern Poland, 60 km west of Krakow. The complex consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz-1 (served as the administrative center of the entire complex), Auschwitz-2 (also known as Birkenau, "death camp"), Auschwitz-3 (a group of approximately 45 small camps created at factories and mines around general complex).

More than 4 million people died in Auschwitz, including more than 1.2 million Jews, 140 thousand Poles, 20 thousand Gypsies, 10 thousand Soviet prisoners of war and tens of thousands of prisoners of other nationalities.

On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz. In 1947, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Oswiecim-Brzezinka) was opened in Oswiecim.

Dachau (Dachau) - the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany, established in 1933 on the outskirts of Dachau (near Munich). Had about 130 branches and external work teams located in Southern Germany. More than 250 thousand people from 24 countries were prisoners of Dachau; about 70 thousand people were tortured or killed (including about 12 thousand Soviet citizens).

In 1960, a monument to the dead was unveiled in Dachau.

Majdanek (Majdanek) - a Nazi concentration camp, was created in the suburbs of the Polish city of Lublin in 1941. It had branches in southeastern Poland: Budzyn (near Krasnik), Plaszow (near Krakow), Travniki (near Vepshem), two camps in Lublin. According to the Nuremberg trials, in 1941-1944. in the camp, the Nazis destroyed about 1.5 million people of various nationalities. The camp was liberated by Soviet troops on July 23, 1944. In 1947, a museum and research institute was opened in Majdanek.

Treblinka - Nazi concentration camps near the station. Treblinka in the Warsaw Voivodeship of Poland. In Treblinka I (1941-1944, the so-called labor camp), about 10 thousand people died, in Treblinka II (1942-1943, an extermination camp) - about 800 thousand people (mostly Jews). In August 1943, in Treblinka II, the Nazis suppressed an uprising of prisoners, after which the camp was liquidated. The Treblinka I camp was liquidated in July 1944 when the Soviet troops approached.

In 1964, on the site of Treblinka II, a memorial symbolic cemetery for the victims of fascist terror was opened: 17,000 tombstones made of irregularly shaped stones, a monument-mausoleum.

Ravensbruck (Ravensbruck) - a concentration camp was founded near the city of Furstenberg in 1938 as an exclusively female camp, but later a small camp for men and another one for girls were created nearby. In 1939-1945. 132,000 women and several hundred children from 23 European countries passed through the death camp. 93 thousand people were destroyed. On April 30, 1945, the prisoners of Ravensbrück were liberated by the soldiers of the Soviet army.

Mauthausen (Mauthausen) - a concentration camp was established in July 1938, 4 km from the city of Mauthausen (Austria) as a branch of the Dachau concentration camp. Since March 1939 - an independent camp. In 1940, it was merged with the Gusen concentration camp and became known as Mauthausen-Gusen. It had about 50 branches scattered throughout the territory of the former Austria (Ostmark). During the existence of the camp (until May 1945) there were about 335 thousand people from 15 countries in it. Only according to the surviving records, more than 122 thousand people were killed in the camp, including more than 32 thousand Soviet citizens. The camp was liberated on May 5, 1945 by American troops.

After the war, on the site of Mauthausen, 12 states, including the Soviet Union, created a memorial museum, erected monuments to those who died in the camp.

The Great Patriotic War left an indelible mark on the history and destinies of people. Many have lost loved ones who were killed or tortured. In the article we will consider the concentration camps of the Nazis and the atrocities that took place on their territories.

What is a concentration camp?

Concentration camp or concentration camp - a special place intended for the detention of persons of the following categories:

• political prisoners (opponents of the dictatorial regime);
• prisoners of war (captured soldiers and civilians).

The concentration camps of the Nazis were notorious for their inhuman cruelty to prisoners and impossible conditions of detention. These places of detention began to appear even before Hitler came to power, and even then they were divided into women's, men's and children's. Contained there, mostly Jews and opponents of the Nazi system.

Life in the camp

Humiliation and bullying for the prisoners began already from the moment of transportation. People were transported in freight cars, where there was not even running water and a fenced-off latrine. The natural need of the prisoners had to celebrate publicly, in a tank, standing in the middle of the car.

But this was only the beginning, a lot of bullying and torment was being prepared for the Nazi concentration camps objectionable to the Nazi regime. Torture of women and children, medical experiments, aimless exhausting work - this is not the whole list.

The conditions of detention can be judged from the letters of the prisoners: “they lived in hellish conditions, ragged, barefoot, hungry ... I was constantly and severely beaten, deprived of food and water, tortured ...”, “They shot, flogged, poisoned with dogs, drowned in water, beaten with sticks, starved. Infected with tuberculosis ... strangled by a cyclone. Poisoned with chlorine. Burned ... ".

The corpses were skinned and hair cut off - all this was later used in the German textile industry. Doctor Mengele became famous for his horrific experiments on prisoners, from whose hand thousands of people died. He investigated the mental and physical exhaustion of the body. He conducted experiments on twins, during which they transplanted organs from each other, transfused blood, sisters were forced to give birth to children from their own brothers. He did sex reassignment surgery.

All fascist concentration camps became famous for such bullying, we will consider the names and conditions of detention in the main ones below.

Camp ration

Usually the daily ration in the camp was as follows:

• bread - 130 gr;
• fat - 20 gr;
• meat - 30 gr;
• cereals - 120 gr;
• sugar - 27 gr.

Bread was handed out, and the rest of the food was used for cooking, which consisted of soup (given out 1 or 2 times a day) and porridge (150-200 gr). It should be noted that such a diet was intended only for workers. Those who for some reason remained unemployed received even less. Usually their portion consisted of only half a serving of bread.

List of concentration camps in different countries

Nazi concentration camps were created in the territories of Germany, allied and occupied countries. The list of them is long, but we will name the main ones:

• On the territory of Germany - Halle, Buchenwald, Cottbus, Dusseldorf, Schlieben, Ravensbrück, Esse, Spremberg;
• Austria - Mauthausen, Amstetten;
• France - Nancy, Reims, Mulhouse;
• Poland - Majdanek, Krasnik, Radom, Auschwitz, Przemysl;
• Lithuania - Dimitravas, Alytus, Kaunas;
• Czechoslovakia - Kunta-gora, Natra, Glinsko;
• Estonia - Pirkul, Parnu, Klooga;
• Belarus - Minsk, Baranovichi;
• Latvia - Salaspils.

And this is not a complete list of all the concentration camps that were built by Nazi Germany in the pre-war and war years.

Salaspils

Salaspils, one might say, is the most terrible concentration camp of the Nazis, because, in addition to prisoners of war and Jews, children were also kept there. It was located on the territory of occupied Latvia and was the central eastern camp. It was located near Riga and functioned from 1941 (September) to 1944 (summer).

Children in this camp were not only kept separately from adults and massacred, but were used as blood donors for German soldiers. Every day, about half a liter of blood was taken from all children, which led to the rapid death of donors.

Salaspils was not like Auschwitz or Majdanek (extermination camps), where people were herded into gas chambers and then their corpses were burned. It was sent to medical research, during which more than 100,000 people died. Salaspils was not like other Nazi concentration camps. The torture of children here was a routine affair that proceeded according to a schedule with meticulous records of the results.

Experiments on children

The testimonies of witnesses and the results of investigations revealed the following methods of extermination of people in the Salaspils camp: beatings, starvation, arsenic poisoning, injection of dangerous substances (most often for children), performing surgical operations without painkillers, pumping out blood (only for children), executions, torture, useless severe labor (carrying stones from place to place), gas chambers, burying alive. In order to save ammunition, the camp charter prescribed that children should be killed only with rifle butts. The atrocities of the Nazis in the concentration camps surpassed everything that humanity has seen in the New Age. Such an attitude towards people cannot be justified, because it violates all conceivable and inconceivable moral commandments.

Children did not stay long with their mothers, usually they were quickly taken away and distributed. So, children under the age of six were in a special barracks, where they were infected with measles. But they did not treat, but aggravated the disease, for example, by bathing, which is why the children died in 3-4 days. In this way, the Germans killed more than 3,000 people in one year. The bodies of the dead were partly burned, and partly buried in the camp.

The following figures were given in the Act of the Nuremberg trials “on the extermination of children”: during the excavation of only one fifth of the territory of the concentration camp, 633 children's bodies aged 5 to 9 years were found, arranged in layers; a platform soaked in an oily substance was also found, where the remains of unburned children's bones (teeth, ribs, joints, etc.) were found.

Salaspils is truly the most terrible concentration camp of the Nazis, because the atrocities described above are far from all the torments to which the prisoners were subjected. So, in winter, the children brought in barefoot and naked were driven to a half-kilometer barrack, where they had to wash in ice water. After that, the children were driven to the next building in the same way, where they were kept in the cold for 5-6 days. At the same time, the age of the eldest child did not even reach 12 years. All who survived after this procedure were also subjected to arsenic etching.

Infants were kept separately, injections were given to them, from which the child died in agony in a few days. They gave us coffee and poisoned cereals. About 150 children per day died from the experiments. The bodies of the dead were taken out in large baskets and burned, thrown into cesspools or buried near the camp.

Ravensbrück

If we start listing the women's concentration camps of the Nazis, then Ravensbrück will be in the first place. It was the only camp of this type in Germany. It held thirty thousand prisoners, but by the end of the war was overcrowded by fifteen thousand. Mostly Russian and Polish women were kept, Jews accounted for about 15 percent. There were no written instructions regarding torture and torture; the overseers chose the line of conduct themselves.

Arriving women were undressed, shaved, washed, given a robe and assigned a number. Also, the clothes indicated racial affiliation. People turned into impersonal cattle. In small barracks (in the post-war years, 2-3 refugee families lived in them) about three hundred prisoners were kept, who were placed on three-story bunks. When the camp was overcrowded, up to a thousand people were driven into these cells, who had to sleep seven of them on the same bunk. There were several toilets and a washbasin in the barracks, but there were so few of them that the floors were littered with excrement after a few days. Such a picture was presented by almost all Nazi concentration camps (the photos presented here are only a small fraction of all the horrors).

But not all women ended up in the concentration camp; a selection was made beforehand. The strong and hardy, fit for work, were left, and the rest were destroyed. Prisoners worked at construction sites and sewing workshops.

Gradually, Ravensbrück was equipped with a crematorium, like all Nazi concentration camps. Gas chambers (nicknamed gas chambers by prisoners) appeared already at the end of the war. The ashes from the crematoria were sent to nearby fields as fertilizer.

Experiments were also carried out in Ravensbrück. In a special barracks called the "infirmary", German scientists tested new drugs, first infecting or crippling the test subjects. There were few survivors, but even those suffered for the rest of their lives from what they suffered. Experiments were also conducted with the irradiation of women with X-rays, from which hair fell out, skin was pigmented, and death occurred. Genital organs were cut out, after which few survived, and even those quickly grew old, and at 18 they looked like old women. Similar experiments were carried out by all concentration camps of the Nazis, the torture of women and children is the main crime of Nazi Germany against humanity.

At the time of the liberation of the concentration camp by the Allies, five thousand women remained there, the rest were killed or transported to other places of detention. The Soviet troops who arrived in April 1945 adapted the camp barracks for the settlement of refugees. Later, Ravensbrück turned into a stationing point for Soviet military units.

Nazi concentration camps: Buchenwald

The construction of the camp began in 1933, near the town of Weimar. Soon, Soviet prisoners of war began to arrive, who became the first prisoners, and they completed the construction of the "hellish" concentration camp.

The structure of all structures was strictly thought out. Immediately outside the gates began "Appelplat" (parade ground), specially designed for the formation of prisoners. Its capacity was twenty thousand people. Not far from the gate was a punishment cell for interrogations, and opposite the office was located, where the camp leader and the officer on duty lived - the camp authorities. Deeper were the barracks for prisoners. All barracks were numbered, there were 52 of them. At the same time, 43 were intended for housing, and workshops were arranged in the rest.

The Nazi concentration camps left behind a terrible memory, their names still cause fear and shock in many, but the most terrifying of them is Buchenwald. The crematorium was considered the most terrible place. People were invited there under the pretext of a medical examination. When the prisoner undressed, he was shot, and the body was sent to the oven.

Only men were kept in Buchenwald. Upon arrival at the camp, they were assigned a number in German, which they had to learn in the first day. The prisoners worked at the Gustlovsky weapons factory, which was located a few kilometers from the camp.

Continuing to describe the concentration camps of the Nazis, let us turn to the so-called "small camp" of Buchenwald.

Small Camp Buchenwald

The "Small Camp" was the quarantine zone. Living conditions here were, even in comparison with the main camp, simply hellish. In 1944, when the German troops began to retreat, prisoners from Auschwitz and the Compiègne camp were brought to this camp, mostly Soviet citizens, Poles and Czechs, and later Jews. There was not enough space for everyone, so some of the prisoners (six thousand people) were placed in tents. The closer 1945 was, the more prisoners were transported. Meanwhile, the "small camp" included 12 barracks measuring 40 x 50 meters. Torture in the concentration camps of the Nazis was not only specially planned or for scientific purposes, the very life in such a place was torture. 750 people lived in the barracks, their daily ration consisted of a small piece of bread, the unemployed were no longer supposed to.

Relations among the prisoners were tough, cases of cannibalism and murder for someone else's portion of bread were documented. It was a common practice to store the bodies of the dead in barracks in order to receive their rations. The clothes of the deceased were divided among his cellmates, and they often fought over them. Due to such conditions, infectious diseases were common in the camp. Vaccinations only exacerbated the situation, as injection syringes were not changed.

The photo is simply not able to convey all the inhumanity and horror of the Nazi concentration camp. Witness accounts are not for the faint of heart. In each camp, not excluding Buchenwald, there were medical groups of doctors who conducted experiments on prisoners. It should be noted that the data they obtained allowed German medicine to take a step forward - there were not so many experimental people in any country in the world. Another question is whether it was worth the millions of tortured children and women, those inhuman sufferings that these innocent people endured.

Prisoners were irradiated, healthy limbs were amputated and organs were cut out, sterilized, castrated. They tested how long a person is able to withstand extreme cold or heat. Specially infected with diseases, introduced experimental drugs. So, in Buchenwald, an anti-typhoid vaccine was developed. In addition to typhoid, the prisoners were infected with smallpox, yellow fever, diphtheria, and paratyphoid.

Since 1939, the camp was run by Karl Koch. His wife, Ilse, was nicknamed the "Buchenwald witch" for her love of sadism and inhuman abuse of prisoners. She was more feared than her husband (Karl Koch) and the Nazi doctors. She was later nicknamed "Frau Lampshade". The woman owes this nickname to the fact that she made various decorative things from the skin of the killed prisoners, in particular, lampshades, which she was very proud of. Most of all, she liked to use the skin of Russian prisoners with tattoos on their backs and chests, as well as the skin of gypsies. Things made of such material seemed to her the most elegant.

The liberation of Buchenwald took place on April 11, 1945 by the hands of the prisoners themselves. Having learned about the approach of the allied troops, they disarmed the guards, captured the camp leadership and ran the camp for two days until the American soldiers approached.

Auschwitz (Auschwitz-Birkenau)

Listing the concentration camps of the Nazis, Auschwitz cannot be ignored. It was one of the largest concentration camps, in which, according to various sources, from one and a half to four million people died. The exact details of the dead have not yet been clarified. Most of the victims were Jewish prisoners of war, who were destroyed immediately upon arrival in the gas chambers.

The concentration camp complex itself was called Auschwitz-Birkenau and was located on the outskirts of the Polish city of Auschwitz, whose name has become a household name. Above the camp gates were engraved the following words: "Work sets you free."

This huge complex, built in 1940, consisted of three camps:

• Auschwitz I or the main camp - the administration was located here;
• Auschwitz II or "Birkenau" - was called the death camp;
• Auschwitz III or Buna Monowitz.

Initially, the camp was small and intended for political prisoners. But gradually more and more prisoners arrived in the camp, 70% of whom were destroyed immediately. Many tortures in Nazi concentration camps were borrowed from Auschwitz. So, the first gas chamber began to function in 1941. Gas "Cyclone B" was used. For the first time, the terrible invention was tested on Soviet and Polish prisoners with a total number of about nine hundred people.

Auschwitz II began its operation on March 1, 1942. Its territory included four crematoria and two gas chambers. In the same year, medical experiments began on women and men for sterilization and castration.

Small camps gradually formed around Birkenau, where prisoners were kept working in factories and mines. One of these camps gradually grew and became known as Auschwitz III or Buna Monowitz. About ten thousand prisoners were kept here.

Like any Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz was well guarded. Contacts with the outside world were forbidden, the territory was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, guard posts were set up around the camp at a distance of a kilometer.

On the territory of Auschwitz, five crematoria were continuously operating, which, according to experts, had a monthly output of approximately 270,000 corpses.

On January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was liberated by Soviet troops. By that time, about seven thousand prisoners remained alive. Such a small number of survivors is due to the fact that about a year before that, mass murders in gas chambers (gas chambers) began in the concentration camp.

Since 1947, a museum and a memorial complex dedicated to the memory of all those who died at the hands of Nazi Germany began to function on the territory of the former concentration camp.

Conclusion

For the entire duration of the war, according to statistics, approximately four and a half million Soviet citizens were captured. They were mostly civilians from the occupied territories. It's hard to imagine what these people went through. But not only the bullying of the Nazis in the concentration camps was destined to be demolished by them. Thanks to Stalin, after their release, when they returned home, they received the stigma of "traitors". At home, the Gulag was waiting for them, and their families were subjected to serious repression. One captivity was replaced by another for them. In fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones, they changed their last names and tried in every possible way to hide their experiences.

Until recently, information about the fate of prisoners after their release was not advertised and hushed up. But the people who survived this simply should not be forgotten.

These photographs show the life and martyrdom of Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Some of these photos can be traumatic. Therefore, we ask children and mentally unstable people to refrain from viewing these photos.

Liberated prisoners of the Austrian concentration camp in the American military hospital.

Clothing of concentration camp prisoners abandoned after liberation in April 1945/

American soldiers inspect the site of the mass execution of 250 Polish and French prisoners at a concentration camp near Leipzig on April 19, 1945.

A Ukrainian girl released from a concentration camp in Salzburg, Austria, cooks food on a small stove.

Prisoners of the Flossenburg death camp after being liberated by the US 97th Infantry Division in May 1945. The emaciated prisoner in the center - a 23-year-old Czech - is ill with dysentery.

Ampfing concentration camp prisoners after their release.

View of the concentration camp at Grini in Norway.

Soviet prisoners in the Lamsdorf concentration camp (Stalag VIII-B, now the Polish village of Lambinovice.

The bodies of the executed SS guards at the observation tower "B" of the Dachau concentration camp.

View of the barracks of the Dachau concentration camp.

Soldiers of the US 45th Infantry Division show the bodies of prisoners in a wagon at the Dachau concentration camp to teenagers from the Hitler Youth.

View of the Buchenwald barracks after the liberation of the camp.

American generals George Patton, Omar Bradley and Dwight Eisenhower in the Ohrdruf concentration camp at the fire, where the Germans burned the bodies of prisoners.

Soviet prisoners of war in the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Soviet prisoners of war eating in the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Soviet prisoners of war near the barbed wire of the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Soviet prisoner of war at the barracks of the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

British prisoners of war on the stage of the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp theater.

Captured British corporal Eric Evans with three comrades at the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Burnt bodies of prisoners of the Ohrdruf concentration camp.

Bodies of prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Women from the SS guards of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp unload the corpses of prisoners. Women from the SS guards of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp unload the corpses of prisoners for burial in a mass grave. They were attracted to these works by the allies who liberated the camp. Around the moat is a convoy of English soldiers. Former guards are banned from wearing gloves as a punishment to put them at risk of contracting typhus.

Six British prisoners in the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Soviet prisoners are talking to a German officer in the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Soviet prisoners of war change clothes in the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Group photo of allied prisoners (British, Australians and New Zealanders) in the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

An orchestra of captured allies (Australians, British and New Zealanders) on the territory of the Stalag XVIIIA concentration camp.

Captured Allied soldiers play the game Two Up for cigarettes in the Stalag 383 concentration camp.

Two British prisoners at the wall of the barracks of the Stalag 383 concentration camp.

A German soldier-escort at the Stalag 383 concentration camp market, surrounded by captured allies.

Group photo of allied prisoners in the Stalag 383 concentration camp on Christmas Day 1943.

The barracks of the Vollan concentration camp in the Norwegian city of Trondheim after liberation.

A group of Soviet prisoners of war outside the gates of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad after liberation.

SS-Oberscharführer Erich Weber on vacation in the commandant's quarters of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad.

Commandant of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad, SS Hauptscharführer Karl Denk (left) and SS Oberscharführer Erich Weber (right) in the commandant's room.

Five released prisoners of the Falstad concentration camp at the gate.

Prisoners of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad (Falstad) on vacation during a break between work in the field.

SS-Oberscharführer Erich Weber, an employee of the Falstadt concentration camp

SS non-commissioned officers K. Denk, E. Weber and Luftwaffe sergeant R. Weber with two women in the commandant's office of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad.

An employee of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad, SS Oberscharführer Erich Weber in the kitchen of the commandant's house.

Soviet, Norwegian and Yugoslav prisoners of the Falstad concentration camp on vacation at the logging site.

The head of the women's block of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad (Falstad) Maria Robbe (Maria Robbe) with the police at the gates of the camp.

A group of Soviet prisoners of war on the territory of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad after liberation.

Seven guards of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad at the main gate.

Panorama of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad (Falstad) after the liberation.

Black French prisoners in the Frontstalag 155 camp in the village of Lonvik.

Black French prisoners do laundry at the Frontstalag 155 camp in the village of Lonvik.

Members of the Warsaw Uprising from the Home Army in the barracks of a concentration camp near the German village of Oberlangen.

The body of a shot SS guard in a canal near the Dachau concentration camp

A column of prisoners of the Norwegian concentration camp Falstad (Falstad) passes in the courtyard of the main building.

Liberated children, prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp (Auschwitz) show camp numbers tattooed on their arms.

Railway tracks leading to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

An emaciated Hungarian prisoner released from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

A liberated prisoner of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp who fell ill with typhus in one of the camp barracks.

A group of children released from the Auschwitz concentration camp (Auschwitz). In total, about 7,500 people, including children, were released in the camp. The Germans managed to take about 50 thousand prisoners from Auschwitz to other camps before the Red Army units approached.

Prisoners demonstrate the process of destroying corpses in the crematorium of the Dachau concentration camp.

Red Army prisoners who died of hunger and cold. The POW camp was located in the village of Bolshaya Rossoshka near Stalingrad.

Body of Ohrdruf concentration camp guard killed by prisoners or American soldiers.

Prisoners in the barracks of the Ebensee concentration camp.

Irma Grese and Josef Kramer in the prison yard of the German city of Celle. The head of the labor service of the women's unit of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp - Irma Grese (Irma Grese) and his commandant SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Josef Kramer under British escort in the prison yard of the city of Celle, Germany.

Girl prisoner of the Croatian concentration camp Jasenovac.

Soviet prisoners of war while carrying building elements for the barracks of the Stalag 304 Zeithain camp.

Surrendered SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker (Heinrich Wicker, later shot by American soldiers) at the car with the bodies of prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp. In the photo, second from the left is Victor Mairer, a representative of the Red Cross.

A man in civilian clothes stands near the bodies of prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
In the background, Christmas wreaths hang near the windows.

Released from captivity, the British and Americans are on the territory of the prisoner of war camp Dulag-Luft in Wetzlar, Germany.

Released prisoners from the Nordhausen death camp sit on the porch.

Prisoners of the concentration camp Gardelegen (Gardelegen), killed by guards shortly before the liberation of the camp.

The corpses of prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp, prepared for burning in a crematorium, in the back of a trailer.

Aerial photography of the northwestern part of the Auschwitz concentration camp with the main objects of the camp marked: the railway station and the Auschwitz I camp.

American generals (from right to left) Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George Patton watch a demonstration of one of the torture methods at the Gotha concentration camp.

Mountains of clothes of prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp.

A liberated seven-year-old prisoner of the Buchenwald concentration camp in line before being sent to Switzerland.

Prisoners of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen (Sachsenhausen) on the line.

A Soviet prisoner of war released from the Saltfjellet concentration camp in Norway.

Soviet prisoners of war in a barracks after their release from the Saltfjellet concentration camp in Norway.

A Soviet prisoner of war leaves a barrack at the Saltfjellet concentration camp in Norway.

Women liberated by the Red Army from the Ravensbrück concentration camp, located 90 km north of Berlin.

German officers and civilians walk past a group of Soviet prisoners during an inspection of a concentration camp.

Soviet prisoners of war in the camp in the ranks during verification.

Captured Soviet soldiers in the camp at the beginning of the war.

Captured Red Army soldiers enter the camp barracks.

Four Polish prisoners of the Oberlangen concentration camp (Oberlangen, Stalag VI C) after their liberation. Women were among the capitulated Warsaw insurgents.

The orchestra of prisoners of the Yanovsky concentration camp performs the "Tango of Death". On the eve of the liberation of Lvov by the Red Army, the Germans lined up a circle of 40 people from the orchestra. The camp guards surrounded the musicians in a tight ring and ordered them to play. First, the conductor of the Mund orchestra was executed, then, by order of the commandant, each orchestra member went to the center of the circle, laid his instrument on the ground and stripped naked, after which he was shot in the head.

Two American soldiers and a former prisoner fish the body of a shot SS guard from a canal near the Dachau concentration camp.

The Ustaše execute prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp.

The Auschwitz prisoners were released four months before the end of World War II. By that time there were few of them left. Almost one and a half million people died, most of them were Jews. For several years, the investigation continued, which led to terrible discoveries: people not only died in gas chambers, but also became victims of Dr. Mengele, who used them as guinea pigs.

Auschwitz: the history of one city

A small Polish town, in which more than a million innocent people were killed, is called Auschwitz all over the world. We call it Auschwitz. A concentration camp, experiments on gas chambers, torture, executions - all these words have been associated with the name of the city for more than 70 years.

It will sound rather strange in Russian Ich lebe in Auschwitz - "I live in Auschwitz." Is it possible to live in Auschwitz? They learned about the experiments on women in the concentration camp after the end of the war. Over the years, new facts have been discovered. One is scarier than the other. The truth about the camp called shocked the whole world. Research is still ongoing today. Many books have been written and many films have been made on the subject. Auschwitz has entered our symbol of a painful, difficult death.

Where did mass murders of children take place and terrible experiments were carried out on women? In Which city do millions of inhabitants on earth associate with the phrase "factory of death"? Auschwitz.

Experiments on people were carried out in a camp located near the city, which today is home to 40,000 people. It is a quiet town with a good climate. Auschwitz is first mentioned in historical documents in the twelfth century. In the XIII century there were already so many Germans here that their language began to prevail over Polish. In the 17th century, the city was captured by the Swedes. In 1918 it became Polish again. After 20 years, a camp was organized here, on the territory of which crimes took place, the likes of which mankind had not yet known.

Gas chamber or experiment

In the early forties, the answer to the question of where the Auschwitz concentration camp was located was known only to those who were doomed to death. Unless, of course, do not take into account the SS. Some of the prisoners, fortunately, survived. Later they talked about what happened within the walls of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Experiments on women and children, which were conducted by a man whose name terrified the prisoners, is a terrible truth that not everyone is ready to listen to.

The gas chamber is a terrible invention of the Nazis. But there are things even worse. Christina Zhivulskaya is one of the few who managed to get out of Auschwitz alive. In her book of memoirs, she mentions a case: a prisoner, sentenced to death by Dr. Mengel, does not go, but runs into the gas chamber. Because death from poisonous gas is not as terrible as the torment from the experiments of the same Mengele.

The creators of the "factory of death"

So what is Auschwitz? This is a camp that was originally intended for political prisoners. The author of the idea is Erich Bach-Zalewski. This man had the rank of SS Gruppenführer, during the Second World War he led punitive operations. With his light hand, dozens were sentenced to death. He took an active part in the suppression of the uprising that took place in Warsaw in 1944.

The assistants of the SS Gruppenfuehrer found a suitable place in a small Polish town. There were already military barracks here, in addition, the railway communication was well established. In 1940, a man named came here. He will be hanged at the gas chambers by the decision of the Polish court. But this will happen two years after the end of the war. And then, in 1940, Hess liked these places. He set to work with great enthusiasm.

Inhabitants of the concentration camp

This camp did not immediately become a "factory of death". At first, mainly Polish prisoners were sent here. Only a year after the camp was organized, a tradition appeared to display a serial number on the prisoner's hand. More and more Jews were brought in every month. By the end of the existence of Auschwitz, they accounted for 90% of the total number of prisoners. The number of SS men here also grew steadily. In total, the concentration camp received about six thousand overseers, punishers and other "specialists". Many of them were put on trial. Some disappeared without a trace, including Josef Mengele, whose experiments terrified the prisoners for several years.

We will not give the exact number of victims of Auschwitz here. Let's just say that more than two hundred children died in the camp. Most of them were sent to the gas chambers. Some fell into the hand of Josef Mengele. But this man was not the only one who conducted experiments on people. Another so-called doctor is Carl Clauberg.

Starting in 1943, a huge number of prisoners entered the camp. Most had to be destroyed. But the organizers of the concentration camp were practical people, and therefore decided to take advantage of the situation and use a certain part of the prisoners as material for research.

Carl Cauberg

This man supervised the experiments conducted on women. His victims were predominantly Jews and Gypsies. The experiments included the removal of organs, the testing of new drugs, and irradiation. What kind of person is Karl Cauberg? Who is he? In what family did you grow up, how was his life? And most importantly, where did the cruelty that goes beyond human understanding come from?

By the beginning of the war, Karl Cauberg was already 41 years old. In the twenties, he served as chief physician at the clinic at the University of Königsberg. Kaulberg was not a hereditary doctor. He was born into a family of artisans. Why he decided to connect his life with medicine is unknown. But there is evidence according to which, in the First World War, he served as an infantryman. Then he graduated from the University of Hamburg. Apparently, medicine fascinated him so much that he refused a military career. But Kaulberg was not interested in medicine, but in research. In the early forties, he began to search for the most practical way to sterilize women who did not belong to the Aryan race. For experiments, he was transferred to Auschwitz.

Kaulberg's experiments

The experiments consisted in the introduction of a special solution into the uterus, which led to serious violations. After the experiment, the reproductive organs were removed and sent to Berlin for further research. There is no data on exactly how many women became victims of this "scientist". After the end of the war, he was captured, but soon, just seven years later, oddly enough, he was released according to an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war. Returning to Germany, Kaulberg did not suffer from remorse at all. On the contrary, he was proud of his "achievements in science." As a result, complaints began to come in from people who had suffered from Nazism. He was arrested again in 1955. He spent even less time in prison this time. He died two years after his arrest.

Josef Mengele

The prisoners called this man "the angel of death". Josef Mengele personally met the trains with new prisoners and conducted the selection. Some went to the gas chambers. Others are at work. The third he used in his experiments. One of the prisoners of Auschwitz described this man as follows: "Tall, with a pleasant appearance, like a movie actor." He never raised his voice, he spoke politely - and this terrified the prisoners in particular.

From the biography of the Angel of Death

Josef Mengele was the son of a German entrepreneur. After graduating from high school, he studied medicine and anthropology. In the early thirties, he joined the Nazi organization, but soon, for health reasons, left it. In 1932, Mengele joined the SS. During the war he served in the medical troops and even received the Iron Cross for bravery, but was wounded and declared unfit for service. Mengele spent several months in the hospital. After recovery, he was sent to Auschwitz, where he launched his scientific activities.

Selection

Selecting victims for experiments was Mengele's favorite pastime. The doctor only needed one look at the prisoner in order to determine the state of his health. He sent most of the prisoners to the gas chambers. And only a few captives managed to delay death. It was hard to deal with those in whom Mengele saw "guinea pigs."

Most likely, this person suffered from an extreme form of mental disorder. He even enjoyed the thought that he had a huge number of human lives in his hands. That is why he was always next to the arriving train. Even when it was not required of him. His criminal actions were guided not only by the desire for scientific research, but also by the desire to rule. Just one word of his was enough to send tens or hundreds of people to the gas chambers. Those that were sent to the laboratories became the material for experiments. But what was the purpose of these experiments?

An invincible faith in the Aryan utopia, obvious mental deviations - these are the components of the personality of Josef Mengele. All his experiments were aimed at creating a new tool that could stop the reproduction of representatives of objectionable peoples. Mengele not only equated himself with God, he placed himself above him.

Josef Mengele's experiments

The angel of death dissected babies, castrated boys and men. He performed operations without anesthesia. Experiments on women consisted of high voltage shocks. He conducted these experiments in order to test endurance. Mengele once sterilized several Polish nuns with X-rays. But the main passion of the "doctor of death" was experiments on twins and people with physical defects.

To each his own

On the gates of Auschwitz was written: Arbeit macht frei, which means "work sets you free." The words Jedem das Seine were also present here. Translated into Russian - "To each his own." On the gates of Auschwitz, at the entrance to the camp, in which more than a million people died, a saying of the ancient Greek sages appeared. The principle of justice was used by the SS as the motto of the most cruel idea in the history of mankind.