"On Auschwitz" (4): Transformation of Auschwitz concentration camp into an extermination center

In planning the construction of Auschwitz, the Germans assumed
that the camp would eventually hold some 30,000 prisoners. As
late as the beginning of 1941, there were no indications that,
over the next few months, both the plans for employment and the
number of prisoners, as well as the function of the camp itself,
would change dramatically. In this podcast we talk about the role
played by the German chemical company IG Farbenindustrie in the
expansion of the camp, why the Auschwitz II-Birkenau and
Auschwitz III-Monowitz camps were established and why the
expanding Auschwitz concentration camp also became an
extermination camp for Jews in March 1942.