Ruth Freund Reiser was born to Jewish parents in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She was 13 years old when Germany occupied Prague in March 1939. Five years later, Ruth was deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto to Auschwitz. She was later deported to the Lenzing subcamp of Mauthausen, where she was liberated.
These maps add geographic context to Ruth's experience.
![Europe 1933, Czechoslovakia indicated [LCID: eur69310]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/df07b034-a679-4ee5-a2fb-dcc691b96bb5.gif "Europe 1933, Czechoslovakia indicated [LCID: eur69310]")
![Czechoslovakia, 1933 [LCID: cze19010]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/2416068f-a867-4705-8a7f-d0134d62ffbe.gif "Czechoslovakia, 1933 [LCID: cze19010]")
![Czechoslovakia 1933, Prague indicated [LCID: pra79020]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/eb8a4747-1edb-4529-963b-e59c4c976768.gif "Czechoslovakia 1933, Prague indicated [LCID: pra79020]")
![Europe 1933, Czechoslovakia and Theresienstadt indicated [LCID: the64010]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/fccbb368-5e2c-4f39-9411-215c7a264adb.gif "Europe 1933, Czechoslovakia and Theresienstadt indicated [LCID: the64010]")
![Theresienstadt environs, 1944 [LCID: the44030]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/4e2d423d-beba-4f48-963b-64b6cb9a2165.gif "Theresienstadt environs, 1944 [LCID: the44030]")
![Theresienstadt ghetto, summer 1944 [LCID: the54050]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/e3661557-7eed-4c96-b926-2891aa1828c0.gif "Theresienstadt ghetto, summer 1944 [LCID: the54050]")
![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![Major Nazi camps in Europe, Mauthausen indicated [LCID: mau72070]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/c74f6097-7576-440f-8a61-fd733727071d.gif "Major Nazi camps in Europe, Mauthausen indicated [LCID: mau72070]")
![Mauthausen environs, April 1945 [LCID: mau42030]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/8c60c10d-cc85-44a0-ab7b-9c5f88e3d54d.gif "Mauthausen environs, April 1945 [LCID: mau42030]")
A map of the Mauthausen concentration camp environs in April 1945.
Item View![Mauthausen subcamps, 1938-1945 [LCID: mau72050]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/05f13119-3596-4eb9-8832-c9f246fa31fc.gif "Mauthausen subcamps, 1938-1945 [LCID: mau72050]")
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.
