Auschwitz

Some 20% of post-war Polish territory is made up of former German lands; hence, some 20% of today’s Polish towns and cities once bore German names. All place names have long since been Polonized – all, except for one town, which displays bilingual entry signs: Auschwitz. Ethnically speaking, Oswiecim was never German. So why would the fiercely nationalistic Poles retain the Germanized name? Because it is big business. For the world at large, Auschwitz is synonymous with the Holocaust, and it represents the pinnacle of Nazi evil. Yet here we do not focus on the symbol which Auschwitz has become, but on the Auschwitz camp and its numerous satellite camps, such as Birkenau, Monowitz, Harmense, Raisko, etc.

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