The Auschwitz concentration camp complex in south-west Poland was the site of the largest mass murder in a single location in human history. While precise numbers are still debated, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the German SS systematically killed at least 960,000 of the 1.1-1.3 million Jews deported to the camp. More people died at Auschwitz than at any other Nazi concentration camp.

When the camp was liberated on 27 January 1945, Soviet troops found grisly evidence of the horror. About 7,000 starving prisoners were found alive, and millions of items of clothing that once belonged to men, women and children were discovered along with 6,350kg of human hair.

In January 1942, the Nazi party had decided to roll out the “Final Solution”. Camps dedicated solely to the extermination of Jews had been created before, but this was formalised by SS Lieut-Gen Reinhard Heydrich in a speech at the Wannsee conference. The extermination camp Auschwitz II was opened in the same year.

Auschwitz II had the largest prisoner population of any of the three main camps on the site. In January 1942, the first chamber using lethal Zyklon B gas was built. Four further chambers were built, and these were used for systematic genocide up until November 1944.

Auschwitz was also the site of disturbing medical experimentation on Jewish and Roma prisoners, including practices such as castration and sterilisation. SS captain Dr Josef Mengele was one of the physicians practising there.

More than 7,000 Nazi personnel are thought to have served at Auschwitz but only a few hundred have been prosecuted for the crimes committed there. The pursuit of justice has not ceased, with German justice officials saying in 2013 that there were 30 surviving Auschwitz officials who should face prosecution. In 2019, a former guard at Stutthof concentration camp was placed on trial.

George Arnett