The Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp was set up in 1940 for Polish political prisoners and began to function also as an extermination center of the Jews in 1942. Due to these two roles and the predominant number of Jews and Poles in the general number of victims of the camp its history may be divided into two periods: 

• 1940 – mid 1942, when most of those deported and killed there were Poles. The concentration camp in Auschwitz opened 10 months after the outbreak of the war and, together with the Stutthof camp set up in 1939 and the Majdanek camp set up in 1941, was one of the main sites of deportation and murder of Poles. They were brought to and imprisoned in Auschwitz throughout its entire time of operation.
• mid 1942 – 1944, when most of those deported and killed there were Jews. Auschwitz had the function of the primary Nazi extermination center for Jews from European countries occupied by Third Reich or dominated by its allies. The intensity of the extermination campaign in the second period was several times higher. Throughout the whole operation of the camp's existence Jews constituted almost 85% of the deportees and approximately 90% of the victims. 

Those incarcerated and murdered in the camp included also the Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and prisoners of more than 20 nationalities.