The Auschwitz camp complex was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime. Auschwitz consisted of three main camps, including a killing center. Individuals not sent directly to the gas chambers were sentenced to forced labor. More than 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including approximately one million Jews.
Main entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. This photograph was taken some time after the liberation of the camp in January 1945. Poland, date uncertain.
Item View![View of Auschwitz-Birkenau under a blanket of snow immediately after the liberation. [LCID: 58406]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/70e4a693-9692-4141-8414-a8f11c0c9e15.jpeg "View of Auschwitz-Birkenau under a blanket of snow immediately after the liberation. [LCID: 58406]")
View of Auschwitz-Birkenau under a blanket of snow immediately after the liberation. Auschwitz, Poland, January 1945.
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View of a section of barbed-wire fence and barracks at the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945. This photo was taken by Stanisław Mucha, a Polish photographer, after the camp was liberated.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz main camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Auschwitz-Monowitz. They found approximately 7,000 prisoners who had been left behind when the SS abandoned the camps and evacuated the prisoners on death marches.
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Soon after liberation, a Soviet physician examines Auschwitz camp survivors. Poland, February 18, 1945.
This photograph is a still image from Soviet film of the liberation of Auschwitz.
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Hair of women prisoners, prepared for shipment to Germany, found at the liberation of Auschwitz. Poland, 1945.
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Suitcases that belonged to people deported to the Auschwitz camp. This photograph was taken after Soviet forces liberated the camp. Auschwitz, Poland, after January 1945.
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Soon after liberation, an emaciated child survivor is carried out of camp barracks by Soviet first-aid workers. Auschwitz, Poland, after January 27, 1945.
This photograph is a still image from Soviet film of the liberation of Auschwitz.
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Child survivors of the Auschwitz camp walk out of a barrack. This photograph was taken shortly after Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27, 1945.
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Jewish women and children who have been selected for death at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center walk toward the gas chambers. This photograph is one of many taken in late spring/summer 1944 as SS photographers documented the arrival, selection, and registration of transports of Jews from Hungary at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
This photograph is from the Auschwitz Album (also called the “Lili Jacob Album,” after the Holocaust survivor who found it).
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A photograph of Jews from Hungary who have just arrived at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in 1944. They are standing in two lines in an area of Birkenau known as "the ramp," about to undergo the selection process. Women, teenage girls, and young children are in one line. In the other line are men and teenage boys. In the background, the main gate to Auschwitz-Birkenau is visible.
This photograph is from the Auschwitz Album (also called the “Lili Jacob Album,” after the Holocaust survivor who found it).
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The Black Wall, between Block 10 (left) and Block 11 (right) in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where executions of inmates took place. Poland, date unknown.
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Prisoners at forced labor in the Siemens factory. Auschwitz camp, Poland, 1940–44.
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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.
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Aerial photograph of Auschwitz-Birkenau taken by Allied planes on August 25, 1944, during a reconnaissance mission. Decades after World War II, this and other images taken that day were rediscovered in American records. The English language labels were added in the 1970s.
This image shows two of the gas chamber and crematorium complexes at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. Specifically, it shows crematorium II and crematorium III, both of which had underground gas chambers and above ground crematoria. The Nazis started murdering Jewish people in these gas chambers in 1943. They dismantled and demolished them in the winter of 1944–1945.
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