See historical photos from the liberation of Auschwitz camp during World War II

Between January 26 and 27, 1945, some survivors dispersed behind the gates of the camp at Auschwitz, to watch the arrival of Soviet troops, who have come to free them. The Auschwitz camp was established by the Nazis in 1940, in the suburbs of the city of Oswiecim which, like other parts of Poland, was occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. The name of the city of Oswiecim was changed to Auschwitz, which became the name of the camp as well. Over the following years, the camp was expanded and consisted of three main parts: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz. Red Army soldiers liberated the few thousand prisoners whom the Germans had left behind in the camp, January 27,1945.

According to Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum, “historians estimate that around 1.1 million people perished in Auschwitz during the less than 5 years of its existence.” “The majority, around 1 million people, were Jews.” “The second most numerous group, some 70 thousand, was the Poles, and the third most numerous, about 21 thousand, the Roma and Sinti.” “About 15 thousand Soviet Prisoners of War and some 12 thousand prisoners of other ethnic backgrounds (including Czechs, Belorussians, Yugoslavians, French, Germans, and Austrians) also died there.”

A military physician of the Red Army examines a surviving deportee around the time of the liberation of the camp by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Picture taken on January 1945 at Auschwitz, after the liberation of the extermination camp by the Soviet troops, showing the entrance of the camp. “The motto above the gate, Arbeit macht frei (Work Sets You Free), is one of the symbols of the camp,”says a press release from the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum. “It was made by prisoners in the metalworking labor detail headed by Jan Liwacz … The prisoners deliberately reversed the letter "B" as a camouflaged mark of disobedience. “The Arbeit macht frei slogan was used not only in Auschwitz,” the statement says. “The same motto greeted people arriving at concentration camps in Germany proper.”

A group of child survivors behind a barbed wire fence at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in southern Poland, on the day of the camp’s liberation by the Red Army, January 27, 1945. Photo taken by Red Army photographer Captain Alexander Vorontsov during the making of a film about the liberation of the camp. The children were dressed in adult uniforms by the Russians. The children are (left to right): Tomy Schwarz (later Shacham), Miriam Ziegler, Berta Weinhaber (later Bracha Katz), Ruth Webber, Paula Lebovics, Marta Weiss (later Wise), Erika Winter (later Dohan), Eva Weiss (later Slonim), Robert Schlesinger (front, later Shmuel Schelach), Gabor Hirsch, Gabriel Neumann, and Eva Mozes Kor.

Women are pictured in their barrack after the liberation in January 1945 of the Oswiecim (Auschwitz) concentration camp. This photo is an excerpt from a Soviet filmed reenactment with Polish women briefly incarcerated in September 1944 and called back for the shooting a few weeks after their liberation.

German civilians are brought to see the atrocities committed in Auschwitz concentration camp so that the truth is known, circa 1945.

A picture taken in January 1945 depicts Auschwitz concentration camp gate and railways after its liberation by Soviet troops. // Photo prise en janvier 1945 montrant la grille d'entrée et les rails du camp de concentration d'Auschwitz après sa libération par les troupes soviétiques.

Picture taken on January 1945 at Auschwitz showing prosthesis of the deportees, murdered in gas chambers in the Nazi lager.

Picture taken after the liberation of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp, on January 1945, showing two children who survived.

Picture taken in 1945, upon the liberation of the camps, of the barbed-wire fence surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp.

General view after the liberation in 1945 of the Oswiecim (Auschwitz) concentration camp.

A young man checks the numbers tattooed on the arms of Jewish Polish prisoners coming from Auschwitz, in Dachau concentration camp in late April or early May 1945, after the Dachau's camp was liberated by the US army on April 29, 1945. Himmler announced the creation of Dachau on March 20, 1933. More than 200,000 people were detained between 1933 and 1945, and 31,591 deaths were declared excluding the victims of the evacuation march in April 1945. From December 1944 a typhus epidemic spread in the camp as many convoys arrived from other evacuated camps. The US troops of General Patton entered Dachau on April 29, 1945. At the liberation of the camp, the US army imposed a quarantine until May 25 to control the typhus epidemic. About 2.500 people died from 29 May to 16 June 1945 according to a French Memorial Association.