Many people believe that the industrialized scale killing of Jews, Homosexuals,Roma and others in Auschwitz started immediately when the camp had opened.
But the fact is that for the first few weeks there were only 30 prisoners. On May 20,1940 the first 30 numbers were assigned to German prisoners who had been designated as professional criminals.
They were known as “greens” after the green triangles they were required to wear on their prison clothing.
Up to the 14th of June these were the only prisoners in Auschwitz. The prisoner assigned number 31 was the first political prisoner. He was Stanisław Ryniak a Polish political prisoner who had arrived on June 14,1940 with the first mass transport to Auschwitz.
Stanislaw survived and died aged 88 on February 13, 2004.
The first gassings started at September 3, 1941.
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