Auschwitz concentration camp

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Nazi concentration and extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II

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The main entrance to Auschwitz I

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Location	Oświęcim, German-occupied Poland
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Auschwitz concentration camp was a complex of over 40 concentration camps and extermination camps built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (Stammlager); Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a combined concentration/extermination camp; and Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp to staff an IG Farben factory. The camps were established by the SS under the direction of Heinrich Himmler, and they became a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

History

Auschwitz I was established in May 1940 in the suburbs of Oświęcim, a Polish town annexed by the Nazis. Initially, it was intended to hold Polish political prisoners, who began to arrive in June 1940. The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau went on to become a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish Question. From early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews from all over German-occupied Europe to its gas chambers. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million died. Around 90% of those killed were Jews; others deported to Auschwitz included 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and 25,000 others.

Structure

Auschwitz I served as the administrative center for the whole complex. It was here that the infamous sign "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrance. Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the largest part of the complex, was divided into more than a dozen sections separated by electrified barbed-wire fences and was the site of the main gas chambers and crematoria. Auschwitz III-Monowitz was a labor camp that provided workers for the nearby IG Farben plant, which produced synthetic rubber and fuels.

Liberation

The camp was liberated by the Red Army on 27 January 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The soldiers found about 7,000 prisoners alive in the camp. The Nazis had forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to march westward in what became known as the death marches; thousands died in the process.

Legacy

Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. The site of the camps is now a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, visited by over a million people each year. The camp's history is a stark reminder of the atrocities committed during World War II and the importance of remembering the victims of the Holocaust.

Related Pages

• Holocaust
• Final Solution
• Nazi concentration camps
• Schutzstaffel
• Heinrich Himmler
• Oświęcim
• International Holocaust Remembrance Day
• Death marches (Holocaust)