The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas clearly portrays the time of the massacre of the Jews in other countries but mainly Poland, whom is led by Adolf Hitler, and his Nazi governors. In 1933, when the Nazi party won power in Germany, the state decided to come up with a law against the Jews, whose aim was to systematically kill the Jews from society and drive them out of the country.
By 1942, the governors of the Nazis and Hitler himself decided to set up a simpler way of eradicating the Jew population. That idea was to set up several camps, Auschwitz I, II and III, whom the camps would only allow Jews. The main aims of the camps was designed to sort out a way to kill most of them. The ways the Jews died at the concentration camps were either gassed, diseased, shot at, or either starved to death. However, some people claimed that the Jews died naturally.
Auschwitz I was the first camp that was developed out of the other 2 camps. It was created in January the 25th, 1940 and by April 27th, 3 months later, it was decided that there should be more Auschwitz Concentration Camps in Poland. That was how they had the other 2 Auschwitz camps, Auschwitz II and III. Inside Auschwitz I, it had harsh work requests, combined with poor sustenance and sanitation, which then led to high death rates between the Jewish prisoners.
There was also a basement for some prisoners that were put inside and were not given any food or any water until they died. The basements were dark cells that only had small tiny windows and a dense door that had a lock on the outside. Prisoners that were locked up in here would end up dying because there would not be enough oxygen in the cell for them to breathe. At times, the SS would light a candle in the cell, which evaporated the oxygen quickly, thus making the prisoners die quicker. Other then dying of lack of oxygen, many prisoners were seen as hanging themselves and dislocating their shoulder joints inside the basement for hours and even days.
The execution yard in Auschwitz I, was in between Blocks 10 and 11. On September 3rd, 1941, deputy camp commandment SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritzsch made an experiment on 600 Russian Prisoners of War (POWs) and 250 ill Polish inmates by cramming them into the basement of Block 11 and gassing them with Zyklon B, an extremely dangerous cyanide-based pesticide. This type of killing was then thought as an effective way of exterminating the Jews at Auschwitz. Also, the gas chambers that operated from 1941 to 1942, wiped out 60,000 Jewish prisoners, which was then converted into an air-raid shelter for the use of the SS.
Auschwitz II, clearly known as either Birkenau or Auschwitz, was the main camp for the extermination of the prisoners. It was then built to ease the overcrowding of the main camp, Auschwitz I. After this camp was built, it was mainly used to kill the Jews, both gassing and being put in a crematorium (a place where Jews are put to be burnt or either a place for people to live in until they died of lack of oxygen). Early in 1943, there was a great increase of the gassing chamber facility, as it was seen as a good, efficient and effective way of killing the prisoners. It was then confirmed that Auschwitz became the main site of imprisonment and mass annihilation of the Jews, but also numbers of Poles and Gypsies, were mostly killed by being gassed in the gas chambers.
Auschwitz III, was the main camp for working and slavery. This camp was designed to force prisoners into labour in atrocious conditions. At random periods, a doctor from Auschwitz II would visit the work camps and pick out the weak and sick for the gas chambers of Birkenau to die.
