Surviving Auschwitz

Irene Weiss

Irene Weiss was a teenager when she was sent to Auschwitz in 1944. Part of a huge number of Hungarian Jews numbering close to 500,000 who were sent in 1944. Hungary was the last country the Germans invaded in WW 2. Irene takes Intelligent Talk into the horrific life of Auschwitz. About 1.3 million people were shipped to Auschwitz during its existence; 1.1 million died, the vast majority being Jewish (about one million). Auschwitz killed the most number of people of the 6 killing sites in Poland, the second was Treblinka. Irene was then taken to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp inside Germany ahead of the Russian liberation of Auschwitz. As we learn, Ravensbruck had a gas chamber on German soil that also killed thousands of people.

Intelligent Talk extends its thanks to the US Holocaust Museum in Washington DC for arranging the interview.