Sophie Weisz was 13 years old when Hungary annexed the region where she lived in Romania in 1940. By mid-1941, Hungary had joined the German forces. Sophie and her Jewish family were forced into the Oradea ghetto in May 1944, and from there deported to Auschwitz. She was later deported to the Stutthof camp for forced labor. Sophie and her sister escaped while on a forced march in February 1945.
These maps add geographic context to Sophie's experience.
![Romania, 1933 [LCID: rom19010]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a6a3f91d-c2c6-4f48-8b51-1802dc9d8030.gif "Romania, 1933 [LCID: rom19010]")
![Romania 1933, Oradea indicated [LCID: ord79020]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/0be183a8-ad77-4b01-bbd1-54f651cd1fa0.gif "Romania 1933, Oradea indicated [LCID: ord79020]")
![Hungarian expansion [LCID: hun71060]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/0778b129-6719-4bad-b8d2-382e0da3bd75.gif "Hungarian expansion [LCID: hun71060]")
![Romania, 1941 [LCID: rom69170]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/e68695c3-c5a0-437e-b91a-c5efd0e927d7.gif "Romania, 1941 [LCID: rom69170]")
![Ghettos in occupied Hungary, 1944 [LCID: hun74020]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/af7f58ba-8313-4127-90b3-bd3f1f9aa7ec.gif "Ghettos in occupied Hungary, 1944 [LCID: hun74020]")
![Deportations from Hungarian ghettos to Auschwitz [LCID: hun78120]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/958f0ea1-9e02-4f13-a598-2f8137398d8a.gif "Deportations from Hungarian ghettos to Auschwitz [LCID: hun78120]")
![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, Stutthof indicated [LCID: stu72080]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/5d4f90d8-be48-4c00-839e-f831a4483cd3.gif "Major Nazi camps in Europe, Stutthof indicated [LCID: stu72080]")
![Stutthof environs, 1944 [LCID: stu42060]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/8b5c5cad-69a9-4938-87f9-4a6d4cce88f1.gif "Stutthof environs, 1944 [LCID: stu42060]")
![Stutthof concentration camp, fall 1944 [LCID: stu22031]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/2fcbec13-e2a1-442f-8296-dc9809fa960a.gif "Stutthof concentration camp, fall 1944 [LCID: stu22031]")
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