The camp at Auschwitz (the German name of the Polish village of Oświęcim) was originally a Polish army base, and was geographically central to the occupied areas of the Third Reich, making it perfectly located to receive offensive people from both East and West. The German invaders initially used it to house Polish political prisoners and later added Russian POWs.

Auschwitz was originally developed as a "work camp" -- where the Germans would house the workers needed to manufacture the sundries of their colossal war machine. If the inmates were worked to death, so be it.

After the commencement of the Final Solution, Jews from across the Reich were sent here, from as far West as the Channel Islands. Several of the barracks at Auschwitz have been memorialized -- for the Hungarians who died at Auschwitz, for the Bohemians who died at Auschwitz, etc. These buildings were not on the tour given by Speedy Gonzalski, but in hindsight the specificity of information inside would have had no personal meaning for me and would have only brought me to saturation and overload before we reached the mind-blowing proportions of things to come.