Auschwitz played a central role in the “Final Solution,” the Nazi plan to murder the Jews of Europe. The Nazis deported Jews from nearly every European country to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in German-occupied Poland. In all, more than 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, including approximately one million Jews.
Item View![German administration of Europe, 1942 [LCID: eur66060]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/c218682b-a43a-4136-92df-e980f2929493.gif "German administration of Europe, 1942 [LCID: eur66060]")
In 1942, Germany dominated most of Europe. Greater Germany had been enlarged at the expense of its neighbors. Austria and Luxembourg were completely incorporated. Territories from Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium, and the Baltic states were seized by Greater Germany. German military forces occupied Norway, Denmark, Belgium, northern France, Serbia, parts of northern Greece, and vast tracts of territory in eastern Europe. Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia, and Vichy France were all either allied to Germany or subject to heavy German influence. Between 1942 and 1944, German military forces extended the area under their occupation to southern France, central and northern Italy, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Item View![Major death marches from Auschwitz, January 1945 [LCID: auc72080]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/04d8c8d8-53fe-4d04-b3fb-438c2fab113b.gif "Major death marches from Auschwitz, January 1945 [LCID: auc72080]")
On January 17, 1945, the SS began evacuating the Auschwitz camp complex. The SS forced tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, on death marches. Prisoners from Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Monowitz were forced to march either northwest for 55 kilometers (approximately 30 miles) to Gliwice (Gleiwitz) or due west for 63 kilometers (approximately 35 miles) to Wodzisław Śląski (Loslau). Once they arrived in Gliwice and Wodzisław Śląski, most prisoners were put on unheated freight trains and transported to other concentration camps in Germany. There were also death marches from Auschwitz subcamps. During the marches, SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not continue. Prisoners suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure.
Item View![Major deportations to Auschwitz, 1941-1944 [LCID: auc78060]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/c9ec53c0-5a86-46de-872f-2489ebc9feda.gif "Major deportations to Auschwitz, 1941-1944 [LCID: auc78060]")
Auschwitz was a Nazi concentration camp complex located in German-occupied Poland. Unlike other Nazi concentration camps, it also included a killing center where the Nazis murdered Jews in gas chambers. In total, the Nazis deported 1.1 million Jewish people to Auschwitz from all over Europe. Most were murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival. In total, the Nazis murdered about one million Jews in Auschwitz.
Item View![Auschwitz subcamp system, Upper Silesia 1941-1944 [LCID: auc72074]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/f967b4e3-1432-4992-b14c-2edaa0ac9a95.gif "Auschwitz subcamp system, Upper Silesia 1941-1944 [LCID: auc72074]")
Between 1941 and 1944, the SS authorities at Auschwitz established almost 50 subordinate camps, also called subcamps. These subcamps varied in their design and purpose, but all supported the economic and ideological goals of the SS. At the subcamps, prisoners were forced to work in farming, animal husbandry, forestry, construction, and various industries (such as coal mining, armaments production, and chemical factories).
Item View![Auschwitz III (Monowitz) camp, 1944 [LCID: auc22120]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/78bb3b3a-955f-419b-878d-55dfc692f64f.gif "Auschwitz III (Monowitz) camp, 1944 [LCID: auc22120]")
![Auschwitz II (Birkenau) camp, summer 1944 [LCID: auc22023]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/3d7ef175-0194-4d2e-b4d2-7e9535404954.gif "Auschwitz II (Birkenau) camp, summer 1944 [LCID: auc22023]")
In October 1941, the Nazi authorities at Auschwitz began building a second camp located in the Polish village of Brzezinka (called Birkenau in German). Beginning in March 1942, Auschwitz-Birkenau functioned as both a concentration camp and a killing center, where the Nazis murdered Jews in gas chambers. From November 1943 to November 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau was designated as a separate camp and officially referred to as Auschwitz II.
Item View![Auschwitz I camp, 1944 [LCID: auc22013]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/b1e260a8-3289-49de-8cd6-dbfdd79df0b7.gif "Auschwitz I camp, 1944 [LCID: auc22013]")
Selected Features
1. Camp Commandant's House
2. Main Guard House
3. Camp Administrative Office
4. Gestapo
5. Reception Building/Prisoner Registration
6. Kitchen
7. Gas Chamber and Crematorium
8. Storage Buildings and Workshops
9. Storage of Confiscated Belongings
10. Gravel Pit: Execution Site
11. Camp Orchestra Site
12. "Black Wall" Execution Site
13. Block 11: Punishment Bunker
14. Block 10: Medical Experiments
15. Gallows
16. Block Commander's Barracks
17. SS Hospital
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 View![Europe 1943-1944, Auschwitz indicated [LCID: auc62040]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/e904823f-a280-4f5b-8914-03e1df871164.gif "Europe 1943-1944, Auschwitz indicated [LCID: auc62040]")
![Killing centers in occupied Poland, 1942 [LCID: pol72090]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/467bd15d-d804-4915-bf66-acca71f40778.gif "Killing centers in occupied Poland, 1942 [LCID: pol72090]")
Killing centers (also referred to as "extermination camps" or "death camps") were designed to carry out genocide. Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis established five killing centers in German-occupied Poland—Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau (part of the Auschwitz camp complex). Chełmno and Auschwitz were established in areas annexed to Germany in 1939. The other camps (Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka) were established in the General Government (an administrative unit of occupied Poland). Auschwitz functioned as concentration and forced-labor camps, as well as a killing center. The overwhelming majority of the victims of the killing centers were Jews. An estimated 2.7 million Jews were killed in these five killing centers as part of the "Final Solution." Other victims murdered in the killing centers included Roma (Gypsies) and Soviet prisoners of war.
On this map, the Majdanek camp is labeled as a killing center. In the past, many scholars counted the Majdanek camp (located just outside the city of Lublin) as a sixth killing center. However, based on newer research, Lublin-Majdanek is usually classified as a concentration camp. According to this research, German authorities used Majdanek primarily as a place to concentrate Jews who were being temporarily spared for use as forced laborers. Occasionally, especially after Belzec ceased operating in late 1942, Jews were sent to Majdanek as part of Operation Reinhard to undergo selection. Jews selected as unfit for labor were murdered at Lublin-Majdanek either by shooting or in the camp's gas chambers.
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