Aerial view of barracks in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp taken after Soviet forces liberated the camp on January 27, 1945.
Nazi authorities at Auschwitz started constructing a second camp in October 1941 near the Polish village of Brzezinka (called Birkenau in German). It was known as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz-Birkenau was part of the larger Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Beginning in March 1942, Auschwitz-Birkenau functioned as both a concentration camp and a killing center, where the Nazis murdered Jews in gas chambers.
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