Auschwitz

Lawyer and writer, Dr. Heinrich Steinitz (born on August 30, 1897) was a member of the "Vereinigung sozialistischer Schriftsteller" (Association of Socialist Writers), and with great personal courage defended indicted socialists between 1934 and 1938. He was arrested as early as March 14, 1938, and subsequently interned in Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. Heinrich Steinitz was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1942.

The chemist Dr. Karl Hilferding (born on September 12, 1905) came from a Jewish socialist family of doctors. In 1924 Hilferding converted to the Catholic faith and joined Societas Verbi Divini (SVD), a missionary order in Mödling, in 1933. In 1938 he was sent by the order to the Netherlands to study theology. He died in an outside camp near Niederkirch in the district of Gross Strehlitz.

Steffi Kunke (born on December 26, 1908) and her husband Hans (born on December 12, 1906) had already been active in the Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend before 1934. After the civil war, both became members of the Central Committee of the Revolutionäre Sozialistische Jugend. They were arrested on May 20, 1938. Hans Kunke was shot to death in Buchenwald on October 31, 1940. Stefanie Kunke died on February 14, 1943, in Auschwitz.

Auschwitz Construction of the Auschwitz concentration camp began in the spring of 1940 near the Polish town of Oswiecim; from autumn 1941 onwards the second part of the camp, Auschwitz II/ Auschwitz-Birkenau was built in the area of the neighbouring village Brzezinka, and in addition Monowitz camp (Auschwitz III) and further 45 subsidiary camps were set up. The first and last commander of the camp was Rudolf Hoess. The first time hydrocyanic acid was used to kill human beings was in autumn 1941 in Block 11, Auschwitz I. By the beginning of 1942 a large number of Soviet prisoners of war had been murdered in the morgue of Crematorium I in the central camp which in January 1942 had been specially adapted for this purpose. The first Jewish "Sammeltransport" organised by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) as part of the "Final solution of the Jewish question" reached Auschwitz on March 26, 1942. From summer 1942 onwards men capable of work were chosen for work by SS doctors in the so-called "selections", and all others, especially old people and children, were taken immediately to the gas chambers. In spring and summer 1942 the murders took place in two former farmhouses called Bunker 1 and Bunker 2 in Birkenau camp. In the course of 1943 four new crematoria with gas chambers attached to them were erected in Birkenau, where according to figures calculated by the SS themselves 4,756 corpses could be burnt daily. As the front line edged closer, Himmler tried to cover up the traces of the murders. After crematorium IV had been blown up during a prisoners' rebellion on October 7, 1944, the remaining crematoria were demolished from November 1944 onwards. The majority of the prisoners who were still alive were then marched out of the camp towards the west. At the liberation on January 27, 1945, the Red Army still found 7,500 prisoners in the camp. Research in recent years arrives at a minimum figure for the victims of Auschwitz of 1,35 million Jews, 20,000 Roma and Sinti, 11,700 Soviet prisoners of war, and 83,000 others deported for political and other reasons. Jews from Austria were also among the victims. The 32nd transport from Vienna with 1,000 people on board travelled directly to Auschwitz on July 17, 1942. More than 4,100 Austrians were transferred to Auschwitz from Theresienstadt, about 500 people came by individual transports. Around 3,700 Jews were brought to Auschwitz from France, 350 from Italy and around 260 from the Netherlands. It cannot be established accurately how many Austrians were deported there from other countries, so that no total figure for the Austrian victims of Auschwitz can be given.	The three-year-old son (picture) and the wife of Alexander Rabinowicz were murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. Alexander Rabinowicz had fled to Belgium with his wife in 1938. In the summer of 1942, the family was arrested in Brussels and deported to Auschwitz. Dr. Desider Friedmann (born on November 22, 1880), lawyer and president of the Jewish community in Vienna, was transported to Dachau with other prominent persons on April 1, 1938, but released again in April 1939. On September 24, 1942 he was deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt. He died with his wife Ella in Auschwitz in October 1944. Lawyer and writer, Dr. Heinrich Steinitz (born on August 30, 1897) was a member of the "Vereinigung sozialistischer Schriftsteller" (Association of Socialist Writers), and with great personal courage defended indicted socialists between 1934 and 1938. He was arrested as early as March 14, 1938, and subsequently interned in Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps. Heinrich Steinitz was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau in October 1942. The chemist Dr. Karl Hilferding (born on September 12, 1905) came from a Jewish socialist family of doctors. In 1924 Hilferding converted to the Catholic faith and joined Societas Verbi Divini (SVD), a missionary order in Mödling, in 1933. In 1938 he was sent by the order to the Netherlands to study theology. He died in an outside camp near Niederkirch in the district of Gross Strehlitz. Steffi Kunke (born on December 26, 1908) and her husband Hans (born on December 12, 1906) had already been active in the Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend before 1934. After the civil war, both became members of the Central Committee of the Revolutionäre Sozialistische Jugend. They were arrested on May 20, 1938. Hans Kunke was shot to death in Buchenwald on October 31, 1940. Stefanie Kunke died on February 14, 1943, in Auschwitz.
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