Un pasado por siempre presente: Auschwitz

To conceal what was happening in Auswichtz and to reserve further lands for future industrial and agricultural activity, in 1940 the SS declared an area of 40 square kilometres around Auswichtz and Birkenau an Interessengebiet, or special interest zone. Most of the Poles living in the area were expelled in 1940 and 1941.
Some of the houses from which the Poles were evicted were assigned to SS personnel and their families. Some were used to house services for the SS garrison, others were dismantled.
From 1940 to 1944 the camp authorities set up various farms, factories and workshops in this area, using prisoners as slave labour.
Within the Interessengebiet, many thousands of prisioners died from beatings inflicted by SS guards and prisioner overseers (kapos), from the inhumane conditions of slave labour or were simply shot.