26 January 1945 A.D. Soviets Liberate Auschwitz
Editors. “Soviets liberate Auschwitz.”
History.com. N.d. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-liberate-auschwitz. Accessed 26 Jan 2015.
Soviets liberate Auschwitz
.On this day, Soviet troops
enter Auschwitz, Poland,
freeing the survivors of the network of concentration camps—and finally
revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there.
Auschwitz was really a group of
camps, designated I, II, and III. There were also 40 smaller
"satellite" camps. It was at Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, established
in October 1941, that the SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated
killing ground: 300 prison barracks; four "bathhouses" in which
prisoners were gassed; corpse cellars; and cremating ovens. Thousands of
prisoners were also used for medical experiments overseen and performed by the
camp doctor, Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death."
The Red Army had been advancing
deeper into Poland since mid-January. Having liberated Warsaw and Krakow,
Soviet troops headed for Auschwitz. In anticipation of the Soviet arrival, the
German Gestapo began a murder spree in the camps, shooting sick prisoners and
blowing up crematoria in a desperate attempt to destroy the evidence of their
crimes. When the Red Army finally broke through, Soviet soldiers encountered
648 corpses and more than 7,000 starving camp survivors. There were also six
storehouses filled with literally hundreds of thousands of women's dresses,
men's suits, and shoes that the Germans did not have time to burn.
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