Auschwitz was a concentration camp complex located about 70km west of Krakow in German-occupied Poland. There were three camps including Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II or Birkenau, and Auschwitz III or Monowitz, as well as many subcamps. Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps and was unique because it hosted both a concentration and labour camp, as well as an extermination camp. More than 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, and was essential to carrying out the ‘Final Solution’. It was opened in 1940 and was liberated in January 1945.
