Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Reports of 'gas chambers in a wood'
OŚWIĘCIM (AUSCHWITZ), POLAND, C.1942
The Nazi German regime followed a doctrine of racial purity which characterised the 'Aryan'
Teutonic and Nordic people as superior to others. The regime targeted many groups - includ-
ing Roma (gypsies), Slavs, homosexual men, people with physical or mental disabilities, and
those who opposed Nazism for political or religious reasons. Jewish people, however, were
singled out for particular hatred, discrimination and eventually ethnic cleansing. Up to six
million people - one third of the world's Jewish population - were killed in the Nazis' death
camps, an event that has become known as the Holocaust.
The largest and most notorious location of this genocide was a complex of three main con-
centration camps and several sub-camps in the vicinity of Oświęcim (known in German as
