Because of the camps size it was separated into ten different sections, each section was divided by electrified barbed wire fences and also patrolled by SS officers and SS K-9 units. Of the ten separated sections there were individual sections for men, women, and Gypsies. Birkenau was designated as the extermination camp. Around 90% of the prisoners that died at Auschwitz died at the Birkenau camp. It was one of the central killing centers for Hitler's “Final Solution”. At first there were two farmhouses that were converted into gas chambers but proved to be inadequate for the large scale gassings the Nazis had planned to carry out. So, between March and June of 1943 four buildings were constructed. Each building consisted of a room where the prisoners were to disrobe and prepare for what they were told were “showers”, the gas chamber, and a crematorium. It was estimated that the Nazis could exterminate 1.6 million people a year with their facilities. The final gassing at Birkenau took place in November …show more content…
The majority of these sub-camps were located inside the “development zone” such as Babitz which opened in may 1942 and housed 159 men and 180 women. The women were in charge of milking cows, weeding, and spreading manure. The men were in charge of grooming horses, mowing hay, plowing, and harvesting crops. However some sub-camps were located outside of the “development zone” such as Freudenthal located more than 100 kilometers outside of the “development zone”. Freudenthal was a female camp where the prisoners worked 10 to twelve hour days completing tasks such as sewing German uniforms. A handful of the 350 imprisoned women spent their day cooking, serving officers, or cleaning the