Final Solution: Difference between revisions

The infamous 'Gate of Death' at [[Auschwitz II]] for the incoming freight trains was built of brick and cement mortar in 1943, and the three-track rail spur was added.<ref name=ARaw/> Until mid-August, 45,000 Thessaloniki Jews were murdered in a mere six months,{{r|PLong10}} including over 30,000 Jews from [[Sosnowiec Ghetto|Sosnowiec]] (Sosnowitz) and [[Bendzin Ghetto]]s.{{sfnp|Longerich|2010|loc=[https://books.google.ca/books?id=cxYqYIn73SgC&q=Sosnowitz p. 380: Extermination].}} The spring of 1944 marked the beginning of the last phase of the Final Solution at Birkenau. The new big ramps and sidings were constructed, and two freight elevators were installed inside Crematoria II and III for moving the bodies faster. The size of the ''[[Sonderkommando]]'' was nearly quadrupled in preparation for the Special Operation Hungary (''Sonderaktion Ungarn'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Greif |first1=Gideon |title=Im Zentrum der Endlösung -– Alltag in der Todesfabrik Auschwitz |date=2022 |publisher=Tuebingen, TOS Verlag |pages=528 |url=https://www.kulturkaufhaus.de/de/detail/ISBN-9783965890022/Greif-Gideon/Im-Zentrum-der-Endl%C3%B6sung |access-date=22 May 2022|isbn=978-3-96589-002-2}}</ref> In May 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau became the site of one of the two largest mass murder operations in modern history, after the ''[[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|Großaktion Warschau]]'' deportations of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] inmates to Treblinka in 1942. It is estimated that until July 1944 approximately 320,000 Hungarian Jews were gassed at Birkenau in less than eight weeks.<ref name=ARaw>{{cite book |title=Auschwitz: The Nazi Solution |author=Andrew Rawson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=izigBwAAQBAJ&q=%22Gate%20of%20Death%22 |publisher=Pen and Sword |year=2015 |isbn=978-1473855410 |pages=69, 87, 123 |quote=While the numbers considerably reduced through June and July [1944], nearly 440,000 Hungarian Jews were transported to Auschwitz in less than eight weeks; 320,000 were murdered. — [https://books.google.ca/books?id=9zegBwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT144#v=onepage&q=Sonderaktion%20Hungary%201944&f=false Rawson, 144.]}} ''Also in:'' {{cite web |title=The Destruction of the Jews of Hungary |year=2007 |author1=S.J. |author2=Carmelo Lisciotto |url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/DestructionofHungarianJews.html |publisher=H.E.A.R.T |quote=Of the 381,600 Jews who left Hungary between 15 May 1944 and 30 June 1944 it is probable that 200,000 – 240,000 were gassed or shot on 46 working days.}}</ref> The entire operation was [[Auschwitz Album|photographed by the SS]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hellman |first1=Peter |last2=Meier |first2=Lili |last3=Klarsfeld |first3=Serge |author-link3=Serge and Beate Klarsfeld |title=The Auschwitz Album |year=1981 |publisher=Random House |location=New York; Toronto |isbn=0-394-51932-9 |url=http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/0394519329/}}</ref> In total, between April and November 1944, Auschwitz II received over 585,000 Jews from over a dozen regions as far as Greece, Italy, and France, including 426,000 Jews from Hungary, 67,000 from [[Łódź]], 25,000 from [[Theresienstadt]], and the last 23,000 Jews from the General Government.<ref name="Anatomy">{{cite book |title=Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp |first1=Israel |last1=Gutman |first2=Michael |last2=Berenbaum |author3=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1998 |page=89 |isbn=025320884X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mub823JQrdUC&q=Arrival+Specific+Regions+November+1944 }}</ref> Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army on 27 January 1945, when the gassing had already stopped.{{sfnp|Yahil|1991|p=637}}