The Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp site was built in October 1941 to ease the congestion at Auschwitz I. It was first built to house 50,000 prisoners of war and then expanded for 150,000, but eventually it was housing 200,000 inmates.
It was first built as a labour camp where the prisoners were interned as force labourers. When Hitler decided to annihilate the Jewish people, it had also become an extermination camp, where gas chambers and crematoria were purposely built for the mass killing.
The living condition of the inmates was really subpar. The building were wooden shacks with skylight. The latrine was simply a trench with holes and the beds were just bunkers made from wooden planks.
There is no doubt the only wish of the inmates was to escape from this living hell. That is the cruelty of war. In this season of caring, let us all pray for world peace during this Christmas.
