KZ-Auschwitz-II, Birkenau - The Planned Expansion

[Gunny Hartmann]

Another interesting thread, thanks very much!...

[CARL]

Thank you Gunny,

Here, an additional view of the Birkenau BI site, to show the vast sprawling expanse that was available at the time of the proposed camp expansion. The buildings that can be seen in the distance, are post war constructions. The whole area was clear, save for the Kartoffellager (potato stores), located just beyond the camp's perimeter fencing.

[CARL]

The view from the main guard tower, this time looking toward the BII and BIII camps, also illustrates the space available to the SS, for their proposed expansion of the site. The land was cleared by dismantling the entire village, brick by brick, prior to the establishment of the Birkenau camp. Patently, the work was carried out by prisoners.

Despite the wintry conditions, the perimeter fencing used to separate camps BII and BIII, "Mexiko", can be seen in the image below. The cluster of trees to the right of the distant fence surround the former Kommandantur building, more clearly visible in the other attachment.

[StefanM]

There are some in Poland who would like to see the Auschwitz camp complexes left to rot away or be pulled down as they are fed up with forever being associated with German death camps that today are found in Polish territory. Which at the time of the various death camps construction was not Polish territory at all. The Polish state having been dismembered and partitioned between Germany and the USSR in September 1939, Poland had ceased to exist.

"Polish death camps" or "Polish concentration camps" or "concentration camps built in Poland" are terms more frequently heard these days which as well as being factually incorrect are a constant source of great offence to the Polish people. So much so that that the Polish government has an ongoing AGAINST "POLISH CAMPS" campaign to correct these phrases in the media:

Against "Polish camps"

The most recent such media corrections are just a few days old!

i recently contacted The Holocaust Centre here in the UK to ask them to correct their statement "six death camps built in Poland" to at least say "German occupied Poland" but sadly it still remains uncorrected, as an educational organisation one would not expect this sloppy attention to historical accuracy.