Some research indicates the Nazis established and ran at least 52 concentration camps, ranging from collection and transit to labour and extermination camps.
The three most vicious of these camps were (in order): Treblinka (Poland), Belzec (Poland) & Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland). These rankings are determined by the approximate average number of murders per day of camp operation. This is freaking scary:
Treblinka = 1682.5 people killed each day (roughly 17 months of operation)
Belzec = 1315 people killed each day (15 months of operation)
Auschwitz-Birkenau = 850 people killed each day (58 months of operation).
Auschwitz-Birkenau has the notorious distinction of being the place where the Final Solution was acted upon most zealously (having claimed nearly 1.5 million lives). But I did not realize that Treblinka was so much more violent, nearly twice as many people were murdered on a daily basis.
Seven of the top ten most violent concentration camps were located in Poland. At Treblinka, someone was murdered every 51 seconds – 70 innocent people per hour. There are roughly 415 seats on a Boeing 747, which means the equivalent of just over 4 fully loaded jumbo jets crashed on Treblinka daily. Your average school bus holds anywhere from 60-90 people, which means the equivalent of a fully loaded school bus was exterminated each and every hour the camp was open.
The equivalent of two+ fully loaded 747s crashed on Auschwitz-Birkenau each day for 58 months. We’re talking about roughly 3500 747s or 16700 school bus loads being destroyed in less than 6 years.
February 7, 2009 at 2:41 pm |
It is VITAL that the meories of the victims, the horrific, nearly unimaginable events that took their lives, and the complete absence of humanitity on the part of the criminals who perpetuated these crimes be taught to every generation of every people of the world. Only by understanding and accepting these horrors may a recurrence of these events be averted. The pure evil that was allowed to walk the earth must always be recognized so that it may be obliterated every time it shows it putrid face among us before more innocents are robbed of their existence. This rememberance must never be allowed to fade.
February 10, 2009 at 2:50 pm |
(Please excuse my ignorance with this question).
I do believe that folk that the Nazis classed as inferior were killed in such numbers as cited above, but what has been bothering me as I read about the WW2 atrocities, is how on earth did they manage to dispose of the bodies.
A murder every 51 seconds (a staggering statistic), would surely require massive crematoria, yet the images I see online of these inhumane ovens hardly look as if they could manage an average 1,500 bodies per day.
I do know that it takes some time to cremate just one person, so I am geninely puzzled.
Any advice or links would be most appreciated.
Lest We Forget.
February 11, 2009 at 2:12 pm |
As the war in Europe was drawing to a close and it became apparent that Germany would be defeated, the Nazis scrambled to destroy the evidence of their crimes. Many of the crematoriums were blown up. The ones which remain today are the ones the Nazis didn’t have time to destroy.
However, cremation was not their preferred means of ‘disposal’. Mass graves were more common.
Having said that – the Nazis constantly struggled with the means of disposing the bodies of their victims. As sick as it sounds, they would convene conferences to deal with this issue. We should be happy they weren’t able to come up with a more efficient solution because (one could argue) the backlog in ‘corpses’ hindered the rate at which more ‘corpses’ were created.
April 6, 2009 at 8:59 pm |
The Reinhard camps were total expermination camps and until 1944 – Treblinka had the highest death toll of around 900k.
Belzec had 600k & only 2 survivors. Chelmno is where the gas vans operated & I think there were only 2 survivors. Sobibor which had the mass breakout so around 30 survived out of 250k victims. Birkeneau was the extermination facility at Auschwitz & between 1.1-1.3m Jews & around 50k Gypsies were murdered there between 1942-44.
April 6, 2009 at 9:02 pm |
The camps seems to have intense periods of extermination like Treblinka in July-August 42 where 330k Warsaw jews were murdered over 7 weeks or similarly in May-early July44 at Birkeneau when 447k Hungarian jews were deported & 80% murdered.
April 22, 2009 at 3:20 pm |
nope
April 25, 2009 at 6:29 pm |
generally they put up screens to cover the piles of bodies for those entering the camps as incinerating is not as quick as many think. i saw a picture in a history lecture the other day that id never came across before and it was an anormous pile of bodies, like literally several stories high at a camp andthe entrance had sheets tied between posts to cover up the view ofthis for the jews entering
April 28, 2009 at 3:26 pm |
dogs tast good
May 12, 2009 at 4:22 pm |
yes they do
May 12, 2009 at 4:25 pm |
ESPECIALLY POODLES
June 21, 2009 at 4:35 am |
They didn’t just gas people. They had firing squads. There was hardly any food for the Jews and other victims, so people were starving. And they had fires going in pits in which they burned bodies.
I’m not so sure if they should count on statistics, because when they change, people start disbelieving the whole thing happened. If it was 1000 or 1500 a day, is something very hard to determine.
June 22, 2009 at 6:14 am |
Some of the statistics have been changed, but it is still an extraordinary number of people who died. Some are made more clear: I read today that the Jews of Warsaw were sent to Treblinka by SS Stroop. He noted how many Jews were sent 330,000. I don’t believe any survived, so that would indicate just a portion of how many deaths there were, a staggering amount.
If you have any info. on SS man Karl Fritzsch, I would appreciate you’re sending me the link. This monster is the one who started them using Zyklon B. He was at Auschwitz-Birkenau, then Flossenburg camp, then he was sent to the front (October 43). He either died or disappeared.
June 22, 2009 at 6:15 am |
Bob Greer: don’t forget that the ones gassed first were women and children. They don’t take up as much space, and they would fit several into one crematorium. It’s horrible to think about.
July 11, 2009 at 7:22 am |
An almost forgotten camp:
Chelmno: 340,000 Jews died there.
From mid-January, 1942, until April 1943, approximately 333,000 Jews were killed, and Poles and Russians and Gyspies.
After April 1943 until it was closed in 1944, approximately 10,000 Jews were killed.
July 21, 2009 at 12:15 am |
I’m sorry, I should have written, Chelmno, 186,000 to 340,000 Jews died there. The figures are uncertain as of today.
August 2, 2009 at 8:58 am |
having now been to breendonk belgium flanders etc,the journey has been very worthwhile,i am very humbled by it all god bless all our heroes of ww1 on to 2009 kind regards colin.
August 22, 2009 at 3:45 pm |
There were no gas chambers.
6 million did NOT die.
Of all the tens of thousands of photographs taken by German soldiers during the war (and they photographed lots of executions) there is not one showing evidence of gas chambers…..not one !
The whole thing was a propaganda excersise by the Russians this was taken up eagerly by the compensation seeking whining Jews….and used to justify their vile treatment of the Palistinians
August 22, 2009 at 3:50 pm |
There were no gas chambers.
6 million did NOT die.
Of all the tens of thousands of photographs taken by German soldiers during the war (and they photographed lots of executions) there is not one showing evidence of gas chambers…..not one !
The whole thing was a propaganda excersise by the Russians this was taken up eagerly by the compensation seeking whining Jews….and used to justify their vile treatment of the Palestinians
October 30, 2009 at 2:35 pm |
they died one by one by one or sometimes a large group like a dozen of half a dozen
November 6, 2009 at 10:20 am |
i am the best you all suck