Photos show the horrors of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp, 80 years after its liberation

An aerial view of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp on December 19, 2019 in Oswiecim, Poland.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

• It has been 80 years since the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration complex.
• First established in 1940, Auschwitz had a concentration camp, large gas chambers, and crematoria.
• More than 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including nearly one million Jews.

It was the greatest tragedy of the Holocaust. In just five years, over one million people were murdered at Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp.

Auschwitz was established in 1940 and located in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city the Germans annexed. Between 1940 and 1945, it grew to include three main camp centers and a slew of subcamps — each of which were used for forced labor, torture, and mass killing.

An estimated 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz during its five-year operation, and approximately 1.1 million were killed.

The terror of Auschwitz finally subsided on January 27, 1945, when the Soviet Army liberated the remaining 7,000 prisoners from the camps.

On the 80th anniversary of this liberation, these photos exhibit the horror and history of Auschwitz.

Auschwitz was established in 1940 in the suburbs of Oswiecim, Poland.

An aerial view of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp on December 19, 2019 in Oswiecim, Poland.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

During its first year, authorities cleared 15 square miles for the camp.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Auschwitz I, the first camp to undergo construction, was initially created for three reasons: to imprison enemies, to use forced labor, and to kill certain groups of people.

The crematorium near gas chamber one at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz I in Oswiecim, Poland, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019.

Markus Schreiber/AP

Sources: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Auschwitz‑Birkenau Memorial and State Museum 

Construction of the largest camp, Auschwitz II, also called Auschwitz-Birkenau, began in October 1941.

The remains of brick stone chimneys of prisoner barracks can be seen inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau or Auschwitz II.

Markus Schreiber/AP

Electrified barbed wire divided it into 10 different sections.

Sources: Jewish Virtual Library, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Auschwitz-Birkenau's different sections were for "women; men; a family camp for Roma (Gypsies) deported from Germany, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; and a family camp for Jewish families deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto," according to the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Women in the barracks at Auschwitz, Poland, January 1945.

Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

Sources: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Inmates were put into poorly structured wooden barracks with 36 bunks each.

Reuters Pictures Archive

Five to six prisoners were packed in so over 500 prisoners were in each unit.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Incoming prisoners who were selected for forced labor received tattoos and had a serial number sewn into their uniforms.

Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Eva Behar shows her number tattoo in her home on December 1, 2014 in London, United Kingdom.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Auschwitz was the only concentration camp to do this.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Shortly after construction, Auschwitz-Birkenau became the largest killing center and central location for the extermination of Jews in Europe.

Bodies of prisoners found in Auschwitz, shortly after liberation in 1945.

Reuters

Source: Museum of Jewish Heritage

In 1942, two farmhouses just outside the camp were turned into gas chambers.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

But as Auschwitz-Birkenau became a central location for mass killing, these gas chambers were too small.

Shoes of victims exterminated at Auschwitz.

Rolf Vennenbernd/picture alliance via Getty Images

Four new chambers were built between March and June 1943, each containing a disrobing area, gas chamber, and crematory ovens.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

As millions of people were murdered, mounds of eye glasses, razors, shoes, and other belongings were left behind.

Remains of glasses from people exterminated at Auschwitz.

Pawel Ulatowski/Reuters

In 1942, Auschwitz III, also known as Buna or Monowitz, opened near the town of Monowice to house more forced laborers.

An ariel picture taken of Auschwitz barracks taken on December 15, 2019 in Oswiecim, Poland.

Pablo GONZALEZ / AFP via Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Forty-four subcamps with different specializations were established at Auschwitz between 1942 and 1944.

A photo of women deemed fit for work, taken in May 1944 in Auschwitz.

AFP via Getty Images

The Nazis made prisoners work on large farms, in coal mines, in weapons production — basically anything the German military needed for war.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Between 1940 and 1945, an estimated 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz. About 1.1 million were killed.

Cadavers of women and Children who died in cold weather at Auschwitz.

Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

Source: Museum of Jewish Heritage

In January 1945, before Soviet forces could reach the camps for liberation, nearly 60,000 people were forced to march west, and thousands more were killed.

Soviet soldiers with survivors of Auschwitz in 1945.

REUTERS:HO AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The terror finally subsided on January 27, 1945, when the Soviet Army reached the gates of Auschwitz.

Soviet soldiers arriving at the gates of Auschwitz in 1945.

REUTERS:HO AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM REUTERS

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

When Soviet soldiers arrived, only between 6,000 and 7,000 prisoners remained.

Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The majority of them faced starvation, illness, and death.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Available records indicate that when the soldiers arrived, at least 700 youth prisoners were still at the camp, half of whom were Jewish.

Children who have lived to be liberated by the Red Army from the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27, 1945.

TASS via Getty Images

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum

In many cases, the liberated children were malnourished, severely weak, vitamin deficient, and diseased.

Jewish children, survivors of Auschwitz, with a nurse behind a barbed wire fence, Poland, February 1945.

Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

Of 180 children examined after liberation, 40% had tuberculosis.

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

Immediately after liberation, many of the children were sent to hospitals organized by the Soviet army and the Polish Red Cross.

Holocaust survivor Rachel Rubin shows a photograph of herself as a 14-year-old girl shortly after her liberation in 1945.

Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images

In 2016, a group of children who survived the horrors of Auschwitz met to take their photo together.

81-year-old Paula Lebovics, 79-year-old Miriam Ziegler, 85-year-old Gabor Hirsch and 80-year-old Eva Kor pose with the original image of them as children taken at Auschwitz at the time of its liberation on January 26, 2015 in Krakow, Poland.

Ian Gavan/Getty Images

In total, 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. One-sixth of these exterminations happened at Auschwitz alone.

Photographs are displayed at the Birkenau Museum, December 10, 2004, of the many faces of the men, women and children at the Auschwitz II.

Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

To commemorate this grave tragedy, world leaders met in Israel in 2020 to mark 75 years since the camp's liberation.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived in Israel on a working visit to attend celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Mikhail Metzel/TASS via Getty Images

On January 27, 2025, Holocaust survivors gathered in Oswiecim, Poland, to attend a ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

A Holocaust survivor attends a ceremony commemorating the 80th liberation anniversary of Auschwitz.

WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Holocaust survivors and former Auschwitz inmates were joined by world leaders at a wreath-laying and candle ceremony in front of the Death Wall to remember the thousands who died at the former Nazi concentration complex.

People gather to lay a wreath at the Wall of Death at the former German concentration complex, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture alliance via Getty Images

Editor's note: This list was first published in January 2020 and has been updated to reflect recent developments.

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