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Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the leader of the Nazi party that would incite the Holocaust and result in the murder of millions of Jewish and Jewish-descendent individuals from across Europe.
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Those who died at Auschwitz were either murdered in gas chambers, died of starvation, infectious disease, from individual executions and from medical experiments and forced labor.
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15% of those employed at Auschwitz were later convicted of war crimes.
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Some of those running Auschwitz were later executed for their crimes.
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Rudolf Hoss, the camp commandant at Auschwitz, was executed after war ended.
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There were more than 11 million men, women, and children murdered in the Holocaust. It is estimated that 6 million were Jewish. Of those 6 million Jewish people killed in the Holocaust, one in six was killed at Auschwitz.
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Tens of thousands of people from diverse nationalities, as well as 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Romani and Sinti, 400 Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals, and 15,000 Soviets were sent to Auschwitz, in addition to the Jewish prisoners that were killed at the camp.
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Prisoners were often tricked into the gas chambers. They were told they wer simply going to have a shower and be disinfected.
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In 1945 when Soviet troops were en route to Auschwitz most of the prisoners were murdered during an evacuation and death march.
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Jewish prisoners called Sonderkommandos were responsible for burying the Jews after execution. Less than 20 of the Sonderkommandos were alive by the time the war ended. Some of them knew they would not survive and buried their testimonies in jars, to be uncovered after the war ended.
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Any prisoners at the camp after the end of the war were freed on January 27th, 1945.
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A museum was founded by Poland in 1947 at Auschwitz I and II.
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In 1979 Auschwitz was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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A day at Auschwitz for a prisoner started at 4:30 am. Roll call lasted approximately three to four hours. They were given a hot drink in the morning and no breakfast. Vegetable soup was lunch. They were then sent to work for up to 12 hours. Their food at night consisted of bread and water. There were no breaks and Sundays were spent cleaning the barracks and having a shower.
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There was evidence submitted to the Allies about the genocide we now call the Holocaust, as early as 1940. It was ignored or dismissed as propaganda.
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