Poles
The first transports of Polish political prisoners arrived in Auschwitz in June 1940. Until the autumn of 1944, Poles were sent to Auschwitz from all regions of the German‑occupied country, and until mid‑1942 Poles were the most numerous ethnic group in the camp. A large number of the Poles belonged to the intelligentsia. People involved in clandestine activity were also imprisoned in the camp, as were people arrested during street roundups, peasant families expelled from the Zamość region, and civilians from Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising. In Auschwitz there were also executions of Poles not registered in the camp but sentenced to death by summary courts.
According to estimates, about 140,000 Poles were sent to Auschwitz. Almost half of them died. Throughout the whole time that the camp was in operation, some Polish prisoners were active in the resistance movement—at first in groups of their own, and with the passage of time in cooperation with secret organizations of prisoners of other nationalities. Many Poles were shot or hanged when the camp Gestapo discovered their activities.