RESEARCH- Auschwitz II

Alright, here is information about Auschwitz II.

Auchwitz II was the extermination part of the camp, and more then double the size of the main camp. It was created in October of 1941, specifically built for the purpose of killing the prisoners, so that the main camp would not be so crowded. The first gas chamber at Birkenau (a.k.a Auschwitz II) was "The Little Red House." This was a brick cottage converted into a gassing chamber by tearing out the inside and bricking up the walls. It was operational by March 1942. A second brick cottage, "The Little White House," was created very similarly a few weeks later. As I mentioned previously, the first gassings took place in Auschwitz I as an experiment. Afterwards, many chambers were built in Auschwitz II. In early 1943, the Nazis decided to increase the gassing capacity of Birkenau. Crematorium II (located in Birkenau) was originally designed as a mortuary, with morgues in the basement and ground-level furnaces. Later, this was converted into a killing factory by placing a gas-tight door on the morgues and adding vents for Zyklon B (the gas), as well as ventilation equipment to remove the gas. Crematorium III was built using the same design. Crematoria IV and V, which were designed from the start as gassing centers (unlike Crematorium II), were also constructed that spring. By June 1943 all four crematoria were up. Those who worked at these sites were known as Kapos. Generally, the Kapos were convicts. Their job included preparing the victims for gassing by ordering them to remove their clothing and give them their personal possessions. They also transferred corpses from the gas chambers to the furnaces to burn the bodies, but before this they first pulled out any gold that the victims might have had in their teeth. Mass graves were dug for all of the bodies that couldn't be burned at once, and that is what the picture at the very top of this post is of.