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Chimneys in barracks at Auschwitz?

Kitsune

Kitsune

Location
Virginia
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She/Her
I am in no way a holocaust denier. I believe somewhere around 6 million people, mostly Jews, were systematically killed by Germany during World War II.
I believe that almost aspects of the German population was involved including the Wehrmacht . They were in no way clean.

I noticed something weird though with pictures of Auschwitz.

That is that the remains of the barracks have chimneys.
I can think of three possible reasons for this. They are not necessarily exclusive.
1. The winters are very cold and there would be no one left alive without some heat.
2. The chimneys were there for show so they looked more or less like normal barracks
3. Plans were to convert the barracks to something more convention when all the prisoners had been killed.
 
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Kitsune said:
I noticed something weird though with pictures of Auschwitz.

That is that the remains of the barracks have chimneys.
I can think of three possible reasons for this. They are not necessarily exclusive.
1. The winters are very cold and there would be no one left alive without some heat.
2. The chimneys were there for show so they looked more or less like normal barracks
3. Plans were to convert the barracks to something more convention when all the prisoners had been killed.
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I can't recall but were the Crematoriums at Auschwitz part of the Barracks buildings?
 
Kitsune said:
This is what I am talking about
(...)

There are not the same things as the crematorium or the gas chambers
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The first concentration camp Auschwitz was adapted from 20 regular military barracks after Germany and Soviets defeated polish army. Those were brick buildings and those had regular chimneys that served normally in winter-time.

The second camp, Birkenau, had various barracks, some with chimneys and some without; medical-hospital had chimney for sure. There was one barrack, if I recall, that was adapted from big horse stable that had large chimneys on both ends and "pipe" going from one to other to distribute warming.

Hope that helps. I don't know every part of every camp that is still standing, so I can't be more specific.
 
Wasn't a large part of Auschwitz a labor camp for a factory or something? I'd like to think the barracks would have chimneys for the winter so that the people being used as slave labor wouldn't freeze to death. That might just be the humanity in me hoping.
 
changeling said:
The first concentration camp Auschwitz was adapted from 20 regular military barracks after Germany and Soviets defeated polish army. Those were brick buildings and those had regular chimneys that served normally in winter-time.

The second camp, Birkenau, had various barracks, some with chimneys and some without; medical-hospital had chimney for sure. There was one barrack, if I recall, that was adapted from big horse stable that had large chimneys on both ends and "pipe" going from one to other to distribute warming.

Hope that helps. I don't know every part of every camp that is still standing, so I can't be more specific.
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It does help some actually. I mean the wooden buildings where only the chimneys and slabs remain. I thought most of the remnants of buildings I have seen have chimneys.


Edit: This helps more



King50000 said:
Wasn't a large part of Auschwitz a labor camp for a factory or something? I'd like to think the barracks would have chimneys for the winter so that the people being used as slave labor wouldn't freeze to death. That might just be the humanity in me hoping.
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Hard to know how much they really cared
 
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Kitsune said:
I believe somewhere around 6 million people, mostly Jews, were systematically killed by Germany during World War II.
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Picking of nit

Around 6 million jews, all nationalities.
6 million is ONLY the jews. About half of which in the death camps in Poland, and the majority of those killed in the camps were jews.

The systematic killing also included around 11 million others.
About half of which where Soviet civilians (excluding Soviet jews included in the 6 million figure above) and another quarter or so where Soviet POWs (including 50k Soviet jewish soldiers).
 
As I recall there was 220,000 and 1,500,000 Romani killed by the Nazis and their allies via the death camps and death squads as well.
 
Jonen C said:
Picking of nit

Around 6 million jews, all nationalities.
6 million is ONLY the jews. About half of which in the death camps in Poland, and the majority of those killed in the camps were jews.

The systematic killing also included around 11 million others.
About half of which where Soviet civilians (excluding Soviet jews included in the 6 million figure above) and another quarter or so where Soviet POWs (including 50k Soviet jewish soldiers).
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Six million is the number that stuck in my head. Those numbers are just so ungodly to be basically meaningless. Your eyes glaze over and just have trouble even seeing it. Does the eleven million count the people starved in the Soviet Union under German occupation?
 
Kitsune said:
Six million is the number that stuck in my head. Those numbers are just so ungodly to be basically meaningless. Your eyes glaze over and just have trouble even seeing it. Does the eleven million count the people starved in the Soviet Union under German occupation?
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I'm not entirely sure if the eleven million is only actively killed or what, numbers are from the wikipedia on the holocaust and details (plus sources) should be available there.

But as it's not quite 6 million non jewish soviet civilians, and another 1.8 million jewish civilians (part of the 6 million jews), plus three million soviet soldiers, I'd note it's not everyone who died as a result of the German invasion of the USSR (the figure in my head is 30 million or so, but that includes KIAs, and off the top of my head I'm not 100% it's not a total deathtoll for both sides, and it's not pertinent enough for right now to look up) but I couldn't say whether the difference is made up exclusively of people who died as a direct result of (arguably more or less legitimate if undeniably dirty) combat action in the war, or if it includes people who died as a result of deprivation but were not directly targeted by any particular extermination campaign.

But yeah the six million is a nice round number that gets repeated quite often so it's what most people will parrot when asked about the holocaust - I actually had to look up the numbers for the total myself.

Another notable number is 3 million, which is the approximate number of people killed in the extermination camps in Poland. Something like 90% of them were jews.
 
Jonen C said:
I'm not entirely sure if the eleven million is only actively killed or what, numbers are from the wikipedia on the holocaust and details (plus sources) should be available there.

But as it's not quite 6 million non jewish soviet civilians, and another 1.8 million jewish civilians (part of the 6 million jews), plus three million soviet soldiers, I'd note it's not everyone who died as a result of the German invasion of the USSR (the figure in my head is 30 million or so, but that includes KIAs, and off the top of my head I'm not 100% it's not a total deathtoll for both sides, and it's not pertinent enough for right now to look up) but I couldn't say whether the difference is made up exclusively of people who died as a direct result of (arguably more or less legitimate if undeniably dirty) combat action in the war, or if it includes people who died as a result of deprivation but were not directly targeted by any particular extermination campaign.

But yeah the six million is a nice round number that gets repeated quite often so it's what most people will parrot when asked about the holocaust - I actually had to look up the numbers for the total myself.

Another notable number is 3 million, which is the approximate number of people killed in the extermination camps in Poland. Something like 90% of them were jews.
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I think I know a fair amount about the holocaust. It is important that I don't forget because, according to my sisters, my grandfather on my mother's side was in the SS. I believe he died in a POW camp before able to be tried. I care about the casualties but I also strongly care about the why and what.
 
Kitsune said:
I think I know a fair amount about the holocaust. It is important that I don't forget because, according to my sisters, my grandfather on my mother's side was in the SS. I believe he died in a POW camp before able to be tried. I care about the casualties but I also strongly care about the why and what.
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Right. Anyway, I was about to edit my post with a shorter answer to your question which is: Not sure but I think it does, or at least part of them.

Further I believe everyone should take the time to periodically check out Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) on Twitter
 
Jonen C said:
Right. Anyway, I was about to edit my post with a shorter answer to your question which is: Not sure but I think it does, or at least part of them.

Further I believe everyone should take the time to periodically check out Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) on Twitter
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I have read various numbers as far as how many died due to Germany during World War II and I suspect it depends what you include and not include.
It is a huge number in any case and it is horrible.
 
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