Auschwitz-Birkenau: The Auschwitz “Hospital”
The camp authorities designated Blocks 19, 20, 21 and 28 as the "camp infirmary" for sick prisoners. Prisoners often referred to them as (waiting rooms for the crematoria.( The lack of basic medicines and medical care caused many deaths. In mid-1941, SS physicians began conducting selections among the patients. They chose the most enfeebled prisoners or those who did not seem likely to recover their health quickly, and killed them by lethal injection or in the gas chambers.
Throughout the period when the "infirmary" was in operation, SS physicians carried out various types of medical and pharmacological experiments that usually led to the death of prisoners or left them permanently injured.
Similar "hospitals" were located in other parts of Auschwitz concentration camp.
Source: The State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Reprinted with permission.
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