Auschwitz Krankenbrau Prisoners Hospital

When prisoners were too ill or weak they made their way or were taken to the camp “hospital”, the Krankenbrau.

More often then not prisoners who came to this place either died here of “natural causes” such as exhaustion, typhus, dysentery, were given a phenol injection in the heart, or were taken to the gas.

“This was where he spent all his free time; here, in this man-made hell, the fiendish physician of Auschwitz made me cut open the bodies of hundreds of freshly murdered people, whose flesh was also used for the cultivation of bacteria in an electric incubator. Obsessed with the belief that he had been chosen to discover the cause of multiple births, here, within these bloodstained walls, Dr. Mengele sat hunched for hours at a time over his microscopes.”
― Miklós Nyiszli, Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account

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Auschwitz Krankenbrau Prisoners Hospital – 1 video

“The Auschwitz praxis was based on a new principle: for one portion of mankind, existence itself is a crime, punishable by humiliation, torture, and death.” Emil Fackenheim

Emil Fackenheim (1916–2003) was a prominent German-born Canadian philosopher and Reform rabbi, known for his extensive work on post-Holocaust Jewish theology. He served as a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and was a key figure in shaping the Jewish intellectual response to the Holocaust.

The Waiting Room to the Gas* – The Krankenbrau (Prisoner’s Hospital)

Water Color: Jerzy Potrzebowski

Reproduction courtesy of Auschwitz Museum Archive, 1980

Prisoners came to the hospital seeking, if nothing else, a brief respite from the killing work.

*Gawalewicz, A. (2000) Reflections From The Waiting Room to the Gas, Oswiecim: State Museum at Auschwitz.

*Gawalewicz, A. (2000) Refleksje z poczekalni do Gazu, Oswiecim: Panstwowe Auschwitz-Birkenau.

All photos and videos are Copyright Alan Jacobs and Remember.org.

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