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Auschwitz - Animated Map/Map

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Auschwitz deportations killing centers concentration camps

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Auschwitz

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 II (Birkenau) killing center in occupied Poland. In all, more than 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, including approximately one million Jews.

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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.
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Major death marches from Auschwitz, January 1945 [LCID: auc72080] — Item View

Major deportations to Auschwitz, 1941-1944 [LCID: auc78060] — Item View

Auschwitz subcamp system, Upper Silesia 1941-1944 [LCID: auc72074] — Item View

Auschwitz III (Monowitz) camp, 1944 [LCID: auc22120] — Item View

Auschwitz II (Birkenau) camp, summer 1944 [LCID: auc22023] — Item View

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
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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.
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Europe 1943-1944, Auschwitz indicated [LCID: auc62040] — Item View

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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