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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II
- A Crime without Punishment: The Extermination of Polish Children during the Period of German Occupation from 1939 to 1945
- Polish Children and Youth in Auschwitz
- Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination
- When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943
- Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp (in Selected Archive Files and Personal Accounts)
- The German Camp for Juvenile Poles in Łódź at Przemysłowa Street
- The Role of Gaukinderheim Kalisch in Germanization during World War II
- The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
- Children’s Experiences in the German Displacement and Forced Labor Camp in Potulice and Smukała – Memories of Female Prisoners
- The Fate of the Children of Białystok under Soviet and German Totalitarianism during World War II
- Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation of 1939–1945
- The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950
- The Returns of Polish Children from German Lands and Scouting Activity at the Transitional Center in Munich. The Polish West State Banner Established by Władysław Śmiałek and Its Role in Simplifying the Fate of Polish War Orphans
Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- The German Policy of Extermination and Germanization of Polish Children during World War II
- A Crime without Punishment: The Extermination of Polish Children during the Period of German Occupation from 1939 to 1945
- Polish Children and Youth in Auschwitz
- Suffering of Children in Auschwitz – Biological and Mental Extermination
- When There Were No More Tears Left to Cry: The Tragic Fate of the Polish Children Displaced from the Zamość Region in 1942–1943
- Children of the Zamość Region in the Majdanek Camp (in Selected Archive Files and Personal Accounts)
- The German Camp for Juvenile Poles in Łódź at Przemysłowa Street
- The Role of Gaukinderheim Kalisch in Germanization during World War II
- The Germanization of Polish Children and Youth in Gdańsk Pomerania and the Role of the Stutthof Concentration Camp
- Children’s Experiences in the German Displacement and Forced Labor Camp in Potulice and Smukała – Memories of Female Prisoners
- The Fate of the Children of Białystok under Soviet and German Totalitarianism during World War II
- Extermination of Juvenile Scouts in the Lands of Poland during the German Occupation of 1939–1945
- The Fate of Polish Children in Allied-occupied Germany in the Years 1945–1950
- The Returns of Polish Children from German Lands and Scouting Activity at the Transitional Center in Munich. The Polish West State Banner Established by Władysław Śmiałek and Its Role in Simplifying the Fate of Polish War Orphans
Summary
Abstract: This article addresses the biological and mental extermination of children at the KL Auschwitz camp. Physical extermination was executed through starvation, poor sanitary conditions, and the spread of diseases, the inability to meet basic biological needs, the elimination of children in gas chambers and by burning them on bonfires, beatings, the murder of newborns, or Doctor Mengele's pseudo-scientific experiments. In accounts by prisoners and witnesses, the extermination camp is depicted as a well-organised system of mental abuse of children. The article presents the way young prisoners functioned in inhumane living conditions dominated by ruthlessness, death, and fear, where meeting their basic needs was made impossible, where they were deprived of humanity, but also, how they learned to survive within the camp reality.
Keywords: Auschwitz, children, extermination camp, physical and mental suffering
The scale and enormity of suffering endured by children during World War II cannot be described in words, but as long we continue to speak of it – including those of us who were born many years after the war and know this subject only from written records, books, and camp memories we preserve the memory of those who deserve to be commemorated forever. The suffering of children in KL Auschwitz consisted of enormous physical and emotional extermination.
The largest concentration camp established within Polish territory, KL Auschwitz, was designed for inmates from southern Poland and Silesia. The parent camp, along with two camp complexes, Birkenau and Monowitz, which were established after the population of villages adjacent to the town of Auschwitz was displaced, constituted the largest German/Nazi death camp, witnessing the extermination of 4 million people from all over Europe under German occupation, including children (Boczek, Boczek, Wilczur, 1979, p. 57). Construction of the Auschwitz camp was commenced at the turn of April and May of 1940 and as early as on June 14th 1940, the first transport of 700 inmates, including a number of young Poles, but no children under the age of 14, reached Auschwitz. On March 1st 1941, Heinrich Himmler visited Auschwitz for the first time and ordered the expansion of the parent camp.
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- Information
- Crime without PunishmentThe Extermination and Suffering of Polish Children during the German Occupation 1939–1945, pp. 71 - 98Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2022