Life After Auschwitz-- Part 2: There Were Actually Two Auschwitzes

Fromthe January 26, 2020, Chicago Tribune.

The 75th Anniversary of its Liberation

On Monday January 27, 2020-- 75 years after its liberation --  hundreds of survivors from across the world will travel to Auschwitz for official anniversary commemorations.

Auscwitz today is many things at once: an emblem of evil, a site of historical remembrance and a vast cemetery.  It is a place where Jews make pilgrimages to pay tribute to ancestors whose ashes and bones remain part of the earth.

Auscwitz is not one camp, but two:  Auscwitz I, built in an abandoned Polish military base, and Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, a much bigger complex that went up later about two miles away to expedite the Nazis' Final Solution.

Early on, Auschwitz I operated as a camp for for Polish prisoners, including Catholic priests and members of the nation's underground resistance against the German occupation.  Later in the war, Birkenau was created for the mass killing of Jews and others who were transported there from across Europe.

--GreGen