How were the conditions in Auschwitz and Birkenau?
Auschwitz/Birkenau, Nazi Germany’s largest concentration and extermination camp facility was lo- cated nearby the provincial Polish town of Oświęcim in Galacia. Auschwitz was established by order of Reichs- führer Heinrich Himmler on 27 April 1940. The first thirty identification numbers were issued to common German criminals. They were trans- ferred from concentration camp Sachsenhausen by Commandant Höss. Bruno Brodniewitsch, who was re- ceived registration no. 1, was made the Lagerälteste – camp senior. The remaining 29 criminals became kapos. A kapo was an SS-appointed prisoner who was made foreman of a labor squad. They lived in the same barracks that also housed the political prisoners, albeit under better circumstances. The first transport of 728 Polish prisoners arriving in Auschwitz I. They were sent there by the Sicherheitspolizei – Security Police. They came from the regular prison at Tarnów where they had been incarcerated as political opponents of the Nazi regime. These in
