Nederlands Holocaust in Europe Auschwitz

Liberation

In September 1944, the allies bombed the factories around Auschwitz causing considerable damage. As of October 1944, a Sonderkommando (team of crematoria workers) was ordered to dismantle many installations and to wipe out evidences of crime. Pits in which bodies were burnt were emptied, filled with soil, and covered with plants. In spite of the bombardment in September and the evacuation and dismantling that followed, the camps remained more or less intact at the end of the war. In November 1944, as the Red Army advanced towards Auschwitz, the nazis destroyed a large part of the immense Auschwitz administration records. On 27 January 1945, the camp was liberated. At that point, there were 1,000 unburied or burnt bodies and around 7,500 to 8,000 prisoners, almost all critically sick. The last remaining guards were killed that same day by the Russian soldiers.


29_Auschw_residence_97 29_Auschw_residence_95
  1. Approximately 400 children survived Auschwitz at the time of liberation. Source: Auschwitz – The residence of death
  2. A part of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the wooden barracks, at the time of liberation, 1945. Source: Auschwitz – The residence of death
Glossary
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auschwitz
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after 1945
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