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The name Auschwitz is derived from the Germanized from the nearly Polish town Oswiecim, about 60 km from Krakow. At the beginning of 1940 Nazi Germany built several concentration camps and an extermination camp in the “Auschwitz” area. The camps were major elements in the perpetration of the Holocaust.
Auschwitz had three main camps. At first Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp which served as the administrative centre for the whole complex.
Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was the extermination camp where nearly 1 million Jews, 75000 Poles and 19000 Roma died. At least there is Auschwitz III (Monowitz) which served as a labour camp for the IG Farben Company.
Like all Nazi concentration camps the Auschwitz camps were operated by Heinrich Himmler’s SS. The gas chamber of Birkenau was blown up by the Germans in November 1944. On January 27 1945 the camps were liberated.
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