This was a work camp

This is a factual list of facilities available to prisoners  at the alleged Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

Most of these facilities can still be seen in the camp today, including the cinema, swimming pool, hospital, library and post office.

Supposedly the most dreaded of German camps, Auschwitz was repeatedly visited by Red Cross inspection teams who were allowed to speak to prisoner representatives alone, in order to hear first-hand of any mistreatment, chicanery, interruption of mail and parcel delivery, health concerns, food and ration matters etc. No such visits took place - ever! - to Soviet Gulag camps.

Auschwitz, the supposed "death camp", had many facilities amongst which were;

* A Camp diet kitchen, one of the largest service buildings in Auschwitz, with state-of-the-art cooking facilities. (This building had 12 chimneys and can be visited today...)

* The caloric content of the diet was carefully monitored by camp and Red Cross delegates. It only deteriorated in Auschwitz and other camps towards the end of the war when German railroads and the entire transport system collapsed under constant aerial attacks -

* A Camp theater, where live plays could be performed by camp inmate actors -

* Camp sculpture classes conducted for interested, talented inmates by professional sculptors

* Camp art classes for inmates

* Camp University with lectures on every topic under the sun, from health, the arts, philosophy, science, economic issues etc.

* A Camp cinema - where every week different, mainly cultural and non-political films were shown -

* A Camp Brothel, in which 12-15 women were paid between RM 2.- to RM 4.- for their services, The Women and customers were given a medical checks BEFORE each visit * A Camp library, where inmates could borrow books from Fourty -five thousand volumes available -

Top floor was a brothel - bottom was library

* Camp religious facilities made available on a rotating basis to every denomination for religious services -

* A Camp coupon incentive systemwhere through extra work inmates could obtain coupons redeemable for cake or ice cream in the Camp Cantina, which also had extra toiletries etc.

* A Camp Complaints Office, where inmates could register complaints or make suggestions. Camp Commander Hoess had a standing order that any inmate could approach him personally to register a complaint about other inmates such as "Kapos" and even guards.

* A system of strict discipline for guards and also for inmates, with severe punishment being handed out against those found guilty (for even slapping an inmate)

* An Auschwitz Maternity Ward - Over 3,000 live births were registered there, with not a single infant death while Auschwitz was in operation under German rule -

* An Auschwitz "In-Camp COURT & Jail". (!) Since the camp was a large, open facility, transgressors could be arrested, tried and jailed right in Auschwitz. (This jail was opposite the gynecological facility.)

Auschwitz issues it's own money

* Auschwitz crematoria - These structures were hastily built by inmate labor after the first typhus epidemic caused thousands of deaths. (Burial of epidemic victims had caused the ground water to be contaminated causing infections among the German staff. Amongst the victims was an early camp commandant's wife. Polish peasants from the surrounding district were also cremated here.)

* Auschwitz pregnancies took place because of the open nature of the facility.

Here was main point to Auschwitz       Jews were shipped from the Ghettos and put to work Look at the train   Auschwitz was picked because it was a railway center

Auschwitz produced synthetic rubber, medical and armament supplies   Auschwitz was the site of Germany's newest and most technologically advanced synthetic rubber plant; and Germany was the world's leader in this particular field of technology. Shortly after the war the Germans were cut off from their supply of natural rubber. In the months that followed they  set about building our own synthetic rubber plants.

Auschwitz was a major work camp that had forty different industries. The true reason for the existence of the Auschwitz camp is revealed in these little shown pictures of the industrial complex which surrounded the camp - most of it within full view of the interior of the camp itself. Right The Monowitz industrial complex, where most of Auschwitz's inmates were put to work in a variety of heavy industries, ranging from rubber manufacture, medical supplies, armaments and, as illustrated in the picture right, clothing. This photograph shows the tailor's workshop at Auschwitz 1, where prisoners would make up clothing for use by the German army.