Meyer (Max) Rodriguez Garcia was born to a Jewish family in Amsterdam. Max was nearly 16 when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. He went into hiding in 1943, but was caught and deported to Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland. Later, as the Soviets advanced, Max was forced-marched towards the German interior. In May 1945, he was liberated at the Ebensee labor camp in Austria.
These maps add geographic context to Max's experience.
![Low Countries, 1933 [LCID: ben19010]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/71c17452-fad9-4730-90ad-34b692354e3f.gif "Low Countries, 1933 [LCID: ben19010]")
![Amsterdam environs, 1942 [LCID: ams49020]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/bd75f0cb-e406-466b-951b-498e1caa4818.gif "Amsterdam environs, 1942 [LCID: ams49020]")
![Amsterdam, 1942 [LCID: ams39040]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/37171a1c-981d-4e37-aa86-b367ba451a99.gif "Amsterdam, 1942 [LCID: ams39040]")
![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]")
The Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center (indicated here) played a key role in the “Final Solution,” the Nazi plan to kill the Jews of Europe. The Nazis murdered approximately one million Jews at Auschwitz, most in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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![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.
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