When everyone was dead, other Jewish prisoners were forced in to carry the bodies out for processing. Women’s long hair was combed and cut, and sent to factories for making warm socks for the Nazis. Mouths were inspected for gold teeth and extracted to make Nazi gold. Bodies were stuffed, as many as possible, into these ovens and burnt. The initially healthier prisoners were worked to death, beaten to death, starved to death, or died of untreated illnesses and injuries. They too were burnt in these ovens.

The ovens couldn’t keep up

The Nazis were killing so many people, they ordered additional ovens. By mid 1944, when it was clear that Germany was losing the war, prisoners were sent here in greater numbers and more rapidly. About 1,500 people were killed each day. The ovens couldn’t keep up, so piles and piles of bodies were burnt in open-air pits. Between 1940 and 1945, in Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, the Nazis killed about 1.3 million people. Those killed included Jews, non-Jewish Poles, Roma people (which is the preferred term to “Gypsies”), Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, disabled, Catholics and deportees from many other countries.

Today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied troops landed in Normandy, France. It was a major turning point that led to the ultimate defeat of the Nazis. We thank the brave men and women for their sacrifices. All of us must remember the six million Jews and others murdered in concentrations camps across Europe. We must also remember the many millions more around the world whose lives were destroyed by the war.

There can never be another Hitler, another Franco, another Mussolini, or Hirohito. We must fight anyone that espouses or glorifies fascism or nazism. We must never be ashamed or apologetic about our tenacity. Those monsters and their followers raped, robbed, gassed, tortured, bombed and killed millions of innocent people. – Jun 6th, 2019.

Auschwitz-Berkinau