I have a couple of questions on the subject of the camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. What I would like to know is, what is the difference between Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau?
I know from what I have heard that they are both of the same camp(Auschwitz), but what are the differences?
I know that this is a sencitive subject and I am sorry if I offened anyone by asking these questions.
Thank you

http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/h/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp

The Auschwitz complex of camps encompassed a large industrial area rich in natural resources. There were 48 camps in all. The three main camps were Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and a work camp called Auschwitz III-Monowitz, or the Buna. Auschwitz I served as the administrative center, and was the site of the deaths of roughly 70,000 people, mostly ethnic Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. Auschwitz II was an extermination camp or Vernichtungslager, the site of the deaths of at least 960,000 Jews, 75,000 Poles, and some 19,000 Roma (Gypsies). From spring 1942 until the fall of 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over Nazi-occupied Europe. Auschwitz III-Monowitz served as a labor camp for the Buna-Werke factory of the IG Farben concern. - Wikipedia

http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/. The following is directly quoted from the Auschwitz Museum homepage.

"Division of the camp
The first and oldest was the so-called "main camp," later also known as "Auschwitz I" (the number of prisoners fluctuated around 15,000, sometimes rising above 20,000), which was established on the grounds and in the buildings of prewar Polish barracks;

The second part was the Birkenau camp (which held over 90,000 prisoners in 1944), also known as "Auschwitz II" This was the largest part of the Auschwitz complex. The Nazis began building it in 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, three kilometers from Oswiecim. The Polish civilian population was evicted and their houses confiscated and demolished. The greater part of the apparatus of mass extermination was built in Birkenau and the majority of the victims were murdered here;

More than 40 sub-camps, exploiting the prisoners as slave laborers, were founded, mainly at various sorts of German industrial plants and farms, between 1942 and 1944. The largest of them was called Buna (Monowitz, with ten thousand prisoners) and was opened by the camp administration in 1942 on the grounds of the Buna-Werke synthetic rubber and fuel plant six kilometers from the Auschwitz camp. On November 1943, the Buna sub-camp became the seat of the commandant of the third part of the camp, Auschwitz III, to which some other Auschwitz sub-camps were subordinated."


Hope that helps clear it up a little. Also "Kanada" was located in Auschwitz II.


Herky