Auschwitz Concentration Camp Dossier - Assignment Example

This camp was primarily composed of Jews, gypsies, polish, Jehovah witnesses, and soviets. The purpose of the camp was divided into two categories. One category was a “working camp.” The Nazis continue to disillusion the prisoners by stating Arbeit Macht Frei ("work makes free"). This working camp would be for individuals that were forced into labor. The other category was the astonishing extermination camp. That would primarily compose of gas chambers in which millions of prisoners would die of suffocation, unfortunately. Those not killed in the gas chambers would die of starvation, forced labor, medical experiments, and other horrific diseases.

One of the main Israeli Holocaust historians, Yehuda Bauer in 1989 insists that the conditions were ruthless. However, he does state the fact that the four million figures are a myth. The Auschwitz State Museum in Poland and other historians confirm that one million Jews were exterminated. Nonetheless, it does not diminish the fact that Auschwitz was a terror ground for the prisoners. It is often claimed that all Jews at Auschwitz who were physically unfit not to work were immediately eliminated. Jews who were too old, weak, fatigued were immediately gassed.’

An Austrian woman, Maria Vanherwaarden, gave witness to the accounts of what happened in this camp. She was forced to have sexual relations with the soldiers at Auschwitz. She feared during her journey to the camp that she will be gassed and exterminated. However, she survived the camp to tell her story.

The most prominent Auschwitz inmate survivor was Anne Frank, who is remembered for her accounts in her diary. However, few people know that her father, Otto Frank was able to survive Auschwitz. This teenager was deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz and was fortunate to be released along with other prisoners. Frank's account of the horrors conducted in the camps continued to be a hallmark of a great tragedy that the world has ever witnessed.