What was Auschwitz?
Auschwitz, located in Oswięcim, outside of Cracow, Poland, has become a symbol of the Holocaust. One of the main reasons that Nazi Germany established the camp there was because it was a central intersection of roads and railways. Before the Second World War, Jews living in Oswięcim, who were often artisans or merchants, constituted approximately half of this small town’s population. After the Holocaust, it may be argued that Oswięcim will forever be overshadowed by Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Not only has Auschwitz become a symbol of the Holocaust due to its geographical size, but also because Jews were sent there from all over Europe to undergo selection and to be systematically murdered in gas chambers. In addition, we have many detailed testimonies of Holocaust survivors who survived the camp. We say and write “Auschwitz,” but we actually mean a torture center, a terror that we cannot possibly conceive, the essence of e
