Knowra Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp A Nazi German camp complex in occupied Poland, comprising Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Auschwitz III-Monowitz, and numerous subcamps. It became the largest site of Nazi mass murder, where approximately 1.1 million people were killed.
Auschwitz II-Birkenau : The largest Auschwitz camp, used as a concentration camp and a principal site of Nazi mass murder. Its gas chambers and crematoria made Birkenau the complex’s main killing center.
Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers : Gas chambers at Birkenau used by the SS to murder deportees, predominantly with Zyklon B. They were central to the mass murder carried out within the complex.
German occupation of Poland : Nazi Germany’s military occupation and rule over Poland after its invasion in 1939. Occupation created the conditions for establishing Auschwitz near the town of Oświęcim.
Auschwitz evacuation and death marches : The forced removal of prisoners from Auschwitz in January 1945, including marches and transports under lethal conditions. The evacuation preceded the Soviet arrival and caused further deaths among prisoners.
Auschwitz I : The original Auschwitz camp, established in 1940 as a concentration camp and administrative center. The first camp housed prisoners, SS offices, and the complex’s command apparatus.
Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria : Facilities at Birkenau where the SS burned the bodies of people murdered in gas chambers and those who died in the camp. Their scale and operation document the machinery of mass murder.
Nazi concentration camps : A system of camps established and operated by Nazi Germany to imprison, exploit, persecute, and kill people. Auschwitz developed within this wider system and acquired an exceptional role in it.
Liberation of Auschwitz : The Soviet Red Army’s arrival at Auschwitz on 27 January 1945, finding about 7,000 surviving prisoners. Liberation exposed the camp’s surviving prisoners and material evidence of Nazi crimes.
Auschwitz III-Monowitz : A forced-labor camp near the Buna-Werke synthetic rubber and fuel plant. Monowitz shows how industrial forced labor was integrated into the camp system.
Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp : The railway unloading area inside Birkenau where deportees arrived and were subjected to selection. The ramp was a key site where transport, selection, and separation converged.
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