Auschwitz Birkenau
“All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust.” Auschwitz Birkenau was one of the worst concentration camps during World War II. Auschwitz was the largest extermination and concentration camp during the holocaust. Auschwitz opened in 1940, located in southern Poland, outside the town of Oswiecim. Auschwitz originally served as a detention center for political prisoners. Auschwitz evolved into the biggest network of camps that Jewish people and other enemies of the Nazi party were sent to, to be exterminated. This was Adolf Hitler's “Final Solution.” “To complete this mission, Hitler ordered the construction of death camps. Unlike concentration camps, which had existed in Germany
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Buildings were torn down or set on fire and records were destroyed. In January 1945, the Germans ordered Auschwitz be abandoned. Before the end of the month, in what became known as the death marches, an estimated 60,000 prisoners departed from the camp. Many prisoners died on this march and those who made it to the sites were sent on trains to other concentration camps in Germany. When the Soviet Army entered Auschwitz on January 27, they found 7,600 sick prisoners who were left behind. The Soviet Army Also discovered mounds of corpses, hundreds of thousands of pieces of clothing, shoes, and seven tons of human hair shaved from heads of prisoners. According to most estimates between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the one of the worst concentration camps during World War II. The Auschwitz complexes were the biggest concentration camps and death camps during World War II. Why the Nazis ordered destruction of the Jews is still unknown. People throughout history have been murdered, but not in the vast numbers that are documented with during the holocaust. One third of the Jewish population was killed during the holocaust. “All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the