"27 January 1945: Auschwitz is Liberated by the Soviet Red Army" by Scott Lyons
On 27 January 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz concentration camp and liberated around 7,000 prisoners still alive in the Main Camp, Birkenau, and Monowitz. For years, this complex had served as a killing center for Nazi Germany, where over 1.1 million people had been murdered, mostly Jews. The prisoners who were mostly ill and dying greeted them as true liberators. This historic moment marked the end of the deadliest phase of the Holocaust, which saw millions of Jews and others brutally killed by Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1945. By January 1945, with the approaching Red Army, the SS began evacuating Auschwitz, forcing nearly 60,000 prisoners to march west. Thousands had already been killed in the days before the death marches began. Before and soon after 27 January, Soviet soldiers also liberated about 500 prisoners in the Auschwitz sub-camps, including Stara Kuźnia, Blachownia Śląska, Świętochłowice, Wesoła, Libiąż, Jawiszowice, and Jaworzno. However, it was in the Main…
Read more…