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Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans. It was a complex of camps, including a concentration, extermination, and forced-labor camp. It was located at the town of Oswiecim near the prewar German-Polish border in Eastern Upper Silesia, an area annexed to Germany in 1939.
It was located at the town of Oswiecim near the prewar German-Polish border in Eastern Upper Silesia, an area annexed to Germany in 1939. Auschwitz I was the main camp and the first camp established at Oswiecim. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was the killing center at Auschwitz.
The decided majority of the Jewish victims of Auschwitz came from outside Poland—from western, northern, central, and southern Europe. The first mass transport of Jews noted in the camp records brought 999 Jewish women from Slovakia on March 26, 1942.
Fifty kilometres (31 mi) southwest of Kraków, the site was first suggested in February 1940 as a quarantine camp for Polish prisoners by Arpad Wigand, the inspector of the Sicherheitspolizei (security police) and deputy of Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, the Higher SS and Police Leader for Silesia.
The SS decides to construct a concentration camp near Oswiecim (Auschwitz). May–June, 1940. The first prisoners arrive at Auschwitz. On May 20, 1940, a transport arrives of about 30 German inmates, categorized as "professional criminals." The SS had selected them from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside of Berlin.
This interactive map explores the complex and surprising evolution of Auschwitz, the scene of one of the worst crimes in human history. This was where more than a million men, women and...
An exploration of the evolution of Auschwitz and its three camps. A detailed look at archival maps, blueprints and photos of Auschwitz. A guide to Nazi concentration camps and ghettos.
