In Auschwitz and Majdanek, selections of the new arrivals
took place when transports arrived. Around 75 per cent went straight to the
gas chamber. The others were reprieved from immediate death, and taken for work
as slave labourers. Most died from the severe conditions within months.
‘We
had to strip the shoes of the deportees with a small sharp tool. When we came
across a child’s shoe we were saddened beyond words because we knew what
happened to everyone here. But the children... it was beyond thinking of.
Victoria Vincent, Auschwitz survivor, writing
in her book ‘Beyond Imagination’.
Arriving
from Hungary at Auschwitz-Birkenau. They had been told they were to be resettled.
Children,
considered no use for labour, were selected for immediate death.
Transport
of Hungarian Jews on the ‘ramp’ at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
