From Auschwitz.org:
The German concentration camp (Konzentrationslager – KL) Auschwitz, was set up in the spring of 1940. Initially, its main purpose was to hold Polish prisoners, but with time other national groups were sent there, too. From the spring of 1942 Jews predominated among the inmates. Two years later, by August 1944, Auschwitz had expanded to its maximum size, including three basic camps – the main camp, Birkenau and Monowitz – as well as almost 40 sub-camps, with over 105,000 registered prisoners, mostly Jews, and around 30,000 unregistered Jewish inmates of so-called transit camps.EVACUATION AND LIQUIDATION OF THE CAMP
From 1942 the Auschwitz camp complex, and Birkenau in particular, served also as a centre for the industrial scale murder of Jews, destinated by the German authorities to be annihilated for racial reasons. Jews deported to Auschwitz from various European countries underwent selection, afterwards the vast majority of them were sent to the gas chambers. In 1944, the mass extermination of Jews in Auschwitz reached its apex. In that time over 600,000 Jews were deported from Hungary and Poland and predominantly murdered.
The mass slaughter also made Auschwitz the major centre of mass plunder. Before deportation, Jews were told they were going to be resettled and therefore allowed to take luggage. But on arrival in Birkenau they had to leave their baggage on the railway ramp and left all their clothes in the undressing room before entering the gas chamber. Their belongings were sorted and stored in the camp warehouses called ‘Canada’ to be sent afterwards to various German institutions and other organisations.
In the second half of 1944, due to the Red Army successes and the advancing Eastern Front, the SS authorities in Auschwitz decided to evacuate some 65,000 prisoners to camps in the German Reich interior. At the same time, they began to destroy the evidence of the crimes committed in the camp. Documents, mainly personal files, and prisoner lists were burned.
The pits containing human ashes were covered up and the crematorium IV building, already damaged during the Sonderkommando revolt, was now dismantled. Preparations were made to blow up the other crematoria buildings. First, the gas chamber, furnace installations and equipment from crematoria II and III were dismantled. Some of the parts thereof were sent to the interior of the German Reich. Crematorium V, on the other hand, remained active, burning the bodies of dead prisoners up until the second half of January 1945.
Building materials as well as the looted property of Jews murdered in the gas chambers and stored in the ‘Canada’ warehouses were now also transported to the west. However, due to great haste and speed, the Soviet offensive advanced in January 1945 with, the Germans did not manage to erase all the evidence of their crimes or ship out all the plundered property....
In the final days around 9,000 prisoners remained in the Auschwitz camp complex. Most of these inmates were sick or physically wasted. Many were convinced that the Germans intended to murder them. It is not entirely known whether such an order was issued, but it is a fact that in Birkenau the SS carried out a mass execution of in total around 300 Jews and several Soviet prisoners of war. Moreover, the SS massacred approximately 400 Jewish prisoners in the sub-camps of Blechhammer, Fürstengrube, Gleiwitz IV and Tschechowitz-Vacuum by shooting or burning them alive. Nevertheless, most of the prisoners left behind in the camps survived. This was most probably due to slackened discipline and haste among the SS, eager to leave Auschwitz as fast as possible.
The SS guards left their permanent posts in the camp on 20 or 21 January. From then on, the SS only conducted patrols. Moreover, retreating Wehrmacht soldiers passed through the camp, often plundering the warehouses there. On 20 January, soon after the evacuation, the remaining SS functionaries blew up crematoria and gas chambers II and III. The next day, no longer able to ship out all the looted belongings, they set fire to the ‘Canada’ warehouses in Birkenau. The blaze lasted a few says and destroyed virtually all the belongings. On 26 January, the SS finally blew up the crematorium V building.....
On 12 January 1945, the Red Army launched its offensive across the central Vistula region with the objective of reaching the river Oder and establishing bridgeheads to next attack Berlin. In southern Poland, the brunt of the fighting was conducted by units of the 1st Ukrainian Front, with the main objective to capture the industrial region of Upper Silesia. But in their combat operations communications and reports there is no evidence that liberating Auschwitz was a priority. The documents do not mention the concentration camp at all. Instead there is only the name of the village, Brzezinka (Birkenau), whereas the main camp is simply referred to as ‘Barracks’. Apart from that, also mentioned were directions of attack and the names of successive places Red Army troops had captured or were to capture on the way to Silesia. One might thus assume the Soviet frontline commanders did not know about the concentration camp’s existence. Therefore, when they saw it and especially the people they liberated, it must have come as a great shock.
Combat operations around the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and surrounding areas including the Auschwitz camp complex were conducted by the 100th and 322nd Rifle Divisions of the 60th Army. On 27 January, before noon, soldiers of the 100th Rifle Division entered the Monowitz camp, abandoned by the Germans by then. This was around five kilometres to the east of Oświęcim. Then at around noon they took the centre of Oświęcim town, without encountering too much resistance. The resistance was stronger around the railway station and the Birkenau camp, three kilometres to the west of Oświęcim. Soviet troops finally broke through German defence lines and took Birkenau at around 15.30. After a short stay on the site, they continued to advance westwards. That same day troops of the 322nd Rifle Division, operating on the left flank of the 100th Rifle Division, crossed the Soła river. After combating the Germans, at around 15.00 they liberated the northern part of the main camp, and two hours later also its southern part. In the same day, they continued their advance in a south-westerly direction. 231 Red Army soldiers lost their lives in fighting around the Auschwitz camp complex, the town of Oświęcim and surrounding villages....
THE FIRST DOCUMENTATION OF THE CRIMES
INFORMING ABOUT THE FATE OF FORMER PRISONERS
THE RETURNS OF LIBERATED PRISONERS TO THEIR HOMES
THE SOVIET COMMISSION INVESTIGATING GERMAN CRIMES IN AUSCHWITZ
POLISH COMMISSIONS INVESTIGATING GERMAN CRIMES IN THE FORMER AUSCHWITZ CAMP
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