It shows the camp four days before the evacuation. During this time, the prisoners were placed in the BII section of the camp and a part of the barracks, watchtowers and fences were already dismounted.

From 17 to 21 January 1945, about 56,000 prisoners were evacuated from KL Auschwitz and its subcamps, mainly westwards through Upper and Lower Silesia. These were the so-called Death Marches. One of the routes led from Oświęcim to Wodzisław Śląski (63 km) where the prisoners boarded coal railway wagons. The trains from Wodzisław went towards Austria and Germany through, among others, Ostrava. It is estimated that at least 9,000 prisoners died during the evacuation, although this number may have reached even 15,000.

Jerzy Adam Brandhuber - „Evacuation”

In the second half of 1944, the SS authorities started removing the traces of and destroying the evidence on the crimes committed in Auschwitz. This process had ended just a couple of days before the camp was liberated. The files, including prisoner records, were destroyed and the name lists of Jews deported to Auschwitz to be instantly killed in gas chambers were burned.

The building of gas chamber and crematorium II was blown up on 20 January 1945. In the foreground there are the ruins of the crematorium, in the background there is an underground changing room.

The building of gas chamber and crematorium V was blown up a day before the liberation of the camp – 26 January 1945.

On January 27, 1945 Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army. In the main camp as well as Birkenau and Monowitz camps about 7,000 prisoners survived and were liberated, including over 700 children and teenagers (about 500 of them were under 15). Over a half of them were Jewish children.

The interior of a wooden prison barrack in Auschwitz II-Birkenau after the liberation.

During the evacuation, SS authorities tried to remove the traces of the crimes committed in Auschwitz by, for example, destroying documents as well as personal belongings stolen from the victims. However, they failed to fully implement this plan. After the liberation, a huge number of various belongings were discovered, including camp documents.

During the evacuation, SS authorities tried to remove the traces of the crimes committed in Auschwitz by, for example, destroying documents as well as personal belongings stolen from the victims. However, they failed to fully implement this plan. After the liberation, a huge number of various belongings were discovered, including camp documents.

During the evacuation, SS authorities tried to remove the traces of the crimes committed in Auschwitz by, for example, destroying documents as well as personal belongings stolen from the victims. However, they failed to fully implement this plan. After the liberation, a huge number of various belongings were discovered, including camp documents.

First help for the liberated prisoners came from Soviet doctors and military paramedics. Shortly later, sick and starved former prisoners were brought under the care of two Soviet field hospitals which arrived at the camp area. Under the initiative and supervision of dr Józef Bellert from Warsaw, at the beginning of February, the camp hospital of the Polish Red Cross was established at the area of the liberated concentration camp. The photograph shows the prisoners transported from the former camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau to the hospital created in the buildings of the former camp Auschwitz I.

The hospital for former prisoners of the concentration camp in Block 21 of the former Auschwitz I camp.

While liberating the camp, over 600 corpses were found in Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Many prisoners died shortly after the liberation. On 28 February 1945, a solemn funeral of Auschwitz victims took place.