January 25- Himmler is notified that a concentration camp is going to be placed near Oswiecim, Poland.
Oswiecim map from N.A.C
Auschwitz Camp from N.A.C.
Birkenau Camp from N.A.C.
April 27- Rudolf Höss orders the camp be built at Oswiecim, using camp prisoners to do the building.
April 30- Höss, with 5 SS men, arrive to supervise the work.
May 5- The first 30 camp prisoners arrived. They were German criminals. These men were given the jobs as Kapos, or camp overseers.
June 14- Prisoners 31-758 arrive. These are all Polish political prisoners.
July- A bunker is transformed in to crematory 1
July 6- Tradeusz Wiejowski was the first prisoner to escape.
August 15- The first transport from Warsaw arrived. Prisoners received numbers 1513-1899 & 1901-3173.
August- The punishment block is established in a room in Block 3. In September it is moved to Block 11 The Block Of Death.
November 22- The first executions at Auschwitz are held. 40 Poles are shot and then cremated.
December 31- The last prisoner number assigned this year would be 7879.
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Early January- Dr. Otto Ambrose decides the Auschwitz area is suitable to build chemical factories.
February 2- Herman Göring orders all Jews in Oswiecim deported in order to provide civilian housing.
March 1- Himmler issues Höss orders to enlarge the camp to hold 30,000 prisoners; build another camp in the town of Brzezinka (this would be Birkenau) to hold 100.000 prisoners of war; and finally the building of an arms factory to help the SS produce more weapons for the German Army.
March 26- The deportation of neighboring peasants is begun.
March 27- A conference on this day decided the following goals:
(1) Auschwitz would supply 1,000 prisoners in 1941 for the construction of the I.G. Farben factories at Dwory.April 7- Prisoners begin working at Buna. They walked the 10 Km every day.
(2) 3,000 more prisoners would be supplied in 1942; if needed it would be increased to 8,000.
(3) The number of prisoners would continue to increase over the years.
(4) Prisoners would go to work by train, and would build a railroad bridge on the Sola river.
(5) The workday would be 10-11 hours in the summer, and 9 hours in winter.
(6) Wages for skilled labor would be 4 Reich marks, for unskilled labor 3 Reich marks (To be paid to the SS, not the workers).
April 23- Höss selected 10 prisoners and sent them from Block 2 to 11, punishment for another prisoners escape. All died of starvation between April 27 & May 26. This was not an unusual punishment.
June 6- The first transport from Czechoslovakia arrived, 60 men from Brno. Assigned numbers 17045-17104.
June 30- Höss is summoned to Berlin. He is given the orders for the Final Solution. Within 4 weeks he had to submit the plans for the mass killings.
July 28- Several hundred Soviet POW's brought to camp. Housed in Block 11, all were killed within a few days while at work, either being shot, or beaten with shovels and pick axes.
July 28- All invalids (575 prisoners) were sent to a mental institution where they were gassed in a bathhouse with carbon monoxide.
August- Injection into the heart to eliminate the sick is begun. Hydrogen peroxide, benzene, evipan, and phenol were used.
September 9- The first attempt of a mass killing with Zyclon B gas is attempted.
September 28- The first transport from Yugoslavia arrived. 22 men from Veldes, assigned numbers 21131-21152.
November 11- The first executions with small-caliber weapons, a shot in the back of the neck, took place in the courtyard between Blocks 10 and 11, The Wall of Death. 151 Polish prisoners executed.
Wall of Death from Auschwitz Museum.
November- The high rate of death among Soviet POW's led to an inability for all the bodies to be cremated in Crematory 1. Some of these bodies were buried in a mass grave in Birkenau.
December 29- The last Prisoner's numbers assigned this year were 25093-25149. In 1941 a total of 17,270 prisoners were sent to Auschwitz.
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January 19- At the evening role call 10,142 prisoners, and 1,490 Soviet POW's were at Auschwitz.
January 20- The Wannsee Conference takes place. Heydrich, and 12 other SS officials decide upon the terms of the final solution. It is at this meeting that Auschwitz's purpose changes from labor camp to death camp.
January- Mass killings using Zyclon B gas began. The first victims were the Jews from Upper Silesia. The gassings took place in Bunker 1 [The Red Farmhouse] in Birkenau. The bodies were buried in mass graves in a nearby meadow.
March 1- The remaining 945 Soviet POW's were transferred to Birkenau. Auschwitz and Birkenau were under one administrator, Rudolf Höss. The SS referred to the original camp as Auschwitz 1, and Birkenau as Auschwitz 2.
March 13- 1,200 sick prisoners were taken from Auschwitz, to section B 1b in Birkenau. They were all forced into the square in front where they were beaten to death with clubs by the SS. the bodies were taken back to Auschwitz for cremation.
March 19- 154 women were brought to Auschwitz and shot to death in the courtyard of Block 11.
March 26- The first transports of women from Ravensbrück arrived at Auschwitz. The 999 women were given numbers 1-999, and were housed in the main camp in Blocks 1-10, which was now separated by a high wall from the rest of Auschwitz. Two hours later 999 Jewish women from Slovakia were given numbers 1000-1998. Jewish women were given Soviet uniforms to wear, transports from Slovakia would keep arriving until 1944.
March 30- The first transport of 1,112 Jews arrived from Paris, France. They were given numbers 27533-28644.
April 27- The first transport of Polish women who were political prisoners was brought from Krakow. The 127 women were given numbers 6784-6910.
May 5- The first selections of prisoners to be gassed from within the camp began; they were taken by truck to Bunker 1, where the gassings took place. The barracks used as a holding center was called the "Isolation Station". A wall surrounded it. The barracks was always overcrowded. Each time the trucks came 90% of the prisoners were taken away. The barracks usually held 1,200 prisoners.
May 9- The punishment company was transferred from Block 11 to Birkenau, located now in Block 1 of section B 1b.
May 27- 168 prisoners from the "group of artists" were executed in the courtyard of Block 11. They were brought to Auschwitz on April 24&25 as hostages because of an attempt on the life of an SS officer in Krakow.
May 30- Dr. Carl Clauberg wrote a letter to Himmler offering to conduct sterilization experiments on women at Auschwitz and requested the necessary equipment.
June 10- About 50 prisoners from the punishment company attempted to escape while at work. During the pursuit 13 were killed, while 9 managed to escape. The next morning after role call the camp commander (Aumeier) demanded the names of the organizers of the breakout from the remaining 320 prisoners. No one answered. Aumeier called 20 prisoners from the ranks and personally shot 17, and Hössler shot 3. In the afternoon more than 10 prisoners were brought from the hospital, their clothes and shoes removed, and their hands tied behind their backs with barbed wire. That evening the entire punishment company, 320 men, were gassed in Bunker 1. Total: 30 shot; 320 gassed.
June 20- 4 prisoners escaped; dressed in SS uniforms with weapons taken from storehouses and using a stolen SS car, they drove out of camp. Their names were: Kazimierz Piechowicz, number 918; Jozef Lempart, number 3199; Stanislaw Gustaw Jaster, number 6438; and Eugeniusz Bandera, number 8502.
June 30- Bunker 2 [the white Farmhouse] was made ready to be used as a gas chamber.
July 1- German construction companies Hütte, Hoch & Tiefbau, Schlesisch Industriebau, and Lenz & Co. were approached to build new crematories in Birkenau. Topf & Sons would simultaneously install the gas chambers and ovens in the crematory.
July 7- Himmler gives permission to conduct sterilization experiments on people and animals at Auschwitz. He asked to be kept informed of the progress of the experiments, and their application for the sterilization of Jewish women.
July 8- Transports from Paris brought 1,170 Aryan prisoners who were given numbers 45157-46326. They were French Communists and people of various nationalities brought under the code name of " Night and Fog".
July 15- The Hütte firm was given the contract to build the crematory at Birkenau. The cost of construction was set at 133,756.65 Reich marks to begin construction.
July 17- The first transport from Holland of 2,000 Jews arrived. There were 1,303 men & boys, and 697 women & girls on the transport. After the selection process 1,251 were sent into camp, they were given numbers 47088-47687 & 47843-48493. 300 women were sent onto the camp numbers 8801-8999 & 9027-9127. The remaining 447 people were killed in the gas chambers. Transports from Holland continued to arrive until 1944.
July 17- Himmler inspected the entire facility at Auschwitz-Birkenau for 2 days. He saw the camp farms, the laboratories and plant cultures as Raisko, the cattle breeding farms and tree nurseries, also the draining of the swampy areas and the building of a dyke. After inspecting Birkenau, he watched the entire process of extermination of a Jewish transport from Holland. He witnessed the unloading, the selection of the fit, the gassing in bunker 2, and the removal of the corpses. He then inspected the Buna Rubber Works. The following day Himmler ordered Höss to step up the pace of building at Birkenau in order to exterminate the Jews unfit for work and to develop the arms factories. He promoted Kommandant Höss to the rank of SS Lieutenant Colonel for his achievements at Auschwitz.
July 23 Höss orders the interior of the camp off limits to the SS because a Typhus epidemic rages throughout the camp.
July 31 After morning roll call, prisoners whose names were called out the day before were shot in the courtyard of Block 11 at the Wall of Death. Friends of Prof. Marian Gieszczykiewicz tried to save him by keeping him in the hospital even though he wasn't sick. At 9a.m., the professor was ordered he was to be brought to Block 11 anyway. The professor was put on a stretcher naked, covered with a blanket and brought to the courtyard. He was then uncovered and after his camp number was verified he was shot twice in the head.
July 31- Janusz Strzetuski-Pogonowski, number 253, smuggled in a thousand ampoules of medicine sent by a secret organization called "Aid for Prisoners of Concentration Camps." This was used in the prisoner hospital.
August 5- SS firing squads were authorized an increase in food rations, 100 additional grams of meat, 1/5 liter of vodka, and 5 cigarettes.
August 15- A sub camp at Jawiszowice was established. Prisoners were transferred to work in open & underground coalmines. This is the first instance of prisoners being used for underground work.
August 16- The women's camp at Auschwitz is abolished. All women were sent to Birkenau, section B 1a.
August 18- The first transport from Yugoslavia arrived. After selection 87 men were sent in to camp with numbers 59604-59690, the rest were gassed.
August 19- The number of prisoners in the men's camp was 22,925 along with 163 Soviet POW's.
August 28- 948 Jews were brought by transport from Drancy. Most were mothers and children. After selection only 27 men were sent into camp numbers 62093-62119, and 39 women numbers 18609-18644. The other 885 people were gassed. Transports arrived form France until August 1944.
August 29- In "order to stop the Typhus epidemic" in the camp, the Typhus carriers were destroyed. 746 prisoners from the camp hospital were selected, taken to Birkenau, and gassed.
September 9- Höss visited and inspected the installations for burning at Chelmno. He was looking for the best way to empty the common graves at Birkenau; the decomposing bodies were liable to poison the ground water and cause epidemics. He decided on open-pit burnings. About 2,000 bodies were burned; the fires burned continuously day and night.
September 26- SS Brigadier General August Frank issued an order that the Auschwitz and Majdenek concentration camps cash in the possessions of those murdered in the gas chambers. All cash money in German banknotes was to be sent to the Reich's Bank; foreign currency, gold and other precious metals, including jewelry were sent to the SS Headquarters of the Economic Administration. All watches, clocks, and pens would be assigned to the troops at the front after the items were repaired. Clothing and other articles were to be sent to the Volkdeutsch Mittelstelle.
September 30- The chief of the Employment Section at Auschwitz, SS Lieutenant Heinrich Schwarz, received permission to go to Friedland near Wroclow to inspect the processing of human hair.
October 5- Himmler orders all Jewish prisoners in concentration camps in Germany to be transferred to Auschwitz and Majdanek.
October 10- The incident at Budy Occurred.
October 28- The first transport from the ghetto camp in Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, arrives with 1,866 Jews. Only 215 men numbers71060-71274, and 32 women numbers23275-23306 were sent into the camp. The remaining 1,619 people were gassed. Transports from Czechoslovakia kept arriving until October 1944.
End of October- A sub camp is established at Monowitz in the area of the Buna Rubber Works.
November 30- The burning of the dug up corpses finally ends at Birkenau. Höss' calculations say 107,000 bodies had been burned in mass graves.
December 1- The first transports from Bergen, Norway arrive with 532 people. 186 men were sent into the camp numbers 79064-79249. The remaining 346 were gassed.
December 3- About 300 prisoners who had been Sonderkommando for the mass grave burnings of 107,00 at Birkenau were brought to Auschwitz's Crematory 1 and gassed.
December 10- The first transport of Jews arrives from Germany. 137 men were sent into the camp numbers 81263-81399. The rest were killed in the gas chambers. Transports from Germany arrived until September 1944.
December 13 314 men and 318 women, all Polish, were brought to Auschwitz as prisoners.
December 16 SS Major General Müller prepared a plan to deport 45,000 Jews to provide the manpower needs of the munitions and arms factories. The plan was to deport 30,000 Jews from Bialystok area, 10,000 from Theresienstadt, 3,000 from Holland and 2,000 from Berlin. From these numbers only 10,000-15,000 would be allowed to live and work in the factories. Because of rail congestion and scheduling, the operation did not begin until January 11, 1943, and ended on January 30, 1943.
December 28- Professor Dr. Carl Clauberg began his experiments of sterilizing women prisoners from the women's hospital in Birkenau.
December 30- A transport of women prisoners was brought to the camp, numbers 27864-27905. This was the last transport of women to the camp in 1942. Since the women's camps was established March 26, 1942, 27,905 women were sent to Auschwitz. 39 prisoners were brought from Katowice numbers 85158-85196. This was the last transport of men in 1942, a total of 60,047 men were sent to Auschwitz in 1942.
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1943
January 25- 51 Prisoners in Block 11 were selected, because they were suspected of illegal activities against the SS and for preparing an escape. They were all High-ranking Polish officers and intelligentsia. They were shot in the courtyard at the Wall of Death.
January 29- A building engineer from Topf & Sons inspected Crematories 2
January 29- Security Headquarters in Berlin ordered all Gypsies be arrested and sent to concentration camps for extermination.
February 7 Polish Scientists from the Weigl Institute in Lwow were brought with their families to work in the hospital in the SS Institute of Hygiene. On February 11, they were given numbers and treated as prisoners.
February 10- The Buna Rubber Works plant is promised that the number of prisoners at Monowitz will increase to 4,000-4,5000.
February 23- 39 boys ages 13-17 were brought from Birkenau to Auschwitz; SS Sergeant Scherpe killed them that night by a phenol injection to the heart.
February 26- The first transport of Gypsies arrived from Germany. They were sent to the unfinished section B 2e at Birkenau, later called the Family Camp for Gypsies. They were assigned different numbers than the others, beginning with Z-1 for both men and women.
March 1- 80 Polish and Jewish boys ages 13-17 were brought from Birkenau to Auschwitz and killed by SS Sergeant Scherpe with phenol injections to the heart.
March 13 The first transport from Minsk in the Soviet Union arrived with 187 prisoners, numbers 107585-107771. Transports from Minsk arrived until June 1944.
March 15- The underground resistance movement smuggled a report to Krakow, that the number of people gassed of killed with phenol injections was 20,000 registered prisoners from January 15-March 15, 1943.
March 20- The first transport from Salonika Greece arrived with 2,800 Jews. After selection 417 men numbers 109371-109787, and 192 women numbers 38721-38912 were sent into the camp. The rest were gassed. From March 20-May 16, 1943, 32,141 Jews from Greece arrived in 18 different transports. Only 10,568 were sent into camp (6,422 men & 4,146 women). A total of 21,573 were gassed. The total number of deported people from Greece was 65,000. Transports arrived until August 1944.
March 22- Crematory 4 is completed and ready for use.
April 1- Block 10 is given to Dr. Clauberg to conduct sterilization experiments on women. 20 women were transferred to serve as doctors and nurses, etc.
April 4- Crematory 5 completed and ready.
May 5- 243 women prisoners in Block 10 were to be used for experiments, there were also 22 prisoners who were nurses in Block 10.
May 25- SS Dr. Josef Mengele selected 1, 035 Gypsies (507 men & 528 women) suspected to be sick with typhus and sent them to the gas chambers.
June 7- Clauberg told Himmler his method of sterilizing women without operation was nearly done. This new method would allow for several hundred to several thousand women to be sterilized a day.
June 25- Crematorium 3 (one of the 2 largest) was completed and ready for use.
June 28- A report from the chief of the SS building office to the SS economic office stated that the crematories could burn the following number of corpses in 24 hours:
- Crematory 1 [old at Auschwitz]..........340 bodies
- Crematory 2 [new at Birkenau].......1,440 bodies
- Crematory 3 [new at Birkenau].......1,440 bodies
- Crematory 4 [new at Birkenau]..........768 bodies
- Crematory 5 [new at Birkenau]..........768 bodies
- Total:..............................................4,756 bodies
July 7- Because of a Typhus epidemic, Höss closed off the Birkenau camp. SS were getting ill too, they were ordered to be isolated and each day be medically examined and deloused.
July 8- SS Lieutenant Colonel Maurer ordered 1,500 Jewish prisoners to be brought from the concentration camp at Majdanek to work in the Buna factories. The camp doctors' report revealed that:
- 49 prisoners should be sent to the camp hospital because of various inflammations, utter exhaustion and hernias.
- 277 were unfit to work due to exhaustion.
- 424could be used to work after a quarantine period of 4 weeks.
- 5 women died upon arrival.
- 2 women had bullet wounds.
- 80 women, 28 of whom were 15-17 years old, were unfit for work.
- 2 women had pneumonia.
- 44 women had severely wounded arms or legs.
- 5 women had abscesses on their skin.
- 1 woman had a severe inflammation of connective tissue.
- The 611 remaining women were suffering from scabbing.
July 13- All Jewish prisoners not from Poland and Greece were told to write letters to their families asking them for food. They were ordered to say that they were well and to give their address as Work Camp Birkenau, Post Office, New Berun.
July 16- During and inspection of the English POW camp near Liabiaz and the Jewish forced labor camp at Lawki near Wesola, Höss and members of I. G. Farben decided to build sub camps there.
July 19- A gallows made from a railroad track was built in front of the kitchen. After evening roll call 12 prisoners from the surveyors Kommando were hanged in the presence of the assembled prisoners. The 12 men were suspected of having illegal contacts with civilians, and for helping prisoners escape.
August 8- The camp Employment Dept. billed the Krupp firm the sum of 21,306 Reich marks for work done by the prisoners from July 1 - July 31.
August 21- A selection was made in the women's camp at Birkenau. 498 Jewish women were selected and killed the same day in the gas chambers. 441 of those selected were Greek Jewish prisoners.
August 29- An SS surgeon selected 4,462 male prisoners at Birkenau. They were all gassed that evening.
September 2-The Summary Court was convened in Block 11, during which 63 men & 30 women brought from Silesia were sentenced to death.
September 4- about 300 prisoners, mainly Jews, were sent to the sub camp at Libiaz, named "Janinagrube" to work in the coal mine. This was formerly a POW camp for 150 British POWs.
September 8- 5,006 Jews from the Theresienstadt camp were transported to Birkenau. There were 2,293 men and boys, numbers 146694-148986, and 2,713 women girls, numbers 58471-61183. The following day they were housed in recently completed section B 2b, which was later called the Family Camp Theresienstadt. They were treated better than the regular prisoners: they were allowed to keep their possessions, they lived together with their families, their hair was not cut, they could write to relatives every 2 weeks and could receive packages, and the children could play in the garden and received better food, at least in the beginning. The death rate was still very high, about 1,145 people died in the camp up to March 1944.
September 9- A transport by the "Einsatzkommando," special killing squads of SS who followed the regular German army into the Soviet Union, brought 459 men, numbers 149467-149925, and 753 women, numbers 61417-621696, to Birkenau.
September 16- The Political Section [Camp Gestapo] began an action to disrupt the camp resistance movement and terrorize the prisoners. They arrested and sent to Block 11 prisoners who were former Polish army officers, doctors, lawyers, artists, and political leaders suspected of establishing a secret military organization in the camp. The arrests continued until September 29. The majority of these prisoners were shot on October 11.
September 18- A woman prisoner from Katowice transport gave birth to a girl in the woman's camp at Birkenau. The baby was not killed, but officially entered into the camp register number 62695. It was tattooed in accordance with camp policy. Children who were born in the women's camp from its beginning until June 1943 were killed by phenol injections into the heart. Prior to this date newborns were drowned in a bucket of water.
October 1- A sub camp of Auschwitz was established at Brno in Czechoslovakia. 250 prisoners were transferred to Brno.
October 4- 11 boys who were born in the women's camp at Birkenau from June 27 - October 4 were registered in the men's camp, numbers 15090-1555919. They were allowed, however, to stay with their mothers.
October 7- 1200 Jewish children from a camp in Theresienstadt arrived in Birkenau; originally from the ghetto Bialystok in Poland. 53 guardian, men, women, and doctors accompanied the children. All were gassed that day,
October 8- On the eve of Yom Kippur, the SS doctors made a selection in both the men's and women's camps in Birkenau. Several thousand men and women were gassed this day.
October 10- 327 prisoners from the men's quarantine camp were selected and gassed in Birkenau. Among them were 270 Soviet POWs.
October 23- The first transport of Jews from Rome arrived. After selection, 149 men were sent into camp numbers 15491-158639, and 47 women numbers 66172-66218. The rest were gassed. Transports from Italy continued until august 1944.
October 23- 1700 Jews arrived from Bergen-Belsen. SS Sergeant Schillinger dies because of a woman distracted the guards by undressing, she grabbed his gun and shot him, the prisoners were beaten by the remaining guards, the woman was shot, and they were finally gassed.
November 1- The Auschwitz Employment Dept. billed the firm called Union 35,781 Reich marks and the I.G. Farben firm 488,949 Reich marks for work done by prisoners.
November 5- The first transport of Jews from Riga [Latvia] arrived. 120 men numbers 160702-160821, and 30 women numbers 66659-66688 were sent into camp. The rest were gassed.
November 11- SS Colonel Arthur Liebehenschel was appointed Kommandant of Auschwitz when Höss was promoted to inspector of concentration camps.
November 19- A selection was made in the women's camp. 394 Jewish women were gassed.
November 22- as recommended by the SS Economic Administration Head Office, Liebehnschel divided the Auschwitz complex into 3 sections, with 3 different Kommandants. The original Auschwitz was under Liebehenschel. Birkenau under SS Major Hartjenstein, with SS Second Lieutenant Schwarzhuber in command of the men's camp, and SS Second Lieutenant Hössler in command of the women's camp. All outside this was called Auschwitz 3 and placed under Second Lieutenant Schwartz.
November 28- 334 Soviet POWs were brought from Viljandi in Estonia. All were disabled veterans & all were gassed on December 10.
December 2- The first transport of Jews from Vienna arrived. 13 men numbers 165331-165343, and 11 women numbers 69471-69481 went into the camp. The rest were gassed. Transports from Austria arrived until September 1944.
December 10- A selection was made in the women's camp. 2,000 women ill with typhus, or supposedly infected were gassed in Birkenau.
December 14- The construction of Canada 2 in Birkenau was completed. It was located in section B 2g, across fro the shower and sauna building.
December 15- 338 men were selected from the quarantine camp in Birkenau and gassed.
December 16- The chief surgeon of the surgical ward in Auschwitz made a report that from about September 16-December 15, 1943, 106 castration operations had been performed on both men & women.
December 29 8 Gypsies, 3 men & 5 women, were brought from Germany numbers Z9006-Z9008, and Z9724-Z9728 respectively. This was the last transport of Gypsies in 1943. 5 women were brought from Katowice numbers 73978-73982. This was the last transport of women in 1943.
December 30- 4 men were brought from Katowice 3s 171349-171352. This was the last transport of men in 1943.
December- A total of 8,931 women with camp numbers died in the women's camp in Birkenau in December 1943. Of this number 4,247 died in the gas chambers.
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1944
1944 Once the Railroads were finished, Birkenau became the perfect death camp. The trains went right into the front gate
January 15- 363 men from the quarantine camp were selected by an SS doctor and gassed.
January 20- The total number of prisoners in all camps of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex including the sub camps, which was now called Auschwitz 3 was:
- Auschwitz [main camp].....18,437 prisoners
- Birkenau...........................22,061 men
- Birkenau...........................27,053 women
- Auschwitz 3......................13,288 prisoners
- Total.................................80,839 prisoners
February 2- The first transport of Jews from Trieste arrived. Only 4 men numbers 173154-173157, and 1 woman number 75045 were sent into camp. The rest were gassed. Transports from Trieste kept arriving until September 1944.
February 3- 247 Jewish prisoners were brought from the sub camp called Neu Dachs. They were all gassed.
February 12- Jews from the labor camp at Plaszow near Krakow were brought to Birkenau and after selection 260 men were registered with numbers 174000-174259. The rest were gassed.
February- SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann visited Auschwitz and Family Camp Theresiensadt in Birkenau.
March 9- After only 6 months of quarantine in the Theresienstadt Family Camp, 1,145 people died. In addition to the original number there were 3,791 Czechoslovakian Jews brought on September 8, 1943. Only 70 people were allowed to live. The rest died in the gas chambers. The seventy who were spared were doctors and twins who were being used for experiments by SS Dr. Josef Mengele. The only Jews left in that section of the camp were those who arrived on December 16 & 20, 1943.
April 5- A report sent to Himmler by the SS Economic Administration Head office stated that there were the following number of prisoners were in the Auschwitz complex:
Out of these 18,000 were sick and disabled and 15,000 were located in sub camps scattered all over Upper Silesia. In spite of the electrified barbed wire fences, watchtowers, and the inner and outer lines of bunkers, in case of danger, the precautionary measures seemed inadequate. The camp could be overwhelmed by 34,000 prisoners with a guard strength of only 2,300 SS soldiers and 130 men who were in a police company. From this report it can be assumed they were concerned about a mutiny among the prisoners and an armed uprising in the Auschwitz complex, even though they were very watchful and they continually killed prisoners suspected of conspiracy against the SS.
- Auschwitz.............16,000 prisoners
- Birkenau...............15,000 men
- Birkenau...............21,000 women
- Auschwitz 3..........15,000 prisoners
- Total.....................67,000 prisoners
April 5- A Jewish prisoner named Siegfried Lederer escaped from the Family Camp in Birkenau and made it to Czechoslovakia. As a member of the resistance movement he was able to warn the Elders of the Council in Theresienstadt about the fate of the Jews sent to Auschwitz.
April 7- Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, two Jewish prisoners escaped from Birkenau. They managed to get to Czechoslovakia and joined the partisans. Rudolf Vrba wrote a report about Auschwitz for the Papal Nuncio in Slovakia, which was received in the Vatican by the middle of June.
April 9- The first evacuation from Majdanek arrived with 2,000 prisoners. 119 were already dead because the train had been on the move for eight days with no food or water. It was originally scheduled to go to Sachsenhausen, but it was not accepted because of overcrowding there. 86 prisoners died the day after its arrival.
April 10- In order to hide their crimes the SS made crematory 1 into an air raid shelter and the Black Wall of Death in the courtyard of Block 11 was dismantled and removed.
about April 16- 6 British POWs working in the Buna works were shot. The reason given was that they were not working hard enough. The remaining British POWs left their work in protest.
April 29- SS Dr. Horst Schumann sent a report to Himmler stating that the sterilization experiments using X-rays were not as cheap, efficient, or effective as castration.
May 5- SS Captain Richard Baer becomes Kommandant of Auschwitz 1.
May 8- Kommandant Liebehenschel is transferred to Majdanek. The former commandant, Höss, returns and becomes head of the SS garrison. Höss is also given overall command of the extermination of the Hungarian Jews.
May 13-In order to disguise the actual number of prisoners registered in Auschwitz, a new numbering series is begun for Jewish prisoners. Two new series, one for men, another for women, began with A-1 and was to finish with A-200,000. Then the letter B would begin.
May 16- For the first time all prisoners in Birkenau were forced to remain in the barracks and not allowed to leave. Several freight trains had arrived on the new 3 track siding in Birkenau with the Jews from Hungary. The Jews were ordered into columns and marched directly into the gas chambers without any selection. From this date 2-5 transports were arriving each day. One transport alone had 40-50 freight cars. There were about 100 prisoners per car. The next transport did have a selection process. The trains from Hungary kept arriving until September 1944. Eichmann arrived at the time of the first transport and helped speed up the extermination process.
May 24- The resistance movement within the camp calculates that the number of Hungarian Jews killed in the gas chambers was more than 100,000 people. During the extermination of the Hungarian Jews, the SS had to stay on continuous duty for 48 hours, and only then got an 8-hour break.
May 25- Several hundred persons from an evening transport from Hungary tried to escape by hiding in the woods near the crematoria in the ditches. Hössler took charge and had all those who tried to escape shot in the floodlit area.
May- In the period between May 16 and May 31 the SS had obtained 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of Jews killed in the gas chambers.
June 15-The resistance movement in the camp stated in its report that 300,000 Hungarian Jews were brought to the camp from May 16 to June 13. They also notified its base in Krakow that the camp administration had requested evacuation of Aryan prisoners, mainly Poles and Russians, from Auschwitz.
June 24- Mala Zimetbaum, number 19880, and Edward Galinski, number 531, escaped form Birkenau. 2 weeks later they were caught and put in Block 11. In September Galinski was hanged and Mala slashed the veins in her wrists under the gallows.
June 27- 2 more Polish prisoners escaped and joined the partisans in the area.
July 2- The camp authorities decided to liquidate the Family Camp Theresienstadt in Birkenau. The number of people in the camp is estimated at over 10,000 men women and children. To try to disguise the crime, Dr. Mengele made a selection and sent 3,080 young healthy people to various camps in Germany.
July 11- The extermination of the Family Camp begins. About 3,000 women and children were taken to the gas chambers during the day. On the night of July 11 and 12, the remaining 4,000 men and women were gassed.
July 12- The number of prisoners on this day was:
These figures don't, however, include the Hungarian Jews who were not registered, or the section B 3 of Birkenau, called Mexico. They waited there to be gassed or sent into camp.
- Auschwitz.............14,386 prisoners
- Birkenau...............19,711 men
- Birkenau...............31,406 women
- Auschwitz 3..........26,705 prisoners
- Total.....................92,705 prisoners
July 28- Of the 1,000 men and women evacuated from Majdanek, because of the Russian advance, only 452 men and 156 women arrived at Auschwitz. The rest were shot during the evacuation. Majdanek was liberated by the Soviet army July 24, 1944.
August 2- The Gypsy Family Camp in Birkenau was sent to the gas chambers. A total of 2,897 men, women, and children were gassed.
Gypsy Camp Today from Remember.org
August 12- Many Polish civilians began to be transported to Auschwitz after the armed Warsaw uprising against the Nazis. The first transport contained 1,984 men and boys numbers 190912-192895, and there were also 3,175 women and girls. Later 7,936 Poles were brought in transports on September 4, 13, and 17.
August 15- The first transport from the Lodz ghetto arrived. Until this date it had been the only untouched ghetto left in Poland. 70,000 from Lodz would be gassed in Birkenau. After selection 244 men were sent into the camp, numbers B6210-B6435. The rest were gassed.
August 16- A transport of Jews from the island of Rhodes arrived. 346 men and 254 women were selected to go into the camp. The rest of the 1,202 men were gassed.
August 22- The number of prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau was 105,168 men and women, and about 30,000 Hungarian Jews who were not registered. The guard garrison was 3,250 soldiers. 70% were SS, 30% Wehrmacht- Soldiers of the regular German army.
August 30- The number of men in the Sonderkommando who worked in crematories was 874 prisoners.
September 4- The resistance movement smuggled out photographs of the open-pit burning of the bodies at Birkenau and the area where people had to undress before going into the fictional showers.
Burning Bodies at Birkenau picture from Anatomy of Auschwitz pg.354
September 5- The resistance movement forwarded information through Krakow to London that the former Kommandant Höss was studying the technicalities of liquidating Birkenau, including prisoners, buildings, and crematories, so as to not leave a trace.
September 13- An American bombing mission bombed the Buna rubber factories, and the camps too. At Auschwitz 12 SS barracks were destroyed, 15 SS men were killed, and 28 were seriously injured. The building containing the clothes workshop was also hit, killing 40 prisoners and injuring 65, 13 were trapped in the wreckage. There was also damage to the railroad siding in Birkenau. The Buna factory was only slightly damaged. The total number of injured was about 300.
September 25- After the destruction of the Hungarian Jews and the Jews from the Lodz ghetto, it was decided that the Sonderkommando who had worked burning the bodies in the ovens and during the open-pit cremations should themselves be killed in order to destroy the only witnesses who could tell what had happened. About 200 of the Sonderkommando were transferred to the main camp Auschwitz, there they were gassed in a chamber used to disinfect clothing.
September 30- After the Family camp Theresienstadt Jews in Birkenau were gassed, the first of 11 new transports from Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia arrived. A total of 2,499 were in the transport. The next 10 arrived until October 30. The total number of people exterminated amounted to 18,402 men, women, and children. Only about 15% of the people in these transports were allowed to live as workers.
September- A delegate from the international Red Cross arrived at Auschwitz. He spoke with the Kommandant in the presence of other SS officers. In his report he wrote, "They were polite but had little to say." He wasn't allowed to go inside the camp, or talk to the prisoners. He was not able to verify the rumors about the gassings.
September- A total of 6,296 prisoners, mostly Poles and Russians were deported from Auschwitz to camps in Germany this month.
October 1-The camp Kommandant of Auschwitz took charge of a new women's camp adjacent to the camp. a woman named Volkenrath was the supervisor, there were about 3, 785 women prisoners.
October 3- A total of 17,202 Jewish women from section B 3 at Birkenau (Mexico) were transferred to the women's section B 1a. The total number of women prisoners on this day was 43,462.
October 7- On Saturday morning the camp resistance movement secretly notified the leader of the Sonderkommando that the camp authorities had decided to kill the entire Sonderkommando, who had already been planning an armed revolt. The Sonderkommando Revolt ensued.
October 9- 3 Jewish women prisoners were shot for having stolen the explosives used in the revolt. The next day 2 more women were arrested in connection with the revolt.
October 10- 14 prisoners of the Sonderkommando were arrested and sent to the basement cells of Block 11. All the prisoners arrested as a result of the revolt died due to torture inflicted during the investigation by the camp Political Department. The remaining 198 members of the Sonderkommando were divided into groups of 66 men each. They were assigned to work in Crematories 2, 3, and 4.
October 27- A group of prisoners who were organizing an escape were betrayed by the driver, SS Corporal Johann Roth, and sent to the cells in Block 11. They took poison and died rather than face interrogations. 2 Austrians who cooperated in the plan were also sent to Block 11. The SS went to the village of Leki, where 2 former prisoners who had escaped in June 1944 were waiting to help the new escapees. One was shot and 4 others arrested. One did manage to escape.
October- During this month 5,065 men and 13,095 women were transferred to other camps in Germany. The personal notes of one prisoner stated that 43,635 people were killed in the gas chambers from October 6-25.
November 7- SS Major Baer of the SS garrison issued orders that all SS must be able to verify their identity because members of the Polish resistance movement had at times infiltrated the camp dressed as SS.
November 11- An Auschwitz sub camp was established in Lichtewerden in Czechoslovakia. 300 Jewish women prisoners were transferred to this sub camp.
November 25- Auschwitz 1 was now renamed simply Auschwitz. The sub camp Auschwitz 3 was renamed Monowitz and Birkenau was once again incorporated into the main camp.
November 25- Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz-Birkenau. 170 were relieved of their jobs. No records or statements remain to indicate the fate of these 170 men. 30 prisoners were left to work in Crematory 5.
December 1- A wrecking Kommando was formed to begin the destruction of Crematory 3 at Birkenau. 100 women prisoners worked dismantling it.
December 5- Another wrecking Kommando was formed and began cleaning and covering the earth with turf in the open-pit burning areas where the Hungarian Jews were cremated.
December 26- Soviet airplanes bombed targets in the vicinity of Birkenau and the SS hospital. 5 SS were killed.
December 30- After evening roll call, 5 leaders of the camp resistance movement were hanged. The 3 Austrians and 2 Poles loudly denounced the SS and fascism before they died. This was the last execution in the main camp Auschwitz.
Top ofAUSCHWITZ TIMELINE
1945
January 6- 4 Jewish women were hanged in the women's camp in Birkenau. 2 were hanged during the day and 2 during the evening roll call in full view of the assembled women prisoners. This was the last execution in the women's camp.
January 17- The last evening roll call took place. The number of prisoners was:
That evening the SS began burning the camp registers and files in the offices of the camp and hospital blocks. SS Dr. Mengele packed his materials from his research on twins and left for Berlin taking them with him. That night preparations for a general evacuation of the camps was begun.
- Auschwitz-Birkenau...................15,317 men
- and............................................16,577 women
- Monowitz(formerly a sub camp)..10,223 men
- All other sub camps.....................22,800 men
- and..............................................2,095 women
- Total..........................................67,012 prisoners
January 18- The evacuation of Auschwitz begins in the early hours of the morning. Columns of 500 women with children, broken into smaller groups, were marched out of the camp escorted by SS guards. Columns of men from Birkenau began leaving in the afternoon. The last group left the main camp after midnight. Along the routes SS guards shot those who were weak and could not continue marching. In 23 mass graves lying along the two routes 510 men and women were buried. The first columns reached Wodzislaw on January 21, with the men arriving the next day. All were loaded onto uncovered coal trucks and taken to Germany. The prisoners from Monowitz marched in columns of 1,000 to Gliwice, which was the meeting point for all the other sub camps. On January 21 trains then took them to Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen.
January 19- The sick, the weak, and the children were left at Auschwitz. A total of 4,428 women and girls and 169 boys were left in the women's camp in Birkenau. About 2,00 prisoners were left in the men's camp in Birkenau, and at the main camp Auschwitz about 1,250 prisoners remained. At the sub camp Monowitz about 850 were left behind. That day Soviet aircraft bombed the town of Oswiecim, destroying the power station. Prisoners were left with no light, no food, and no water.
January 20- SS Major Kraus received orders from SS General Schmauser at SS Headquarters in Wroclaw to kill all the remaining prisoners who could not be evacuated. The SS, who were now plundering the camp at Birkenau, led about 200 women outside the camp and shot them all to death. Just before leaving they set explosive charges and blew up Crematories 2&3.
January 23- That evening the SS set fire to a pile of corpses near crematory 5, then set fire to Canada. The barracks, loaded with the plunder of Europe's Jews, burned for several days.
January 24- SS Major Kraus arrived at the camp Kitchen with a squad of SS and personally shot 3 prisoners.
January 25- A squad of SD (Security Service) and a squad of SS arrived to kill off the remaining prisoners. As they were forming columns of prisoners they were informed that the Soviet army was so close that the SS was likely to be encircled. They left the columns of prisoners and drove away quickly.
January 26- The last SS squad blew up Crematory 5 at 1 p.m. and retreated. A battle was already in progress in the area of Oswiecim.
January 27- The first Soviet soldier appeared on the grounds of the camp hospital at Monowitz. In the afternoon Soviet Troops entered the town of Oswiecim. A small firefight took place near the foreground of the main Auschwitz camp. 2 soviet soldiers were killed in battle in front of the main gate. At 3 p.m. small groups of Soviet troops were entering the camps at Birkenau and Auschwitz. They were welcomed with joy by the liberated prisoners. Approximately 600 bodies of men and women prisoners lay on the grounds. They had died of the cold, illness, starvation, or had been shot by the SS. When the Soviet army entered the camp, there were about 1,200 prisoners at Auschwitz, 4,000 women and 1,800 men at Birkenau, about 600 left at Monowitz. Many were so sick and exhausted that they could not be saved.
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This Page by Michele Frazer. Last edited 12/05/02
All information used for this timeline found in Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz Rudolf Höss
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All information used for this timeline found in Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz Rudolf Höss