75 Years After Auschwitz Liberation, Worry That ‘Never Again’ Is Not Assured
Amid a surge of anti-Semitism and a rise in dehumanizing political rhetoric, there is fear that the horrific lessons of the death camp are being lost.
- January 27, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Army’s liberation of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration complex.
- First established in 1940 in German-occupied Poland, Auschwitz had a concentration camp, a labor camp, large gas chambers, and crematoria.
- More than 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including nearly one million Jews. On the day of liberation, only 7,000 were saved.
Auschwitz was the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp.
The camp was established in 1940 and located in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city the Germans annexed. Between 1940 and 1945, it grew to include three main camp centers and a slew of subcamps — each of which were used for forced labor, torture, and mass killing.
An estimated 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz during its five-year operation, and approximately 1.1 million were killed.
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