by Julie A (Feb 2, 2005)

In the Second World War, millions of Jews were killed by Hitler. They were transported to concentration camps where they were killed or had to work. There were more than 15,000 camps in all occupied countries.
One of the most famous concentration camps is Auschwitz in Poland. Everyone has heard this name.

2.5 million people were sent to Auschwitz. It was called "the death factory". It was created on the 26th of May 1940. It consisted in three camps :
- Auschwitz I: the main camp

- Birkenau: the extermination camp, which was opened in 1941 after the decision of the final solution
- Auschwitz III or Monowitz: a work camp
And there were many other camps too like women camps and a camp for clothes and things which belonged to prisoners.

The maximum number of prisoners was 155,000. For the construction of Auschwitz, the Poland population who lived close to Auschwitz was evicted and often massacred.
The gas chambers and the crematoriums were opened in 1943. Auschwitz had up to seven gas chambers.
Out of 2.5 million deported, only 405,000 were prisoners and registered.
The number of deaths isn't known but it could be more than 4 million.

We can ask ourselves questions about this tragedy:
How could people do this genocide?
Can men repeat the same extermination?

More on the topic in  Sophie's article .

If you wish to react to this article, write to the editor.

(March 8, 2005)

It is a very interesting article which reminds of all this horror. The pictures of this article are horrible and they show us the thruth. To answer your question, I don't think that men can repeat the same extermination in Europe, but recently we saw photographs of the Irak war with the USA which showed that horror in war is possible. Naked Iraki prisoners were ridiculed and next to them there were American soldiers who smiled and showed their pride to be in this position.

Marine (YGTP)