Arbeit Macht Frei: "Work Sets You Free" Quiz

Answer: 1940

Auschwitz was originally built to hold Polish political prisoners, the first of whom arrived at the camp on June 14th, 1940. The first mass extermination occurred in September 1941 as an 'experiment'.

Answer: 45

The Auschwitz group of camps grew rapidly from 1941 on. Trzebinia, Blechhammer, Jaworzno, Myslowice and Jawiszowice were among the places where the satellite camps were built.

Answer: immediate death in the gas chambers

Those sent to stand on the right were deemed fit to work and were admitted into the camp, but those sent to stand on the left weren't so lucky. They were the ones who'd been selected for immediate death in the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower facilities, so victims wouldn't suspect what was coming. This group usually included all the children (and sometimes their mothers), all the elderly, visibly pregnant women and those with physical and mental disabilities.

For those who were deemed fit to work, one of their many jobs would be to sort through the clothing of those who were killed.

Answer: summer 4:30am/winter 5:30am

Depending on the time of year, a prisoner's day would begin at either 4:30am or 5:30am. The day began with roll call. Even in summer, the weather at that time of day was very cold and you'd have to stand outside until the SS officers arrived around 7am. Prisoners were counted over and over again and even the bodies of prisoners who had died over night had to be presented for inspection.

After roll call, you'd walk to your place of work, which was usually outside at either a gravel pit, lumberyard or construction site, and spend the next twelve hours working non-stop. Even on Sundays there was no rest. This was the day when prisoners cleaned their barracks, took their weekly shower and wrote letters to their families.

There was a second roll call in the evenings. Regardless of weather conditions, if any prisoners were missing, you'd have to stay outside until the missing prisoners were found. Sometimes this could take hours. After roll call, depending on what had happened during the day, various punishments would be carried out. Prisoners would then receive their bread and water rations before going to bed.

Answer: 144

One hundred and forty-four people are known to have successfully escaped Auschwitz. In one of the most ingenious escapes four prisoners managed to get hold of SS uniforms. They found an SS car with the keys in the ignition, got in, drove to the main gate, where they were saluted and waved through. Several miles from the camp they ditched the car and were never recaptured.

For those who did escape, guards would randomly select ten people from the escaped prisoner's block and leave them to starve to death.

Answer: Otto Frank

Otto Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on May 12th, 1889, and was the father of famous diarist, Anne Frank. After the Nazis rose to power, the Franks fled Germany and moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands. On July 5th, 1942, Anne's sister, Margot, received call-up papers for a German work camp. The following day, the Franks went into hiding. Two years later, on August 4th, 1944, their hiding place was discovered and the Franks, along with others who'd also been in hiding, were arrested. They were all sent to the Westerbork transit camp before eventually going to Auschwitz. Otto's wife, Edith, died in Auschwitz from starvation on January 6th, 1945. By this time, Anne and Margot had been sent to another camp, Bergen-Belsen, where they died from typhus sometime in either February or March 1945 (the dates of their deaths were never recorded).

Ilona Karfunkel Kalman was born on May 12th, 1906. She was gassed upon arrival at Auschwitz in June 1944, aged 38.

Hilde Verdona-Sluiver was born on November 11th, 1909. She was gassed at Auschwitz on February 11th, 1944, aged 34.

Bertha Alder was born on June 20th, 1928. She was gassed at Auschwitz on May 19th, 1944, aged 15.

Answer: All of them

People were targeted for various reasons including political beliefs, sexuality and religion. Among those who died at Auschwitz are an estimated 21,000 gypsies, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, about 150,000 (non-Jewish) Poles and 960,000 Jews.

Answer: Hydrogen cyanide in the form of Zyklon-B

Zyklon-B was a cyanide-based pesticide. Prisoners selected for death had to undress and hand over all their valuables before being herded into the gas chambers, which were often disguised as showering facilities. Once the chambers were full, the doors were closed and Zyklon-B pellets were dropped in. Exposed to the air, the pellets became a lethal gas once the temperature reached about 25.5C (78 F).

As the prisoners were packed together very tightly this happened fairly quickly and the prisoners were usually dead within twenty minutes.

Answer: 1.1 million

It's difficult to know exactly how many died because many prisoners were never registered. The earliest estimate put the death toll as high as four million, but it's probably more likely the death toll was much lower, around 1.1 million.

The original, very high figure of 4 million killed was arrived at by Soviet investigators in 1945. They made two errors. Firstly, they assumed that the gas chambers and the crematoria had been in almost constant use (allowing only the minimum down time for maintenance and to prevent the installations from seizing up); secondly, they mistakenly assumed that a very large number of Soviet prisoners of war had been killed there. This figure was disputed by the Polish government from the outset, but they didn't want to have a major disagreement with the Soviet Union about it.

Since about 1989 the generally accepted estimate has been about 1.1 to 1.15 million.

Answer: January 27th, 1945

When Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz on January 27th, 1945, only 7,500 prisoners were still alive in the camps on the main site. Thousands of other prisoners had been taken on death marches as the Soviet forces approached.