Auschwitz

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Auschwitz: entrance gates

Auschwitz: crematorium

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

The horror of Auschwitz: A journey through history

corpses of Auschwitz victims

Auschwitz III memorial, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Auschwitz: prisoner barracks

For Students

Auschwitz summary

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Auschwitz: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

News •

Israeli student arrested for Nazi salute at Auschwitz during school trip • Mar. 11, 2025, 2:28 AM ET (Jerusalem Post)

Marian Turski, Holocaust survivor and historian, dies aged 98 • Feb. 20, 2025, 3:42 AM ET (BBC)

Holocaust survivor Marian Turski dies aged 98 • Feb. 19, 2025, 3:05 AM ET (Straits Times)

Marian Turski, Auschwitz survivor and journalist, dies at 98 • Feb. 18, 2025, 9:25 AM ET (Jerusalem Post)

Facts

Also Known As	Oświęcim • Auschwitz-Birkenau • Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–-1945) • Birkenau
Date	1940 - 1945

Did You Know?

In 1944, prisoners at Auschwitz revolted, using smuggled gunpowder to set the crematorium on fire.
Polish officer Witold Pilecki was voluntarily imprisoned at Auschwitz to gather intel.
The number of deaths at Auschwitz exceeds the combined American and British death toll in World War II.

Photos and Videos

Auschwitz: entrance gates

Auschwitz: crematorium

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

corpses of Auschwitz victims

Auschwitz III memorial, Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Auschwitz: prisoner barracks

IG Farben factory

The horror of Auschwitz: A journey through history

Auschwitz trials in West Germany explained

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Topics

Nazi Party genocide forced labour gas chamber Zyklon-B SS Jew Sobibor Majdanek Chelmno Stutthof Belzec Gross-Rosen Plaszow Treblinka Pompeii Delphi

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Poland

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Oświęcim

Poland

Key People

Rudolf Vrba

Rudolf Vrba

Slovak-Jewish biochemist

Anne Frank

Anne Frank

German diarist

Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel

American author

Edith Stein

Edith Stein

German nun

Viktor Frankl

Austrian psychologist

St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe

St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe

Polish martyr

Josef Mengele

Josef Mengele

German physician

Erich Salomon

German photographer

Primo Levi

Italian writer and chemist

Tadeusz Borowski

Polish author

Rudolf Franz Höss

German Nazi commandant

Josef Kramer

Nazi commander

Quiz

Adolf Hitler participating in a Nazi parade in Munich, Germany, circa 1930s.

Nazi Germany Quiz