Chuna Grynbaum was born to Jewish parents in Starachowice, Poland in 1928. When he was 13 years old, Chuna was sent to forced labor at a munitions factory. In 1943, he attempted to escape with his sister, Faiga. Faiga was killed during the attempt and Chuna, struck in the head by a bullet, returned to the camp. He was deported to the Buna-Monawitz labor camp at Auschwitz and, later, to the Flossenbürg camp in Germany. Chuna was liberated at the age of 17.
These maps add geographic context to Chuna’s experience.
![Poland, 1933 [LCID: pol19010]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/76d5ee55-e22a-47e6-b0a3-6a9addda8f24.gif "Poland, 1933 [LCID: pol19010]")
![Poland 1933, Starachowice indicated [LCID: sta79020]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/246a76e2-081e-49a4-98d7-d01f9bd13798.gif "Poland 1933, Starachowice indicated [LCID: sta79020]")
![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]")
![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![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]")
![Major Nazi camps in Europe, Flossenbürg indicated [LCID: flo72080]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/1995f66f-6394-4ef5-a160-321da9a66720.gif "Major Nazi camps in Europe, Flossenbürg indicated [LCID: flo72080]")
![Flossenbürg subcamps, 1941-1945 [LCID: flo72040]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/5b01ef6a-38ec-4e34-bdda-4d492dbcff9d.gif "Flossenbürg subcamps, 1941-1945 [LCID: flo72040]")
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