Auschwitz was a Nazi camp that functioned as both a concentration camp and a killing center. The Nazis murdered about one million Jewish people in the Auschwitz camp complex, most in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In addition to being a site of mass murder and imprisonment for Jews, Auschwitz was a site of suffering and mass death for other groups of people, including Poles, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war, among others.
Post-liberation photograph showing the main entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and killing center. Beginning in spring 1942, the Nazis murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. This photograph was taken some time after Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, but the exact date is unknown.
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Prisoners carry out forced labor in the Auschwitz camp complex in German-occupied Poland, ca. 1942–1943.
Item View![Deportation of Jews from the Lodz ghetto. Poland, August 1944. [LCID: 10052]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/0ef887bb-e557-4e52-93ec-856df219ed35.jpeg "Deportation of Jews from the Lodz ghetto. Poland, August 1944. [LCID: 10052]")
Jewish prisoner Henryk Ross, who worked as an official photographer in the ghetto, secretly took this photo of Jews being deported from the Łódź ghetto to Auschwitz in August 1944.
In summer 1944, Nazi German authorities liquidated the Łódź ghetto, destroying the ghetto’s infrastructure and murdering most of its remaining inhabitants at killing centers. In June–July, the Nazis sent about 7,000 Jews to the Chełmno killing center. Then, in August, they sent about 67,000 Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. Łódź, Poland, between May and August 1944.
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Aerial view of barracks in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp taken after Soviet forces liberated the camp on January 27, 1945.
Nazi authorities at Auschwitz started constructing a second camp in October 1941 near the Polish village of Brzezinka (called Birkenau in German). It was known as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz-Birkenau was part of the larger Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Beginning in March 1942, Auschwitz-Birkenau functioned as both a concentration camp and a killing center, where the Nazis murdered Jews in gas chambers.
Item View![Auschwitz environs, summer 1944 [LCID: auc42030]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/341a5fd2-ed4d-4067-b988-f7b0fe940fdb.gif "Auschwitz environs, summer 1944 [LCID: auc42030]")
This map shows the Auschwitz camp complex in the summer of 1944.
The SS established Auschwitz in spring 1940 as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners. It was located in German-occupied Poland on the outskirts of the town of Oświęcim. Over the next several years, the camp was expanded and transformed into a sprawling camp complex. In March 1942, the SS began operating a killing center at Auschwitz where they murdered Jewish people from all over Europe.
By 1944, the Auschwitz camp complex included multiple camps that served different purposes. The largest of the Auschwitz camps included the Auschwitz main camp (Auschwitz I); Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II), which included the killing center; and Auschwitz-Monowitz (Auschwitz III). There were also numerous smaller subcamps.
At Auschwitz, the Germans killed about 1.1 million people, including approximately 1,000,000 Jews; 70,000 Poles; 21,000 Roma and Sinti; and 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war.
Item ViewMichael “Mišo” Vogel (1923–2000) was born in Czechoslovakia. In 1939, as part of the Nazi-led dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, his town became part of Slovakia. The new Slovak government collaborated with Germany. In 1942, Mišo was imprisoned in the Nováky camp and then deported to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, he was tattooed with the number “65316.” He became a prisoner of the Auschwitz main camp and had to carry out grueling forced labor. Later, he was assigned to the "Kanada" work commando. His job was helping to unload Jews and their belongings from arriving trains. Eventually, Mišo was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In fall 1944, he was sent to a series of other camps. Mišo was ultimately imprisoned at Landsberg, a subcamp of Dachau. He escaped during a bombing raid and was liberated by US forces in spring 1945.
Item ViewFritzie Weiss Fritzshall (1929?–2021) was born in the village of Kluĉárky, Czechoslovakia (today Kliucharky, Ukraine). In 1938, when Fritzie was still a child, Hungary annexed part of Czechoslovakia, including Fritzie's village. The Jewish community was subjected to Hungary's antisemitic policies and laws, but remained relatively safe until March 1944. That month, Nazi Germany invaded Hungary. German and Hungarian authorities quickly isolated, ghettoized, and deported Jews from Hungary. In April 1944, Fritzie, her mother, and two brothers were forced to move into a ghetto. From there, they were sent to Auschwitz. Her mother and brothers were murdered in the gas chambers. Fritzie was selected for forced labor after lying about her age to appear older. Eventually, she was assigned to forced labor in a factory. Fritzie was liberated from a death march in spring 1945. After the war she immigrated to the United States.
Item ViewRuth Krautwirth Meyerowitz (1929–2009) was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Her father, Isak, ran a store, and her mother, Hanna, raised Ruth and her younger brother, Wolfgang. Ruth’s family faced intensifying anti-Jewish measures after Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. Isak’s business was taken over, and Ruth’s Jewish school was later closed. In April 1943, the family was deported to Auschwitz. Ruth, Hanna, and Wolfgang were separated from Isak. At one point, Ruth became ill and barely survived being sent to a gas chamber during a selection in the camp. In November 1944, Ruth and Hanna were taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. They were housed in a tent camp for several weeks. From there, they were transferred to the Malchow subcamp, where they worked in a munitions factory. Ruth was liberated from a death march in May 1945. Ruth and Hanna reunited with Wolfgang, but Isak did not survive.
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