January 27, 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp located in Poland.
Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, and shortly thereafter converted an army barracks into Auschwitz I. The camp was initially used to hold Polish political prisoners. Even before it became a death camp, Auschwitz developed a reputation for sadistic treatment of its inmates.
Over time, the Nazis expanded Auschwitz into a complex of over 40 concentration camps. The first murders via the gas chamber began around August 1941. From 1942 to 1944, Auschwitz played a crucial role in the Nazis’ Final Solution, as Jews from all over occupied Europe were transported to Auschwitz on trains. Over one million people were murdered there, most of whom were gassed upon arrival. According to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, it is “the largest documented mass murder site in human history.”
The horrors didn’t end when the Nazis received word that the Red Army was advancing. They rounded up nearly 60,000 Auschwitz prisoners on a death march west across Poland, in an effort to cover up their war crimes and send the prisoners to other concentration camps. These death marches were common in the final days of the Holocaust and involved forcibly transferring large populations, with those who were too weak to keep up being shot.
When the Soviets reached Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, there were no guards and only about 7,000 prisoners—those who were too ill to attempt the march and had been left behind for dead. The liberation wasn’t as momentous or joyous as the name might imply. The Red Army had been marching westward across Poland for the Vistula–Oder offensive and didn’t see liberating the camp as a specific goal. When they arrived, they were appalled at the inhumane conditions in which they found the starving and sick survivors, and organized relief efforts with the Polish Red Cross.
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Soviet soldiers chat with children newly liberated from Auschwitz.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Even six months later, some 300 survivors who were too weak to be moved remained at Auschwitz. The arrival of the Red Army may have symbolically marked the liberation of the camp, but for many of the survivors there was no specific moment in which their suffering ended and freedom began.
The anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation was designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day by a 2005 United Nations resolution. Thanks to extensive historical efforts to preserve the site and document the crimes against humanity that took place there, Auschwitz is still open to the public today as a somber reminder of the Holocaust.
