On 27 February 1942 Rudolf Höss, the architect
Karl Bischoff and Hans Kammler, head of the Central SS Buildings Office
had a meeting at which they decided to move the location of crematorium
that had been planned for Auschwitz to the new camp at Birkenau.
Birkenau emerged from the mud just under 3 kilometres
from Auschwitz main camp. In one prisoners did what they could to
survive by scheming and 'organising' additional food; in the other,
men women and children were murdered within hours of arriving.