2. Liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration The 70th Anniversary of the Camp January 27, 2015

3. Deportees
From 1940 to 1945, the Nazis deported over a million Jews, almost 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma (gypsies), 15,000 Soviet POWs, and over 10,000 prisoners of other nationalities to Auschwitz.
The overwhelming majority of them died in the camp.

4. Train tracks that led to Auschwitz

5. About 7,000 prisoners awaited liberation in the Auschwitz - Birkenau
Arbeit Macht Frei (Work makes Free) – the famous entrance gate to the Auschwitz camp the photography was done by Pieter Pluijgers

6. Death March
Prisoners capable of marching were evacuated from Auschwitz from Jan (56,000)
Escorted by heavily armed SS guards. Many prisoners lost their lives during this tragic evacuation, known as the "Death March."
Those who collapsed or fell behind were shot. In all, some 15,000 died on the death march.
Jan Hartman's painting of a death march he was on from Auschwitz to Bielsko

7. Soviet Liberation
On January 27, 1945, soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front, under the command of Field Marshall Ivan Konev, reached Oświęcim.
Over 230 Soviet soldiers fell during the fighting to liberate the city and nearby areas.

8. A Soviet soldier described the inmates as "skin & bones", louse-infested and barely able to stand.
"Some were crying, some were laughing," he added. "Some tried to kiss us, but it was uncomfortable - you didn't want to get infected."

9. Hiding their crimes
The Nazis destroyed documents, dismantled some buildings, and burned others down or demolished them with explosives.
January Burning barracks on the grounds of the Auschwitz-II Birkenau destroyed by retreating Germans.

10. Living conditions
Several hundred three-tier wooden bunk beds were in each building
Barracks lacked heating; poor sanitary facilities, infested with rats

11. Gas Chambers Massive gas chambers on site killed thousands of people.
The Nazi’s destroyed some of the evidence using TNT explosives

12. Crematorium Ovens
After experimenting with several different methods of mass slaughter, the Nazis settled on Zyklon B, a gas previously used for fumigation, at Auschwitz. Victims were gassed en masse in chambers disguised as shower rooms, then burned in ovens designed specially for the purpose.
Rolling wagons slid in and out of the ovens so that corpses could be burned quickly.

13. Most well known survivor
Elie Wiesel, a camp inmate who went on to win the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, is seen third from left at bottom.

14. Arial view of fenced complex

15. Possessions
Little was wasted at Auschwitz. Victims' possessions were confiscated, and efficiently sorted for recycling.
Gold teeth were particularly highly valued.
Glasses, shoes, clothes, suitcases and even false limbs were accumulated in large numbers.
Human hair was shorn off and used for stuffing mattresses.

16. The littlest victims
Children too young to be of use as forced labor were often killed as soon as they arrived at Auschwitz.
Showing their tattoos

17. Sources