Oświęcim
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
Oś·wię·cim
A city of southern Poland west of Kraków. During World War II it was the site of the largest Nazi concentration camp. Population: 41,000.
|
|
|
Tracks Leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau |
In 2005, the UN designated this date as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. It is a recognized memorial day in Germany, the UK and elsewhere in the European Union. The date marks the 1945 liberation of the largest and most lethal of the Nazi concentration and extermination camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, by Soviet troops. Nazis had murdered some 1,500,000 people, most of whom were Jews, in this camp alone, located near Oświęcim, Poland. The camp began operation in 1940 and by 1944 more than 100,000 inmates were housed there, with the population growing constantly. Six thousand a day died in the gas chambers. Ten days before the Soviet troops reached the camp, most of the inmates were sent on a Death March. When Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, fewer than 8,000 people were left in the camp.
| Why does Anheuser-Busch keep Clydesdales as part of its image? | |
| Why is a PIN number four digits long? |
From our Archives: Today's Highlights, January 27, 2010
Oświęcim (ôshvyĕN'chēm), Ger. Auschwitz, town (1992 est. pop. 45,100), Małopolskie prov., SE Poland. It is a railway junction and industrial center producing chemicals, leather, and agricultural implements. There are coal deposits in the vicinity. In World War II the Germans organized a concentration camp system there, consisting of 3 main and 30 forced-labor camps. At the Brzezinka (Ger. Birkenau) extermination camp as many as 4,000,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were killed.
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
Read more
