What is the significance of Auschwitz?

Monowitz (Auschwitz III) was about four miles from the main site. It was a chemicals factory - a private entreprise concentration camp owned by I-G Farben, but the guards were SS men. Altogether, Auschwitz had about 45 satellite camps. The German Wikipedia article gives the overall death toll as 1.4 million, of whom about 90% were Jews. read more

Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi concentration camp and also the biggest death camp. (Estimated death toll 1.3 million according to the German Wikipedia. read more

Auschwitz, the largest and arguably the most notorious of all the Nazi death camps, opened in the spring of 1940. Its first commandant was Rudolf Höss (1900-47), who previously had helped run the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany. read more