Auschwitz: a Prisoner Camp, an Industrial Camp, and a Death Camp
Auschwitz: a prisoner camp, an industrial camp, and a death camp “…Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habit, his cloth, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself. He will be a man whose life or death can be lightly decided with no sense of human affinity, in the most fortunate of cases, on the basis of a pure judgment of utility (Levi 23). This description might be overwhelming, but the truth is that this is a factual description of millions of people that suffered in concentration camps located all over Europe during World War II; although these concentration camps were like living hell, one concentration camp was more infamous than the others camps. For many people Auschwitz may be synonymous of death chamber, death factory, genocide, holocaust and many others horrifying symbols that this place has gained after World War II. The impact of Auschwitz is the horror that millions of people suffered in this place and the psychological impact over the world. Auschwitz plays a major role in the holocaust history due to the massive killing of Jewish, gypsies, homosexuals, war prisoners and more (Downing 26). Auschwitz began as an ordinary Polish town named Oswiecim which afterward was changed to Auschwitz; later this place became a concentration camp, a death camp, and a factory camp, run by bureaucrats, and SS guards; a camp with multiple identities and goals that impacted the world (Dwork and Jan van Pelt 11). Auschwitz original purpose differ from the infamous reputation that this place gained after World War II; also the origin of this place started as a need for a expansion of a concentration camp for Polish prisoners that represented no harm for the German, to subjugate them to obey German’s law, and to deport them to another place; as explained in Auschwitz
Cited: Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. Auschwitz 1270 to the present. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Hoess, Dudolf. Commandant of Auschwtiz . Trans. Primo Levi. 2nd ed. London: Phoenix Press, 2001. Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier Book, 1958. Milton, Sybil. 25 Apr. 2005 <http://lastexpression.northwestern.edu/essays/glossary_milton_main.htm >. Wiernicki, John. War in the Shadow of Auschwitz. 1st ed. : Syracuse University Press, 2001. Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. Auschwitz 1270 to the present. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Hoess, Dudolf. Commandant of Auschwtiz . Trans. Primo Levi. 2nd ed. London: Phoenix Press, 2001. Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier Book, 1958. Milton, Sybil. 25 Apr. 2005 <http://lastexpression.northwestern.edu/essays/glossary_milton_main.htm >. Wiernicki, John. War in the Shadow of Auschwitz. 1st ed. : Syracuse University Press, 2001.