by Hermann » Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:31 pm
In all, 1.1 million people died during the four and a half years of Auschwitz's existence; one million of them were Jewish men, women and children.
Other groups of people who died included Polish political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsy families, homosexuals, people with disabilities and prisoners of conscience or religious faith (including several hundred Jehovah's Witnesses).
More people died in Auschwitz than the British and American losses of World War Two combined.
How many died of natural causes as opposed to those who were gassed and beaten to death over those 4 years cannot be accurately assessed, but the camp accommodated a sizeable proportion of elderly Jewish people who could never have survived the harsh regime of this Nazi death camp.
Thousands also died of suffocation in transit to the camp as they were all packed tightly into railway trucks and had no food or water and very little air.