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Which prisoners were usually sent directly to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau?
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Auschwitz
The entrance gates to the Auschwitz concentration camp, near Kraków, Poland; the sign reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Liberates”).
At the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, newly arrived prisoners underwent a process known as Selektion to determine their fate.1
Those deemed young, able-bodied, and fit for work were typically selected for forced labour in the camp's various battalions or industrial facilities. Conversely, those considered unable to work were sent directly to the gas chambers to be murdered. This group primarily included:21
- Young children and their mothers1
- The elderly1
- The infirm1
Additionally, prisoners who were initially selected for labor but later became too exhausted, sick, or malnourished to continue working were often sent back to Birkenau to be gassed. The systematic murder of these individuals was a central component of the Nazi Holocaust and the implementation of the so-called "final solution."123