Auschwitz - Birkenau

Auschwitz I was the original camp, serving as the administrative center for the whole complex. Auschwitz II – firstly the Concentration camp, then the place of mass extermination equipped with gas chambers and crematories.

It was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps

Mass transport to Auschwitz So called: tracks of death

Yhey had to leave all their belongings: suitcases, clothes, glasses, etc

Life in the camp Waiting for the selection

Old people and children were send immediately to the gas chambers…

…and the rest

Three million people had died there: 2.5 million gassed, and 500,000 from disease and starvation

Crematorium

The last selection took place on October 30, The next month, Heinrich Himmlerordered the crematoria destroyed before the Red Army reached the camp. The gas chambers of Birkenau were blown up by the SS in January 1945 in an attempt to hide the German crimes from the advancing Soviet troops.

The SS command sent orders on January 17, 1945 calling for the execution of all prisoners remaining in the camp, but in the chaos of the Nazi retreat the order was never carried out.

On January 17, 1945, Nazi personnel started to evacuate the facility. Nearly 60,000 prisoners were forced on a death march toward a camp in Wodzisław Śląski (German: Loslau). Those too weak or sick to walk were left behind.

These remaining 7,500 prisoners were liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945