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The SS decides to construct a concentration camp near Oświęcim (Auschwitz).
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The first concentration camp prisoners -- 30 recidivist criminals from Sachsenhausen -- arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp.
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Reichsführer SS and Chief of German Police Heinrich Himmler inspects Oświęcim (Auschwitz). Because nearby factories use prisoners for forced labor, Himmler is concerned about the prisoner capacity of the camp. On this visit, he orders both the expansion o
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The first gassings of prisoners occur in Auschwitz I. The SS tests Zyklon B gas by killing 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 other ill or weak prisoners. Testing takes place in a makeshift gas chamber in the cellar of Block 11 in Auschwitz I. The succes
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SS chief Heinrich Himmler informs Richard Gluecks, the Inspector of Concentration Camps, that 100,000 Jewish men and 50,000 Jewish women would be deported from Germany to Auschwitz as forced laborers.
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The first transport of Jews from Bytom (Beuthen) in German-annexed Upper Silesia arrives in Auschwitz I. The SS camp authorities kill all those on the transport immediately upon arrival with Zyklon B gas.
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German SS and police authorities deported approximately 175,000 Jews to Auschwitz in 1942.
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German SS and police authorities deport approximately 105,000 Jews to Auschwitz.
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The Reich Central Office for Security orders all designated Roma (Gypsies) residing in Germany, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to be deported to Auschwitz.
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The first transport of Roma (Gypsies) from Germany arrives at Auschwitz. The SS authorities house them in Section B-IIe of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which becomes known as the "Gypsy family camp." By the end of 1943 more than 18,000 Roma (Gypsies) will have bee
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Period: to
German SS and police authorities deport approximately 160,000 Jews to Auschwitz.
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Period: to
SS and Police authorities deport more than 585,000 Jews to Auschwitz.
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The first two transports of Hungarian Jews arrive in Auschwitz.
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The deportation of Hungarian Jews is halted by order of Regent Miklos Horthy
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SS camp authorities murder the last residents -- just under 3,000 -- of the so-called Gypsy family camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The SS murders an estimated total of 20,000 Roma (Gypsies) in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex
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Members of the Jewish prisoner "special detachment" (Sonderkommando) that was forced to remove bodies from the gas chambers and operate the crematoria stage an uprising. They successfully blow up Crematorium IV and kill several guards. Women prisoners had
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Soviet forces continue to approach, SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the destruction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers and crematoria. During this SS attempt to destroy the evidence of mass killings, prisoners will be forced to dismantle and dynamite
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A Soviet offensive breaches the German defenses on the Vistula; Soviet troops take Warsaw and advance rapidly on Kraków and Oświęcim.
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As Soviet units approach, the SS evacuates to the west the prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to the cities of Wodzisław and Gliwice in the western part of Upper Silesia.
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Soviet troops enter the Auschwitz camp complex and liberate approximately 7,000 prisoners remaining in the camp. During the existence of Auschwitz, the SS camp authorities killed nearly one million Jews from across Europe. Other victims included approxima
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Polish communist government decides to close down and dismantle the prison camp and build a mausoleum for the German camp.
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Execution of Rudolf Höss. The next day a group of last 206 prisoners of Oświęcim transfered to Central Labour Camp Jaworzno, a former subcamp of Auschwitz.