Why was the Auschwitz Concentration Camp started?

The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was subordinate to the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps. Originally subordinate to the SS Main Office, the Inspectorate was transferred to the SS Operations Main Office after World War II began. read more

“Auschwitz Main Camp”, also known as Auschwitz I, was opened in 1940 and was a smaller sized concentration camp run in the same manner as the political prisoner camps in Germany. After German invaded the Soviet Union, Auschwitz I was designated as a prisoner-of-war camp and quickly began to fill. 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

Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It consisted of Auschwitz I (the original concentration camp), Auschwitz II–Birkenau (a combination concentration/extermination camp), Auschwitz III–Monowitz (a labor camp to staff an IG Farben factory), and 45 satellite camps. read more