#RememberThis: In April 1940, Heinrich Himmler ordered the development of 22 abandoned barracks into a concentration camp in Oลwiฤcim, Poland. This camp would later become known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration and extermination camp in the Third Reich, covering about 40 square kilometers in its core area.
As the Nazis began to implement their Final Solution - the policy for the mass murder of Europeโs Jews formalized during the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942 - mass deportations of Jews to Auschwitz intensified. With the systematic extermination processes established at Auschwitz, Jewish prisoners made up about half of the camp's population.
Jews constituted 85% of all deportees to Auschwitz, totaling approximately 1.1 million individuals.
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#ISurvivedAuschwitz Holocaust survivor Andra Bucci and her family were arrested in March 1944 and arrived at Auschwitz on April 4th. Andra has many memories from Birkenau but the one she recalls clearest is watching the smoke rise from the chimney. It was always the same; it didnโt change day to night. 80 years later Andra wants younger people to #RememberThis: Learn from the generations before you and to study โ study history.
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