Oświęcim Synagogue

The Great Synagogue Memorial Park in Oświęcim is a memorial park devoted to the Great Synagogue in Oświęcim, Poland. The Synagogue was destroyed at the beginning of the Second World War.

Oświęcim (Polish: [ɔˈɕfjɛɲtɕim] ; German: Auschwitz [ˈaʊʃvɪts] ; Yiddish: אָשפּיצין, romanized: Oshpitzin) is a city in the Lesser Poland (Polish: Małopolska) province of southern Poland, situated 33 kilometres (21 mi) southeast of Katowice, near the confluence of the Vistula (Wisła) and Soła rivers. The city is known internationally for being the site of the German Nazi-built Auschwitz concentration camp (the camp is also known as KL or KZ Auschwitz Birkenau) during World War II, when Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany.

The Jewish cemetery in Oświęcim (German: Auschwitz), Poland, was destroyed by the Germans during World War II and partly restored by returning Jewish survivors after the Holocaust. In Communist Poland it fell into disrepair and was fully restored in the 1990s.

Oświęcim County (Polish: powiat oświęcimski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Oświęcim, which lies 51 kilometres (32 mi) west of the regional capital Kraków. The county contains four other towns: Kęty, 17 km (11 mi) south of Oświęcim, Brzeszcze, 9 km (6 mi) south-west of Oświęcim, Chełmek, 8 km (5 mi) north of Oświęcim, and Zator, 16 km (10 mi) east of Oświęcim. The county covers an area of 406.03 square kilometres (156.8 sq mi). As of 2006, its total population is 153,390, out of which the population of Oświęcim is 40,979, that of Kęty is 19,252, that of Brzeszcze is 11,730, that of Chełmek is 9,065, that of Zator is 3,726, and the rural population is 68,638. The county contains the sites of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex (Auschwitz being the German name for Oświęcim).

Gmina Oświęcim is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the town of Oświęcim, although the town is not part of the territory of the gmina. The gmina covers an area of 74.47 square kilometres (28.8 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 16,708.

The Duchy of Oświęcim (Polish: Księstwo Oświęcimskie), or the Duchy of Auschwitz (German: Herzogtum Auschwitz), was one of many Duchies of Silesia, formed in the aftermath of the fragmentation of Poland. It was established about 1315 on the Lesser Polish lands east of the Biała river held by the Silesian branch of the Polish royal Piast dynasty. Briefly semi-autonomous, with its capital in Oświęcim, it was finally sold to the Kingdom of Poland in 1457. Annexed by the Habsburg Empire in 1772, the remaining ducal title ceased to exist in 1918 with the lands being reincorporated into the Second Polish Republic.

Broszkowice [brɔʂkɔˈvit͡sɛ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Oświęcim, within Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north of Oświęcim and 51 km (31.7 mi) west of the regional capital Kraków. It is located on the Vistula river.

Block 10 was a barrack at the Auschwitz concentration camp where men and women were used as experimental subjects for Nazi doctors. The experiments in Block 10 ranged from testing bodily reactions to relatively benign substances and sterilization. Although Block 10 was in Auschwitz I, a part of the camp mainly used for male political prisoners, the experiments conducted were mostly on women. The main doctors who worked in Block 10 were Carl Clauberg, Horst Schumann, Eduard Wirths, Bruno Weber and August Hirt. Each of them had different methods in doing experiments on the inmates. The prisoners at Auschwitz were also deported to other sites where experimental subjects were needed. For example, twenty Jewish children were transported to the Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg where they were injected with virulent tubercular serum and subjected to other experiments, and later murdered at the Bullenhuser Damm school.

Block 11 was the name of a brick building in Auschwitz I, the Stammlager or main camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp network. This block was used for executions and torture. Between Block 10 and Block 11 stood the "Death Wall" (reconstructed after the war) where thousands of prisoners were lined up for execution by firing squad.The block contained special torture chambers in which various punishments were applied to prisoners. Some could include being locked in a dark chamber for several days or being forced to stand in one of four standing cells called "Stehzelle" in German. Punishment in these special compartments (one square metre each, with a hole 5x5 cm for breathing), consisted of confining four prisoners, who were forced by the lack of space to remain standing all night for up to twenty nights, while still being forced to work during the day.It was at Block 11 that the first attempts to kill people with Zyklon B were implemented in September 1941.

The Auschwitz cross is a cross in front of the Auschwitz concentration camp, in Oświęcim County, Poland, which was erected to commemorate the spot where 151 prisoners (including 80 Poles) were shot by Gerhard Palitzsch on 11 November, 1941.

Babice (Polish pronunciation: [baˈbit͡sɛ]) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Oświęcim, within Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland.

The Przemsza (German: Przemsa) is a river in the south of Poland, and a tributary of the Vistula. According to one view, it originates at the confluence of the Black (Polish: Czarna) Przemsza and White (Biała) Przemsza, between the towns of Mysłowice and Jaworzno. For about 24 km (15 mi) it flows southwards to its Vistula mouth at Czarnuchowice (a district of Bieruń). Another view places its beginning at the source of the Black Przemsza, giving it the length of 88 kilometers. The Przemsza is one of the most polluted rivers of Poland. It carries industrial waste from the Upper Silesia and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie Coal Basin, and its water is regarded as dead. Furthermore, due to high level of pollution, the Przemsza does not freeze over in winter. Among the towns located along the Przemsza are Dąbrowa Górnicza, Mysłowice, Jaworzno, Chełmek, and Jęzor, a district of Sosnowiec. The Przemsza has been used for water transport since the mid-18th century. By the mid-19th century, it emerged as one of the most important waterways of the region. Large flat-bottomed rowing boats, called pl:galars, were used to transport goods on the Przemsza to the Vistula. One galar took up to 70 tons of coal or stone from quarries at Jeleń or Dziećkowice. In June 1926, the Piast Mine from Lędziny began mass water transportation of its coal, using a specially constructed port, located at the village of Chełm Mały. Other mines followed Piast, opening their own loading facilities. By 1937, there were eight such facilities along the Przemsza. The government of the Second Polish Republic had far-reaching plans for the river. A river port at Niwka (a district of Sosnowiec) was to be built, a Mysłowice - Spytkowice - Kraków canal, and a waterway to the Baltic Sea. The outbreak of World War II terminated these plans. Since the 12th century, the river formed the eastern border of the Silesian Duchy of Racibórz, with Lesser Poland. From 1846 until 1918, the so-called Three Emperors' Corner at the confluence of Black and White Przemsza marked the tripoint of the Kingdom of Prussia, the Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire. Nowadays the lower Przemsza is the border between the Silesian Voivodeship in the west and the Lesser Poland Voivodeship in the east.