On June 14, 1940, the first mass transport of Polish political prisoners from the prison in Tarnów was sent to the German Auschwitz camp. This date is assumed to be the beginning of the functioning of the Auschwitz camp.

 

In the afternoon the train from Tarnów entered the ramp near the buildings of the tobacco monopoly. The prisoners were placed in the basement of the building because the camp was not yet prepared to receive transports.

 

728 men were marked with camp numbers from 31 to 758. Earlier numbers, from 1 to 30, were given to German criminals transferred from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, who were the first cadre of prisoner functionaries, the so-called "Kapo". Out of 728 deported prisoners, 325 people survived the war, 292 died and the fate of 111 is unknown.

 

It is estimated that between 1940 and 1945, approximately 140,000-150,000 Poles were imprisoned in the Auschwitz camp, of whom approximately 70,000 - 75,000 died.

 

Auschwitz - former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

Created in 1940 by the Germans for Polish prisoners. Over time, it grew into a complex that consisted of several different types of camps, such as: a concentration camp, an extermination camp. From 1942, it also became a site of mass extermination of Jews and Roma. There were 48 Auschwitz sub-camps.

 

Auschwitz was the largest of the German Nazi extermination centers. It is estimated that between 1940 and 1945 about 1,300,000 people were deported to Auschwitz, of which an estimated 1,100,000 were murdered.

As part of the policy of mass extermination in Auschwitz, at least 960,000 people died. Jews (90% of the victims), as well as 75,000 Poles, 21 thousand Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and several thousand people of other nationalities.