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Maj Kim Patterson
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I had some friends who survived, blue ink numbers tattooed on their forearms
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel


Auschwitz
Konzentrationslager Auschwitz (German)
Nazi concentration and extermination camp (1940–1945)
Auschwitz I (22 May 2010).jpg
Birkenau múzeum - panoramio (cropped).jpg
Top: Gate to Auschwitz I with its Arbeit macht frei sign ("work sets you free")
Bottom: Auschwitz II-Birkenau gatehouse; the train track, in operation May–October 1944, led directly to the gas chambers.[1]
Coordinates 50°02′09″N 19°10′42″ECoordinates: 50°02′09″N 19°10′42″E
Known for The Holocaust
Location German-occupied Poland
Built by IG Farben
Operated by Nazi Germany and the Schutzstaffel
Commandant See list
Original use Army barracks
Operational May 1940 – January 1945
Inmates Mainly Jews, Poles, Romani, Soviet prisoners of war
Number of inmates At least 1.3 million[2]
Killed At least 1.1 million[2]
Liberated by Soviet Union, 27 January 1945
Notable inmates Auschwitz prisoners: Adolf Burger, Edith Eger, Anne Frank, Viktor Frankl, Imre Kertész, Maximilian Kolbe, Primo Levi, Fritz Löhner-Beda, Irène Némirovsky, Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, Witold Pilecki, Liliana Segre, Edith Stein, Simone Veil, Rudolf Vrba, Alfréd Wetzler, Elie Wiesel, Else Ury, Eddie Jaku, Władysław Bartoszewski
Notable books
Man's Search for Meaning (1946) If This Is a Man (1947) Night (1960) Maus (1980–1991)
Website auschwitz.org/en/
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name Auschwitz Birkenau, German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945)
Type Cultural
Criteria vi
Designated 1979 (3rd session)
Reference no. 31
Region Europe and North America
Auschwitz concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Auschwitz (pronounced [kɔntsɛntʁaˈtsi̯oːnsˌlaːɡɐ ˈʔaʊʃvɪts] (listen)); also KL Auschwitz or KZ Auschwitz) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939)[3] during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (Stammlager) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps.[4] The camps became a major site of the Nazis' final solution to the Jewish question.
After Germany sparked World War II by invading Poland in September 1939, the Schutzstaffel (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a prisoner-of-war camp.[5] The initial transport of political detainees to Auschwitz consisted almost solely of Poles for whom the camp was initially established. The bulk of inmates were Polish for the first two years.[6] In May 1940, German criminals brought to the camp as functionaries established the camp's reputation for sadism. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, and executed for the most trivial reasons. The first gassings—of Soviet and Polish prisoners—took place in block 11 of Auschwitz I around August 1941.
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Maj Kim Patterson
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel gathering because they survived one of the worst events in world History. We must not forget before it happens again and celebrate the survivors
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LTC Eugene Chu
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A good and solemn thing for one generation to pass its Holocaust memories down to the next. While a travesty, it must not be forgotten.
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